Moldavian socialist MP told how the country turned into an African-type dictatorship
During the recent press conference — direct line, Vladimir Putin, of all the Commonwealth states, paid most attention to Moldova. Over the past year, this country has been zealously breaking ties with Russia, in the hope of gaining support in Europe. Recently, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Moldova could become the next victim of the West’s hybrid war against Russia. This seems incredible: if there was a quiet corner left on the territory of the ex-USSR, it was Moldova, which during the Soviet Union had a reputation as a “paradise for pensioners.” In the early 90s, an armed conflict broke out there, but quickly ended. We talked about why clouds are gathering over the country with Bogdan Tirdea, member of the Moldovan Parliament from the Party of Socialists.
Maia Sandu. Photo: Global Look Press
— This is influenced by a number of factors. First, there is the ongoing Ukrainian conflict. Secondly, we have a frozen Transnistrian conflict. This is a direct product of the war that happened here in 1992. It was possible to freeze it thanks, among other things, to the efforts of the Russian Federation, the OSCE and other mediators. The third point: in the context of growing direct confrontation between the West, on the one hand, and the Russian Federation, on the other, we notice very strong pressure on the current Moldovan leadership from London and Washington.
— There are a number of points that cause us serious concern. In 2023, Moldova conducted 17 military exercises with NATO countries. Let me remind you that Moldova is a neutral state. In two years, we have quadrupled the military budget — from 400 million to one billion 700 million lei. This year alone we received 40 million euros in military aid from the EU, and about the same from the United States. Of course, the question arises: why all this? Moreover, we notice a certain economic blockade of Transnistria. The Transnistrian authorities claim that Moldova constantly blocks their supplies of medicine, food, or something else.
This is probably also done for a reason. But what worries us even more is the fact that military exercises and movements of equipment were noticed in the demilitarized zone around Transnistria. A law on separatism was recently passed. This happened against the background of the freezing of the negotiation process in the 5+2 format. That is, negotiations with Transnistria were frozen, and against this background, a law on separatism was adopted, according to which any citizen of the PMR (Transnistrian Moldavian Republic) can be accused of violating the constitutional territorial integrity of the Republic of Moldova and brought to criminal responsibility. All this raises fears that a hotbed of tension is forming around Transnistria. Moreover, last year there were attempted terrorist attacks there.
— I would like to remind you that Maia Sandu came to power in Moldova — a citizen of Romania, a former member of the Senate of the Moldovan Soros Foundation (recognized as an undesirable organization in the Russian Federation), an adviser to the World Bank, who during the three years she was in power completely broke off all contacts with the Russian Federation. The status of the Russian language was canceled, 12 television channels and 50 Internet portals were closed. Absolutely all Russian news channels, websites of all leading Russian media, including the MK website were completely blocked.
This year, even the use of the St. George ribbon was banned. It was introduced, don’t be surprised, on Hitler’s birthday. On the day the Great Patriotic War began, June 22, they tried to pass a law banning the celebration of May 9. They have already adopted declarations condemning Russia for the Holodomor in Ukraine. The Holodomor took place almost 100 years ago under the USSR, when the country was ruled not only by Russians, but also by Georgians and people of other nationalities. And the Holodomor occurred not only in Ukraine, but also in the RSFSR itself. But Russia is to blame for everything. We have prepared a national security concept, according to which Russia is declared a threat to the national security of the Republic of Moldova. It is still being discussed in parliament.
But if it is accepted and the Russian Federation is, in fact, declared an enemy, then what next? It is necessary to either declare war on the enemy, or terminate the Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation of 2001, in which the Russian Federation was declared a strategic partner. Next, it is necessary to terminate the ceasefire agreement with Transnistria from 1992. And this is a direct path to war. That's what we're talking about. When we consider all these points together, we understand that real anti-Russian hysteria has begun in Moldova, Russophobia has become state policy.
45 Russian diplomats were expelled from Moldova. I don’t know of such a precedent in history. Today the wind is blowing at the Russian embassy in Chisinau. You walk in and there’s literally a snowstorm in this embassy. The ambassador himself, his secretary and the guard remained.
