CHIȘINĂU: The joint meeting of the Romanian and Moldovan governments represents a new step towards the annexation of the Republic of Moldova by Romania, according to a Russian analysis platform. The platform also resumes the old false narratives regarding the existence of a Moldovan people different from and older than the Romanian one.
NEWS: “The humanitarian-economic component becomes a priority for Romania's policy when it comes to the Republic of Moldova. Bucharest prides itself on every help it offers to create the image of a friend in need. However, Moldova's economic problems are a direct consequence of its pro-Romanian policy, which has reduced Chisinau's cooperation with the Eurasian Economic Union to a minimum.
The Republic of Moldova even proclaimed its independence in 1991 in favor and with the support of Romania. It was assumed that independent Moldova would survive due to the collaboration with Romania, and a prerequisite for this collaboration was to reduce to a minimum the economic, political, and cultural contacts with Russia. 31 years on, it’s clear, from an economic perspective, that counting on Romania was the wrong choice.
Bucharest is preparing the gradual annexation of Moldova. Bucharest and Chisinau are carrying out joint projects in the fields of energy, defense, culture. The joint meeting of the governments of the two states is another step towards depriving Moldova of its state sovereignty. This will lead to a revision of the borders in Eastern Europe, and the absorption of Moldova by Romania, which is a NATO member state, will mean automatically bringing Moldova into NATO ”.
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Bucharest has replaced aggressive unionism with the ‘soft power’ tactics and the continuous exclusion of the Moldovan language not only from the official circuit, but also from the Moldovans’ conscience. And that even though Moldova as a state and Moldovans as a people are older than Romania and Romanians and have more rights to historical superiority.
Polls show Moldovans' disappointment with the idea of a union. This fact determined Bucharest to move to a new format of work in this direction”.
NARRATIVES: 1. Bucharest and the current government in Chisinau are preparing the union of the Republic of Moldova with Romania, and the joint meeting of the two governments is an important step in that direction. 2 The Republic of Moldova proclaimed its independence from the USSR in the interest of and with the help of Romania. 3. After independence, the Republic of Moldova has had a pro-Romanian policy, including in the economic field, which distanced it from the East and proved to be damaging. 4. There is a distinct and older Moldovan people and language than the Romanian people and language. 5. Despite Bucharest’s persistence, the idea of union is increasingly unpopular among the citizens of the Republic of Moldova.
LOCAL CONTEXT / ETHOS: The fifth joint meeting of the Governments of the Republic of Moldova and Romania was held in Chisinau on February 11, followed by the signing of 13 bilateral agreements and understandings on, inter alia, the granting of non-reimbursable financial assistance to the Republic of Moldova worth 100 million euros for projects and initiatives in various fields, the reduction or cancellation of roaming charges, the building of a bridge over the Prut to Ungheni, the consolidation of the bridge in Giurgiulești (Galați), etc.
Moldova's relations with Romania have always been regarded with suspicion in Moscow, given the historical context, in which the current territory of the Republic of Moldova used to be a component part of the Romanian space, being annexed by Tsarist Russia in 1812. A possible (re) union of the Republic of Moldova with Romania has become one of the “scarecrows” that Russian propaganda, as well as some politicians in Chisinau use to fuel the phobias of a part of society, in particular national minorities.
Narratives about the unification (annexation) of the Republic of Moldova, the loss of statehood, along with those about the possible accession of the Republic of Moldova to NATO (even if it is not prepared for it, so it would not be accepted in the Alliance), the dangers of approaching the EU, the existence of the Moldovan language (intensely promoted since the Soviet period) are often used by the Russian media, politicians in Moscow and pro-Russian people in Chisinau, which perpetuates the division of society.
PURPOSE: To present Romania as a revengeful state, which aspires to the annexation of the Republic of Moldova, and the current pro-European government as one driven by the interests of the West, to the detriment of the national ones. To inoculate the idea that poverty, economic crises and the Republic of Moldova’s failures have been caused by the attempts to get in line with Western standards. To bring back to the forefront the speculations about the existence of the Moldovan language as the “mother” of the Romanian language.
WHY THE NARRATIVES ARE FALSE: Joint government meetings have been held regularly since 2012, but neither in any of these meetings nor in official talks was the issue of the union of the two states discussed, Romania being the first country to recognize the Independence of the Republic Moldova.
The Republic of Moldova declared its independence on August 27, 1991, as did all 15 states of the former USSR, in the context of perestroika and the dismantling of the Soviet Union. In the years that followed, the governments in Chisinau pursued a fairly loyal policy towards Moscow - unlike the Baltic states, which had gained independence earlier and opted for a rapprochement with the West from the outset, being admitted to the EU and NATO - and decided to join the Russian-controlled Commonwealth of Independent States.
Moldova's trade remained heavily dependent on Russia, which led to the economic crisis of 1998, probably the worst the country has faced in its years of independence. In the last seven years, Romania has become the main trading partner and main market for Moldovan goods, but this happened after Russia imposed additional sanctions and taxes on Moldovan goods several times, most recently after the signing by Chisinau of the Association Agreement with the EU.
The theory of the existence of a Moldovan language, distinct from the Romanian language and, more recently, as the very one from which the Romanian language stemmed, represents a continuation of the Soviet propaganda from the interwar period. Moscow then created an artificial state entity east of the Dniester - the Moldovan Autonomous Socialist Republic - designed as a bridgehead for the annexation of Bessarabia; In order to justify their territorial claims and undermine the Romanian state, the Soviets invented theses on the existence of two peoples and two languages. These theses were intensely promoted by some governments in Chisinau after independence, when even a Romanian-Moldovan dictionary was published.
Even if it is not an option for most citizens of the Republic of Moldova, the polls show an increase in the number of supporters of the union with Romania. According to a sociological survey presented last week, 34.4% of the respondents would vote for the unification, ten times more than a decade ago. Also, the Public Opinion Barometer , the most well-known poll in the Republic of Moldova, has revealed that the number of supporters of the union has doubled since 2015.
A GRAIN OF TRUTH: A new joint meeting of the governments of the Republic of Moldova and Romania took place on Friday, February 11, when an “unprecedented opening” in the relations between the two states was emphasized.
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