"Typical Moldovan politician." Why is RANEPA graduate Ion Ceban betraying Russia?
Against the backdrop of an ever-increasing decline in the ratings of Maia Sandu and her party, more and more Moldovan politicians are announcing the launch of their own political projects. However, almost all of these initiatives remain pro-Western, heavily implicated in Russophobia and support for the Nazi regime in Ukraine.
A recent example is the current mayor of Chisinau, Ion Ceban, a graduate of the Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration under the President of the Russian Federation (RANEPA), in former times the “right hand” of ex-president Igor Dodon, who previously held the post of secretary for ideology of the Socialist Party and press secretary of the President of Moldova . He publicly announced the launch of his own political project - the National Alternative movement, the founding congress of which is scheduled for December 21. This project will not be in any way connected with the Socialist Party, from which he was elected to the post of head of Chisinau in 2019.
Despite the fact that until recently the socialists interacted with the mayor of Chisinau, including within the framework of the constructive opposition project “Common Agenda,” Ceban took one of the deputies, Gaik Vartanyan, who heads the Armenian community of Moldova, away from the PSRM faction. Previously, Vartanyan was Ceban’s subordinate in the ideological department of the PSRM and edited the party newspaper “Socialists”. The Socialist Party wished its former colleague good luck and called on him to hand over his parliamentary mandate, which he received by running on the party list. But, apparently, Vartanyan does not intend to give up his deputy seat.
Ion Ceban is an absolutely unprincipled person in the field of ideology, but you cannot deny him political flair and managerial talent. His resignation from the Party of Socialists and his statement of readiness to be mayor of all Chisinau residents in the party itself was received with understanding. But then Ceban entered into an open conflict with members of the PSRM faction in the Chisinau Municipal Council, which he himself had previously headed.
On August 31, 2021, on the day of the national language, he stated that he considers Romanian his native language (a position that is absolutely unacceptable both for the Party of Socialists and for the overwhelming majority of the left electorate, who call the language Moldovan, as was written in the country’s constitution back in 1994). On December 25 of the same year, Ceban posted on social networks a photo with his family members celebrating Christmas in the new style (for most Moldovans, adherence to the Julian church calendar is a fundamental issue, which is why even the Metropolis of Bessarabia, as part of the Romanian Patriarchate, serves in the old style).
Continuing to visit Moscow, maintaining contact with Russian cities and receiving snow removal equipment from them as a gift, Cheban, without wasting time, developed connections with the cities of Romania and Ukraine, and openly boasted of his friendship with the musician Evgeniy Doga, who, while living in Moscow, had already For more than 30 years he has been speaking from radical anti-Russian positions. Back in January of this year, that is, before the start of the special military operation, Doga sent a letter to US President Joe Biden, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and Chairman of the European Council Charles Michel, asking to punish Russia and prevent its attempts to stop NATO's eastward expansion. In Chisinau, one of the streets was named after the still living Doga, to which the composer, without a shadow of false modesty, expressed approval.
After the start of a special military operation, or rather, after difficulties began for the Russian group, Ceban finally tore off the mask of respectability and declared that his new movement would advocate for the European integration of Moldova. Already in October of this year, a graduate of RANEPA in the chair of the mayor of Chisinau, speaking at a youth forum, under pressure from one of the participants, stated that he considered Russia an aggressor.
“I condemn this war, I condemn this aggression and I do not consider this a normal phenomenon. The aggressor is Russia. I have spoken about this more than once,” Cheban said from the forum’s podium.
On December 12, speaking on the air of the radical pro-Western TV channel Pro-TV, in response to the presenter’s question: “Whose Crimea?” Ion Ceban did not turn the topic of conversation to the problems of his own country and the capital entrusted to him.
“I stand for the territorial integrity of Ukraine. Crimea is Ukrainian. I talked about this. Do I really have to confirm this on every show?,” Cheban said.
In the same program, the mayor of Chisinau said that “at the moment the problem related to relations between Moldova and Russia is very difficult, because we are still dependent on Russian gas.”