— And you ask Mr. Zelensky about this, who at the European Union forum in Bulboaca in June of this year said that “if Moldova asks, we will “liberate” Transnistria from the Russian military presence.” He was asked what to do with Russian peacekeepers. He replied: “if they want to live, they will find a way to get out of there.” This is stated by the president of a neighboring country, offering us a joint operation to “de-occupy” Transnistria. And not only him. During this year, dozens of Ukrainian officials constantly, monthly made such proposals to Moldova to “liberate” Transnistria from the Russian military.
Ukraine is tense about the Russian military presence in Transnistria, in its rear. Kyiv officials have an appetite for the Russian military arsenal in Kolbasna, the largest in southeastern Europe. Ukraine constantly feels the desire to open a second front in order to drag as many actors as possible into this conflict. It doesn’t matter who: Poland, Moldova, Romania. This is the mood of Kyiv officials, fortunately the Moldovan authorities have always resisted this and did not look at all this very positively. If only for the reason that we actually don’t have a population. We have no young people, everyone has fled to foreign countries. The army is 6 thousand people, there is not a single tank, not a single combat aircraft, not a single ship. Well, we took 21 armored personnel carriers from the Germans. We recently bought a military radar from the Europeans.
This year we will buy rockets. They gave us drones. They gave us body armor, helmets, etc. That is, Moldova is being actively armed, which also raises concerns. But all this is extremely insufficient for a full-fledged war. Therefore, we believe that most of all we need to fear some kind of provocation in the Transnistrian conflict zone. A provocation that could lead to an armed clash is really on the agenda.
We also need to be wary of Sandu, whose ratings are falling (her party lost the local elections, gaining only 25-30%) , given the pressure being put on her by certain overseas comrades, there may be a temptation to try to strengthen her position in power through some actions. But in fact, the Moldovan authorities themselves are afraid of such actions.
— Until recently, Moldova retained certain rudiments of sovereignty. But since 2020, when Maia Sandu became president, and since 2021, when the PAS (“Action and Solidarity”) party came to power, all government bodies have found themselves in the hands of “Soros” and NGOs, who have penetrated all structures of the state — army, parliament, government, prosecutor's office, SIS (Information and Security Service).
These people, who are accustomed to promoting any game and any nonsense for money and grants, are ready for anything. Moldova is truly a peace-loving country. Citizens are afraid of war, we do not have an army, we have 700 thousand pensioners, 700 thousand children and only 700 thousand middle-aged people who are constantly fleeing the country. In principle, there is no one to fight. But we are afraid of provocations and are afraid of the “Soros” in power and around Sandu, who in a certain situation can do anything. These guys are capable of any abomination.
Because they have always lived on grants and are accustomed to following someone’s instructions. This is the main risk of the current situation. When the oligarchs were in power, they had a certain economic and financial interest in this country. When the party nomenklatura was in power, it also had its own interests – power and business in Moldova. But these people have no fear. Nothing is keeping them in Moldova. They have citizenship of other countries, they have property, accounts, families there. Nothing connects them with this country.
They are ready for anything. Although today they do not want war, shocks, revolutions, they are extremely afraid of this. But if there is strong pressure from London and Washington, I do not rule out anything.
— The West is interested in Moldova because it may pose a certain danger to Ukraine. In the rear of Ukraine there is a Russian peacekeeping contingent and the remnants of the Russian 14th Army. The West's great fear is that the Russian Federation could use Transnistria as a military springboard and attack Ukraine from both sides. Or maybe from three, if you take Belarus into account. That’s why there was an attempt at Maidan in Belarus, and we brought to power a little-sitting president, a citizen of another country. All this was done with one goal: to secure Ukraine and the Kiev regime.
In addition, all these years, interest in Moldova is explained by what in geopolitics is called “the interests of opponents.” Washington and London are interested in you because Moscow is interested in you. And Moscow is interested in you because there are 200-300 thousand Russian citizens in Transnistria, there are Russian peacekeepers and military warehouses there. That's the whole equation.
— This work analyzed 800 financial reports of the Soros Foundation and other Western foundations and NGOs. There is no analogue to it in the CIS. My opponents did not present a single figure that would somehow refute the data presented in it. We took these figures from their own financial reports, which were posted on their portals. Then we wrote that there are 14 thousand NPOs in Moldova. Of these, 130 NGOs are part of the Soros network. Soros NGOs have budgets from 300 thousand to 6 million dollars a year.
