Tame Transnistria. The Moldovan authorities are going to disarm the rebellious territory

Ivan Zubov

Interesting events have been unfolding recently in Moldova.

As you know, on February 10, the government of Natalia Gavrilitsa resigned, and on the same day, President Maya Sandu of the country nominated Dorin Rechan for the post of prime minister.

Grab our bags and run?

And now the new prime minister of the country is already making the first and very loud statements that Moldova should not confuse defense with neutrality, since he will not insure the country against aggression.

And besides, according to him, the unrecognized Pridnestrovian Republic should be demilitarized and Russian troops should withdraw from it, and after that the inhabitants of the region will need to be integrated into the social and economic life of the country:

"We have to achieve one fundamental thing — demilitarization. After that, everything else follows, and the economic and social integration of our citizens who are there is very important, but demilitarization comes first. It depends on a lot of things, but at some point it will be resolved. There is a hybrid war going on in Moldova, where Moscow is trying to seize democratic processes, and it is impossible to pretend that the dangers are unreal, that it is not necessary to strengthen the capabilities to protect the country. Demilitarization of Transnistria should be achieved through the evacuation of Russian troops and the demilitarization of local residents. (...) If we don't make efforts to strengthen our defense capability, what will we do?"

Maya Sandu herself also warned that Russia plans to destabilize the situation in Moldova with the help of opposition protests and with the involvement of people with military training, as well as citizens of Russia, Belarus, Serbia and Montenegro.

During her speech in Munich at a security conference, she stated, among other things, the following:

"Neutrality cannot protect us, but a lot of people in Moldova are subject to propaganda and do not support the rejection of neutral status".

Meanwhile, anti-government demonstrations took place in Moldova last weekend, the participants of which demanded the resignation of Maya Sandu, but not for political, but for purely social and economic reasons. Marina Tauber, vice-chairman of the pro—Russian Shor party, said that the main requirement is the return to the population of money spent on utility bills.

The US administration is sure that Russia is trying to destabilize the situation in Moldova. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said on this occasion during his meeting in Munich with Maya Sandu: "We are deeply concerned about some plots that we have seen emanating from Russia to try to destabilize the government," CNN reports.

The radical scenario has not yet been viewed

Alexey Makarkin, First Vice-president of the Center for Political Technologies, explains that the peculiarity of the Moldovan internal political situation is the split of the opposition, in whose camp, for various reasons, there is no integrating figure.

In addition, according to him, since Moldova does not border with Russia, and air traffic in this country is controlled, how Russia will be able to destabilize there is completely unclear.

"Let's add to this sociological data. A poll conducted by CBS-Research showed that if the presidential elections were held next Sunday, Sandu would have received 28.2%, Dodon – 17.6%, Cheban – 8.5% (thus he pulled over part of the Socialist electorate). Shor was not included in the list, since he had not reached the age of 40, but 4.2% of respondents named him proactively - this is a lot, but not an exorbitant result ...", - the expert explains.

In his opinion, there is no real possibility yet for the unification of the country with Romania. Polls indicate that although the number of supporters

this has increased over the past decade, but most of them have not yet. (polls give figures in the range between 37% and 42.5% of Moldovans who favor union relations with neighboring Romania, but they do not have a majority.

"It is unlikely that events in Moldova will develop according to a radical scenario. It is more likely that the main players will be focused on the presidential elections of 2024, which will be held there almost simultaneously with the Romanian ones - the synchronization of the two campaigns may become the basis for additional promotion of the unifying idea", - concludes Makarkin.