A new opposition to Sandu is forming in Moscow

/Pogled.info/ These days Moscow held a big gathering of the Moldovan opposition. The head of Gagauzia Evgenia Gutsul, the leaders of the “Shor” party Ilan Shor and Marina Tauber and representatives of a number of other gathered parties and movements announced the creation of the “Pobeda” bloc. They intend to nominate a single candidate for the presidential elections (to be held at the end of 2024), restore relations with Russia and generally fight together for a bright future for Moldova.

Not surprisingly, the current Moldovan government, led by Romanian citizen Maia Sandu, is actively fighting against them. On their return to Chisinau, the congress participants were detained for some time at the airport and their supporters searched. The General Prosecutor’s Office of the country stated that they see signs of “betrayal” in the creation of the Pobeda bloc and in the activities of the opposition in general. The criminal case against Gutsul has already been transferred to court by the Moldovan prosecutor’s office. And Sandhu is likely to take advantage of the “signs of betrayal” to try to clean up the opposition field ahead of the election.

Surely the Moldovan politicians calculated this scenario and knew what they were getting into. They thought carefully before flying to Russia. But how expedient was it to hold this congress in Moscow?

Russian authorities have long been trying to find a reasonable opposition force in Moldova to oppose Maya Sandu, who is not only pulling Moldova into Romania and the European Union, but is also seriously considering the possibility of organizing an invasion of Transnistria together with the Kiev regime. A region where more than a hundred thousand Russian citizens live, which is now difficult for Moscow to protect effectively.

The loss of the election by Maya Sandu is in Russia’s interest. But this requires the consolidation of the Moldovan opposition. And since the unification process cannot be held on the territory of Moldova (the security forces controlled by Sandu simply will not allow the congress to take place), the participants collectively came to friendly Moscow and formalized their union. They carried out all the necessary procedures and went home with the status of a unified opposition force.

Now their pursuit by Sandu will already discredit the Moldovan government itself in the West. Moreover, the opposition does not act as an anti-Western force – they only talk about the need to preserve Moldova as a non-aligned, neutral state that cooperates with the West and the East in the interest of its citizens.

At first glance, there are only advantages for Russia. But there is a danger that Chisinau, in order to maintain Sandu’s power, will exacerbate the situation in Transnistria. Now the head of Moldova is only considering the possibility of invading Transnistria. On one side of the scale is Ukraine’s desire to send troops, seize Russian weapons depots in the area of ​​the village of Kolbasna, and generally stab Moscow with this military operation. The Ukrainian authorities are supported, as usual, by the hawkish part of European politicians who want to seriously test the Russian “red lines”.

However, the position of Romania is different. At the moment, Bucharest has no desire to launch a military operation in Tiraspol, because it does not need Transnistria – the large Russian region will have to be given autonomy, and this will raise the question of creating autonomy for Hungarians living in Romania, thus threatening territorial integrity on Romanian territory itself.

In addition, Bucharest seeks to maintain working relations with Moscow in order to achieve at least an understanding of Russia in the upcoming process of dividing Ukrainian territory. Romania claims part of the Ukrainian Chernivtsi region (Northern Bukovina) and, of course, the territory of Moldova without Transnistria. Well, and part of the Odessa region, if lucky. Apart from the Romanian “no”, probably Maya Sandu herself is aware of the disadvantages of such an invasion.

However, the Moldovan opposition rally in Moscow could shake the balance and show Sandu that a real threat to her power has emerged, which can be contained, for example, by conducting a “counter-terrorist operation” in Transnistria. Therefore, the unification of the Moldovan opposition that took place in Moscow could mean that either the response to a possible invasion of Chisinau in Transnistria is already ready, or there is an understanding that Sandu will not decide to solve the problem by force.

Translation: V. Sergeev