Troubled by Russia’s President, Vladimir Putin, revengeful nostalgia, who doesn’t have a day without thinking how to rebuild the former Soviet Empire, Moldova’s President, Igor Dodon will create another conflict in the country. 

After the Second World War, the first conflict arose in 1990, in Comrat, southern part of Moldova, and in 1992 – on the Nistru river. Where will the conflict from 2020 arise?

On November 12 the Parliament dismissed the Government led by Maia Sandu, former Prime Minister and leader of the Action and Solidarity Party. Two days later the same Parliament sworn in a new Government led by Ion Chicu- an eminently pro-Russian government, 100 percent controlled by Dodon. This is not a change of a worse cabinet of ministers with a better one. It would be erroneous to think like this. 

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It was a plot conducted in a direct, most brutal and cowardly way. Everything that happened on November 14, beginning with the Chicu Government’s investment, is a new re-entry of the historical province of Basarabia under the Russian rule.

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More than that, it is a new Russian occupation of the historical province of Basarabia. Disguised as it is, but still occupation. Whether we like it or not, that’s the situation we are in. You may call it “Russian control”, or “Russian influence”, it doesn’t change the essence of things. 

The real problem is that the world did not understand the gravity of the situation. As the Moldovans did not understand it on June 28, 1940, when the Soviet Union occupied the historical province of Basarabia, nor the Romanians on the other side of the Prut river on August 23, 1944, after the entry of Soviet troops in Romania. 

The situation is serious, even though our Western partners have not yet given appreciation to what happened and are trying to treat the things with great patience and diplomatic ability. 

Mikheil Saakashvili, former President of Georgia from 2004 to 2013, is the only one (until now) from Moldova’s old partners, who reacted publicly to what happened in Chișinău. According to him the dismissal of the Sandu Government and the investment of the Chicu Government is a final stage of the power grabbing operation in Moldova by Vladimir Putin.

“Today, Putin took full control over the power in Moldova. Initially, with the help of naive Europeans and Americans, he ousted Vladimir Plahotniuc (former leader of the Democratic Party), an oligarch whose only concern was to rob the people of Moldova. Now, with the help of his allies, the pro-Russian socialists, and Plahotniuc’s party, he eliminated Maia Sandu, an anti-Putinist prime minister. Once again Moldova reached the dark side of post-Soviet history … Today, Putin has won, and the West and the people of Moldova have lost. But I remain optimistic and I think this will last for a short while,” says Saakashvili. 

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It depends on us.

To control Moldova (what already happened as the Presidency with Dodon is in Putin’s hands, the parliamentary majority presided by Greceanîi is also under Putin, the Chicu Government, totally controlled by Dodon, the Constitutional Court, the Information and Security Service, the Army, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of External Affairs also are controlled by Dodon), Russia needed a coup in Comrat (1990-1991), a military war on the Nistru river (1992), a criminal scenario of federalization of Moldova, the so-called Kozak Memorandum  (2003) and two political projects of “peaceful” and “democratic” reclaim of power in Moldova, the Narîșkin Plan (2009) and the Kozak-2 Plan (2019). 

In both cases, the purpose was to attract the right winged parties in majority coalitions with the political left, in the name of a common political ideal. In 2009, as we remember, it was: “Moldova without Voronin, Moldova without communists.” 

In reality, however, through this common left-right governance, it was sought to compromise, destroy and eliminate the right winged parties from the political circuit, so that the left, controlled by Moscow, could easily reach government. 

We know what followed: Filat is in prison, “Moldova Noastră” is abolished, the Liberal Democratic Party and the Liberal Party disappeared from the list of parliamentary parties. 

Although the Liberal Democratic Party and the Liberal Party were excluded from parliamentary life, the right wing, however, has not ceased to exist. It was reborn through Action and Solidarity Party and the Platform for Dignity and Truth Party, which immediately became favorites with the right-wing electorate. 

Also in 2016 if the Democratic Party wouldn’t have made a deal with Moscow and wouldn’t have helped Igor Dodon in the elections, Maia Sandu would have been president today. Sandu had become inconvenient for the Kremlin after 2016, as well as after the parliamentarians from 2019. 

Moscow’s reaction? A new plan of coalition of the left and right, in the name of a new common political ideal: the overthrow of the Plahotniuc regime and the de-oligarchization of Moldova. What happened and how far it went, we know. It was a hoax. 

Dodon compromised the agreements with the ACUM Bloc, and when Maia Sandu refused to give him the Government, he turned to the oligarchs against whom he had committed to fight and, in coalition with them, brought down the Government. 

Russia did the same. They walked out on the agreements with the Europeans and the Americans about the support of a coalition government in Moldova, which got engaged to make reforms.

On November 21, the new Prime Minister Ion Chicu left for Moscow on his first official visit. Chicu did not announce any great issues he planned to resolve, however, it is quite clear. Zinaida Greceanâi, Irina Vlah from Comrat and half of the Cabinet of Ministers left together with him. Two days earlier, a group of socialist deputies also left for Moscow, posting pictures on the social media networks from a reception given to Moldovan deputies “in honor of the friendly relations between Russia and Moldova.” So, there was drinking. There was a feast …

Russia celebrated the dismissal of the Sandu Government and the takeover of state power in Moldova. 

And many things are to happen but nothing good, with a Dodon to the Presidency, a Greceanîî to the Parliament, a Chicu to the Government, and other pro-Russians politicians in Comrat, Bălți and Taraclia, which are three of the biggest cities in Moldova.   

Ukrainian media writes that Kyiv is worried about the situation in Moldova and does not exclude that Russia could use Moldova to attack Ukraine. 

Agerpres writes, citing the Ukrainian press, that on November 18, Russian strategic bombers Tu-22M3 simulated, in an exercise, a rocket attack on the port city of Odesa.

Petru Grozavu,