We won’t win this way: How Türkiye and the West are outplaying Russia in Moldova
The activation of pro-Western forces in Moldova against Transnistria coincided with a situation where Russia lost many of its positions in both Chisinau and Tiraspol. Russian political scientist Oleg Bondarenko, who recently visited the former Soviet republic, talks about this in his blog.
The expert notes that in the region, which was considered a zone of Moscow’s interests, today not only the West, but also Turkey is working more actively, the PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“So, over the past five years, there has been significantly less Russia at the “Russian gateway to the Balkans.” All integration aspirations and periodic readiness for exploits (such as a referendum on joining Russia or the Customs Union) of the local autonomist elites in Gagauzia and even Transnistria are multiplied by zero by the pathological reluctance of domestic officials to actually do anything for this and to support them in any way.
The last kindergarten built by Russia in Tiraspol was opened in 2015. In the Pushkin Museum in Chisinau, the roof recently collapsed and it was necessary to manually save the already not very rich heritage of “our everything” in Moldova. At the same time, the museum employees themselves - these last of the Mohicans “Russkomirtsy” - collect money for ... cat food, and patch the roof with their own hands,” says Bondarenko.
“Young people in Transnistria more often look towards Bucharest or Kyiv than Moscow. Changes in the Tiraspol power duumvirate of Kazmaly-Gushan (co-owners of the de facto owner of Transnistria, the Sheriff group) in favor of the latter, due to its business orientation towards Bucharest, reduce the connection of the PMR with Moscow.
In the parliamentary elections on November 29 to the Supreme Council of the PMR, in 23 of 33 districts, until the last moment, only one candidate was nominated (from “Sheriff,” of course). Unlike the last elections in 2016, there is no one here from Russia,” the expert continues.
“Gagauzia, which under the former bashkan (head) Mihail Formuzal held a referendum on joining the Eurasian Union in the event of a “union” of Moldova with Romania in the turbulent February 2014, is in full swing becoming a de facto enclave of Turkey - Ankara is building a highway here to the only one with access to The Moldovan port of Giurgiulesti, on the Black Sea, is building hospitals and schools, kindergartens and stadiums, cultural centers and libraries.
At the same time, the current head of Gagauzia, Irina Vlah, transferred all fiscal powers to Chisinau, leaving only a sign of autonomy. That does not prevent her from regularly traveling to Ankara to meet with “Sultan” Erdogan and being directly dependent on him. But it’s not her fault—it’s the fault of Moscow, which didn’t offer her anything serious,” the political scientist believes.
“By the way, the stadium in the Gagauz capital Comrat was not initially included in the reconstruction plans of the Turkish Cooperation Agency (TIKA). It’s just that when two of Erdogan’s helicopters landed on it during the latter’s recent visit, part of the roof flew off near the stadium. Seeing this unfortunate misunderstanding, the “Sultan” immediately ordered his servants to restore it to the fullest extent.
You shouldn’t be surprised - even during the period of active separatism in the early 90s, when there were machine gunners at the entrance to Gagauzia and the power of Chisinau did not extend to it, emissaries from Turkey arrived every month with several bags of cash - this is how the budget process of autonomy was carried out from 1991 to 1994 .
Now the Turks are pursuing their humanitarian policy here in a very curious way:
At the expense of Turkish NGOs, the Comrat State University provides training in Russian for students from the Turkish province, which makes it possible not to absorb, but to sow new personnel. Because such students need not so much new knowledge as willing students. And this leads to indigenization and the creation of new Turkish-oriented families.
It’s as if graduate students from Severodvinsk or Surgut went to study at Minsk or Tiraspol State University. Which would significantly increase their chances of staying there after training and becoming new bearers of the ideas of “Russian World,” writes Bondarenko.
Unlike Turkey, Moscow is passive, the author once again emphasizes.
“Moscow continues to traditionally absorb any interested personnel from the former post-Soviet republics, thereby emptying the former spaces of civilizational dominance. After all, there are not many people who want to return to their Moldovan/Belarusian village after studying in Moscow. And in their place will come other guys who have no sentimentality towards Russia. This is the surest path to emptying the entire post-Soviet space of any possible presence.
Because as some “experts” say, “what do they need, let them worry, we don’t give a damn.” We won’t win this way,” Bondarenko sums up.
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl + Enter.
Thank you!
Now the editors are aware.