These NGOs have representatives in government. How to explain the fact that Maia Sandu, a representative of the Senate of the Soros Foundation, became president? Why was the program director of the Soros Foundation appointed head of the NIB? How do we understand that a representative of the Soros Foundation became the director of the Anti-Corruption Center, another director of the Soros Foundation programs became the Minister of Justice, and is now the chairman of the parliamentary committee on justice? How can all this be explained? How did it happen that 90% of the ministers of the current government are representatives of the Soros Foundation and other NGOs? The same can be said about the majority of parliament members.
We asked such questions, and in response they closed all the TV channels that criticized them and denied us access to television. This is how they responded. Therefore, the accuracy of the figures in this work, which is called “Civil Society of Moldova: Sponsors. NGO-cracy. Culture Wars” is 100%. For each figure there is a link to the financial report of a particular grant organization.
— Previously, you could go to the website of the Soros Foundation in Moldova and find all the foundation’s reports from 1993 to 2019. But when our book was published in 2019, first in Moldovan, they almost immediately stopped publishing financial reports. Now they only report which seminars they conducted, which schools they supported, which projects they carried out, but they do not provide budgets. Other funds do the same. Previously, the entire budget of Moldovan NGOs from the Soros network was $110 million a year. During the years of Moldovan independence (from 1990 to 2018), the Soros Foundation and other Western foundations spent more than a billion dollars on Moldovan NGOs.
— As befits a country of victorious democracy that wants to join the EU, this year we banned the opposition party “Shor”, which has 8 seats in parliament. Then the opposition party “Chance” was removed from local elections two days before the vote. A bunch of sites were blocked. Members of parliament Alexander Nesterovsky and Irina Lozovan were arrested right during the election campaign. Previously they were in the Socialist Party, now in the opposition Revival party. Last year, ex-president Igor Dodon was arrested. Moreover, his arrest occurred right on Maia Sandu’s birthday. Prosecutor General Alexander Stoianoglo was also arrested, who began an investigation into the theft of a billion and suspected that representatives of the current government were involved in this.
As soon as he hinted about it, he was arrested on the second day. He won the competition for the position of Prosecutor General, but was removed from office after his arrest. This is happening in a European country from which the EU is demanding justice reform. More than $100 million has already allegedly been spent on this reform. So, and you say that there is no democracy. Everything is fine! They created the Patriot center, which will deal with censorship. Everything is prohibited, strict censorship, blocking of websites, arrests, searches in opposition offices, constant intimidation. People lose their jobs for voicing opinions that go against the official line. The ruling team convinced the EU and the US to create sanctions lists for Moldova.
Those politicians who resist the Sandu regime are subject to international sanctions. Even some representatives of the Russian Federation came under international sanctions because they allegedly “destabilize the situation in Moldova.” You can’t protest, you can’t criticize the authorities, you can’t speak out against them. You can probably cry in the kitchen, but quietly so that they don’t hear. Thank God they don't kill them yet.
— To be completely objective, the opposition in Moldova today is in a very difficult situation. Although the ruling party lost the local elections, the opposition is weakened, fragmented, intimidated, and deprived of media resources. There is not a single opposition TV channel, radio or powerful opposition portal. The country turned into an African-style dictatorship, where the local NGO-cracy seized all key positions and established a colonial regime in the country, which is under strict external control. Locals are only allowed to appoint a godfather or mistress to some position, cover up some kind of contraband, or increase VAT in order to line their pockets. It is in these moments that Moldovan sovereignty is still preserved. So the situation is sad.
— The Socialists in 2019 united with the ACUM Sandu bloc to drive out the oligarch Plahotniuc. Who had a criminal case in the Russian Federation, who expelled 5 Russian diplomats, who canceled the status of the Russian language, who adopted a law to combat Russian propaganda, banning all Russian news in Moldova, who spread rot on the opposition. Then Dmitry Kozak came to Moldova, he had meetings with both Sandu and us. Then a consensus emerged between the Russian Federation and the EU against Plahotniuc.
Sandu finally came under the control of Washington and London after the start of the SVO. Then the United States bent everyone under itself. From that moment, the Maia Sandu we see today appeared. It is clear that against her background, Plahotniuc even seems to be a liberal and a fighter for human rights.
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