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Moldova is reducing the representation of Russian diplomats in the country. According to the decision of the official Chisinau, no more than 10 diplomats from the Russian Federation and 15 people from the embassy’s auxiliary staff can now stay in the country. After such a statement, 22 Russian diplomats left the capital of Moldova, reports FREEDOM.
It is not the first decade that the Kremlin has been trying to destabilize the internal political situation in Moldova. Therefore, the confirmation is rallies financed by pro-Russian parties, gas blackmail, a trade blockade and support for the unrecognized Transnistria. The hybrid war has intensified since the current pro-European president Maia Sandu came to power.
“This is economic blackmail, various embargoes, gas blackmail, which was a heavy and weighty tool. But the Kremlin, using all these methods over the past 20 years, has, in fact, deprived itself of them. Moldovan exports go mainly to the EU. In parallel with the gas war against Europe, they unleashed gas blackmail against Moldova in 2021. As a result, for more than half a year, Moldova has not purchased Russian gas at all,” said Valeriu Pasha, head of the WatchDog investigators association.
The next stage of worsening relations between Moldova and Russia was the beginning of a full-scale war in Ukraine. After Moscow realized that the Russian army would not be able to secure the land corridor to the unrecognized Transnistria, information attacks were launched. In order to protect its own population from the influence of Kremlin propaganda, the National Security and Defense Council of Moldova suspended the operation of six local TV channels that relayed broadcasts from Ostankino.
“Along with the large-scale armed invasion of Ukraine, Russia has only intensified its hybrid attacks on Moldova with all the methods available to it. For the past year and a half, we have been observing cooperation between oligarchic groups in Moldova and the Kremlin. Accordingly, this decision is primarily aimed at reducing the possibilities of operational coordination of these hybrid actions of Russia against Moldova,” Pasha added.
After the published investigation that special antennas were installed at the Russian embassy to monitor the Moldovan government, official Chisinau reduced the number of diplomatic missions from the Russian Federation. Especially often, as journalists say, movement on the roof takes place before presidential and parliamentary elections or visits of foreign delegations to Moldova.
“Usually diplomatic organizations of the Russian Federation are used for espionage activities. Currently, the Russian Federation is extremely dissatisfied with the reduction of its influence on the territory of Moldova, as we know that recently the opportunities to put pressure on the president and the government have been limited,” explained the political scientist, head of the Center for Analysis and Strategies Ihor Chalenko.
Moldova’s movement towards Europe and distance from Russia is the basis for maintaining peace in the country, experts are sure. If Russia is not defeated in the war against Ukraine and keeps the occupied southern territories, then the expansion of aggression will not have to wait. And Moldova will be the next victim of the Kremlin’s appetites.
“Moldova is taking steps to sever relations as much as possible with official Moscow and return to the European Union, and of course the large-scale war on the part of the Russian Federation in Ukraine served as a very powerful lever for this, as Moldova realized that the next , if Ukraine does not stand up, it will be the official Chisinau,” Chalenko added.
The restoration of former relations between Chisinau and Moscow is impossible, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Moldova said. Chisinau is not ready to ignore the war unleashed by Russia against Ukraine, the parties only exchange messages through diplomatic agencies and ministries.