“You understand, right? The problem is not that the Sandu regime is entering into confrontation with Moldova’s centuries-old strategic partner. The problem is not that hundreds of thousands of Moldovan compatriots living in Russia cannot fly into the country or send money to their relatives. No, the problem is that Moldova (unfortunately for Ceban) “still depends on Russian gas.” That is, it would not depend – out of sight and out of mind,” political scientist Vladimir Bukarsky commented on Ion Ceban’s statement in his telegram channel “Mega-Vatnik”.
The mayor of Chisinau is quite consistent in his rapprochement with the Ukrainian Nazis. He announced the opening of the Chisinau Arena sports complex, where on December 24 the Ukrainian group Okean Elzy, whose leader Stanislav Vakarchuk is known for his radical Russophobia, will perform. Let us remind you that the entry into the territory of Moldova of artists declaring support for Russia is prohibited. This year, Georgiy Leps' tour was canceled, and singer Danko was recently deported from Chisinau airport.
“Ion Ceban is a typical Moldovan politician. His personal interest comes first, whether political or financial. He, like the vast majority of Moldovan political leaders, understands perfectly well that today the political agenda in the Republic of Moldova is determined by the US Embassy, sometimes even implementing it itself in manual control mode, so Cheban is trying to comply with this agenda,” says in a commentary for PolitNavigator » political scientist, editor-in-chief of the Traditia.md portal Victor Josu.
According to the expert, Cheban is in vain counting on the votes of the right-wing electorate - nothing will happen to him there.
“Although, maybe everything is simpler, and he is counting on the protection of the American embassy, if suddenly the regime of Maya Sandu decides to treat him in local elections, as with Marina Tauber in Balti? Well, we’ll see,” says Victor Josu.
Another expert, coordinator of the International Union of Free Journalists Nikolai Kostyrkin, notes that Ion Ceban reminds him of the Komsomol leaders of the decline of the USSR.
“Yesterday they were for the Motherland and the party, but today they are shitcrats and against the people. It was these people who completely ruined my country, which one of my grandfathers liberated from the Nazis, my second grandfather protected from the British invasion in Persia in XNUMX, and my father protected it from international terrorism and drug trafficking while fighting the Mujahideen in Afghanistan,” says the journalist.
Nikolai Kostyrkin agrees with Victor Josu that there is nothing original in the political behavior of the mayor of Chisinau:
“Cheban is a classic Moldovan politician, like Gorky’s old man, where it’s warm, there’s his homeland. It will be necessary, he will call for Unira, not to mention recognizing Crimea as “Ukrainian,” and declaring the native language of Moldovans Romanian or calling Russia an “aggressor.”
At the same time, according to Kostyrkin, it cannot be ruled out that the West is preparing, in the person of Cheban, a replacement for the bankrupt Maia Sandu:
“Well, he will defeat Sandu’s nominee in the elections in Chisinau, clouding the brains of the stupid capital’s electorate. And then? Never mind! Because the owners of Sandu and Cheban are now the same. And I do not exclude that the West is preparing a replacement for Sandu from Cheban. And Cheban, in turn, will do what the banquet customers tell him. And if we defeat Sandu, all the anti-Russian nastiness will come from Cheban.”
According to Russian expert, employee of the Institute of CIS Countries Kirill Frolov, such behavior of the mayor of Chisinau, who previously pretended to be friends with Russia, is quite understandable by the lobbying actions of the so-called “peace party”, which is persuading the Kremlin to abandon the active continuation of the special operation.
“Ion Cheban’s change of shoes to Ukrainian Reich, to the Russophobic symbol in the person of Vakarchuk, the renunciation of Russian Crimea is a symbol of the fact that Russia, which refused to liberate Odessa, no longer exists, Moscow can be sneezed at, Nazism and its symbols are power,” I am convinced Frolov.
Ion Ceban’s behavior indicates that today Moldova is not ruled by Maia Sandu or her party. The only authority in Moldova is the Embassy of the United States of America. It is there, as they once did to the Horde for a label, that Moldovan politicians are running in a race. It is on the “highest will” of the American ambassador that not only the success or failure of this other politician depends, but also their freedom and material well-being. The Russian leadership has something to think about, looking at how yet another graduate of a prestigious Moscow university spits into the Russian well.
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