Society

RUSSIA’S NEXT TARGET IS MOLDOVA – THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

14 april, 2015

The Wall Street Journal believes that having annexed Crimea and pocketed Western concessions in eastern Ukraine, Vladimir Putin is eyeing the territory stretching from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea that Moscow considers its rightful possessions of the Russian empire.

The influential US publication writes that the Kremlin leader is sending a clear signal to Moldova demanding to give up its plans of integration with the West.

“Russian forces on Thursday conducted a drill near Moldova, the small, Kremlin-menaced nation wedged between Ukraine and Romania. According to Russian news agencies, 400 Russian troops participated in exercises in Transnistria, a breakaway territory of Moldova populated by ethnic Russians. They fired 100,000 rounds of ammunition”, said the WSJ article.
Its authors pointed wrote that Moldova, suffering of the predominance of corrupt politicians and of problems caused by a tangled parliamentary structure, continues to be one of the poorest countries in Europe.

Despite this, a majority of Moldovan voters cast their ballots at the latest 3 election campaigns for liberal pro-West governments. Incumbent Prime Minister Chiril Gaburici, appointed last February, is a pro-Western businessman seeking to strengthen ties with the European Union, wrote the Wall Street Journal.

The article reminded that Moscow has already punished Moldova for its attempts to establish closer ties with the West, having banned the importation of wines from Moldova in 2013 and fruit in 2014, and each time that happened under an invented pretext of violation of sanitary norms, and each time on the eve of meetings of Moldova and EU officials and signing of agreements.

The newspaper believes that the above-mentioned Russian drill is meant to create an impression that Putin can undertake more resolute actions to subdue intractable Moldova.

The article authors would like to believe that the West will react to these actions much tougher than it did to events in Ukraine. However, the Wall Street Journal confessed that it does not count very much on this.

Add Comment

Add Comment

  • name
  • email
  • message
Thanks!
Your comment will be published after administrator approval.