Expert: “EU Has Dealt with Ukraine, It’s Moldova’s Turn Now”

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After completing the mission for a peaceful ‘overthrow’ of toxic Poroshenko, Brussels will finally be engaged in formation of government in Moldova, according to the RTA regular expert Vladimir Rotar. Rationally placed priorities “The presidential race with two rounds finally ended with a resounding victory of Vladimir Zelensky. Contrary to the fears of many observers, the decisive stage of the elections was without provocations and scandals. Most likely, we should thank the European Union, which at the right time took control of the transfer of power in Ukraine. This is supported by regular contacts of European leaders with Poroshenko and Zelensky before the second round,” the expert believes. Rotar notes that all this time the European Union was engaged in ‘fine adjustment’ of the future political landscape of Ukraine. According to him, Brussels has done everything to prevent conflicts, transfer power to Zelensky’s team and set the latter for a quick start as a President. “Apparently, Poroshenko has received guarantees for immunity from criminal prosecution and preservation of certain political prospects. In turn, European leaders set the new President Zelensky for immediate solution of the most important and urgent tasks, first of all, to restart the negotiations on Donbas. It is not surprising that Zelensky highlighted settlement of the situation in the East among the first steps in his presidency, promising to revive the Normandy format and restore relations with Russia,” the analyst says. Ukraine’s electoral battle ended plainly and naturally, what cannot be said about neighboring Moldova. Two months after the parliamentary elections, there is still no government in the country – and, as Rotar notes, this is an extremely disappointing result of the elections, which many called fateful until recently. “In fact, the question of formation of the ruling coalition hangs heavy in the air. The union of pro-Europeans and socialists for some reason has not established: the list of mutual claims and demands is growing, the negotiations have subsided. Deoligarchization did not happen, and the country is still under the control of the PDM leader Vlad Plahotniuc. However, he cannot create a parliamentary majority by traditional methods of bribing defectors from other parties since the European Union obviously will not tolerate this,” Rotar believes. The expert links the political stagnation in the country with the passivity of Western partners, which clearly have not cared much of Moldova in recent months. “International attention was obviously focused on Ukraine. The strategic reasons are clear: it is the largest country in Europe, the only one on the continent with a military conflict in its ‘hot’ phase. In the end, the events in Ukraine became the watershed that divided the situation in the world into ‘before’ and ‘after’ and stirred up the geopolitical conflict between the West and Russia. Now there is a need to tackle its consequences such as mutual sanctions, interruption of the dialogue and broken relations in many fields. One cannot do here without Ukraine itself. Most likely, Zelensky at the first stages will have broad financial and expert support to move the process of European integration and conflict resolution in Donbas in a positive direction. The EU’s goals are evident: Ukraine should become predictable in both foreign and domestic policy,” Rotar said. Against the background of these important tasks, the situation in Moldova is not so important, the expert is sure. While the EU was dealing with Ukraine, it pulled up the handbrake in the neighboring state.  “In recent years, Brussels has showed itself on the Moldovan track: regularly criticized the actions of Chisinau, demonstratively stopped funding and political support of the authorities. But after the election, the EU seemed to lurk: acknowledged the results of the vote and took a passive wait and see position. The silence of the European leaders on the Moldovan issue allowed not to ‘scare off’ the transit of power in Ukraine. As colleagues rightly noted, the formation of power in Moldova depended on the outcome of the presidential race in Ukraine. The current things show that this opinion is not far from the truth,” the analyst emphasizes. Rotar is convinced that after the end of the entertaining epic of the Ukrainian elections, the EU’s political and diplomatic resources will be concentrated on Moldova. “In the near future we can expect an ‘influx’ of European officials who will articulate clear accents about the political future of the country. Most likely, there will be rigid ‘red lines’ defined for some forces, thus sanctioning their gradual withdrawal from the power system, others will be provided with more powerful forms of support. In this sense, even early election is an acceptable option for Brussels, because it does not interfere with the change of the ruling elites and the transit of power, it may even help. The period of political outlaws in Chisinau goes away, and now Brussel will ‘run the show’,” the expert is convinced.