Opinion: Residents of Moldova Are Forced to Choose between Plahotniuc and Social Upheaval

This is the opinion of RTA expert Dmitry Astakhov, commenting on the prolonged silence of the leadership of the Democratic Party of Moldova and the main oligarch of the country. According to the analyst, Plahotniuc is preparing a ‘big return’, using the support abroad. “The situation in Moldova was initially postponed by foreign partners in Washington and Brussels for a later date in order to return to it after the elections in Ukraine. All this time Vlad Plahotniuc was tacitly banned from ‘abrupt actions’ like buying deputies or attempts to reshape the Parliament at the stage of counting votes,” reminds Astakhov. During this experiment, according to the expert, the EU bets in Moldova didn’t pay off, and the United States, on the contrary, strengthened its position closely cooperating with Plahotniuc in the field of security and deterrence of Russian influence. “Washington is quite far from real sympathy for the Moldovan people, unlike the European Union. Brussels sees the failure of Moldova’s democratic path as a real problem not only of image, but also of a quite pragmatic nature. The funds invested in Moldova do not pay off, and the competence of the European partners of Chisinau, who allowed the crisis of recent years, raises more and more questions,” Astakhov said. According to the analyst, in the past months Plahotniuc has tried to show what happens when the Democratic Party does not interfere in the political process in the country. The results, according to the idea of the oligarch’s team, should show who in Moldova has enough courage to lead the “thoroughly corrupt, poor and poorly managed post-Soviet outskirts”. “It is obvious that in the coming months, with the support of the US, Vlad Plahotniuc’s ‘big return’ to public policy is being prepared. The vanishing of the PDM’s leader from screens is staged for the next scene of the political show,” Dmitry Astakhov believes. “The first signals that the performance has begun are already there. An article by US Congressman Markwayne Mullin in the Hill that the Democratic Party and the ACUM bloc need to unite to fight the threat from Moscow, which has been published recently, confirms that the Democrats have not stopped negotiations with lobbyists and allies in the United States for a day. In the coming months we can expect even more direct support for Plahotniuc from Washington,” the analyst is sure. According to Astakhov, the key to the future success of the PDM can be overt arm-twisting of the population. “The increase in the leu rate, fuel and food prices is an unambiguous signal that without Plahotniuc in power it can be even worse than with him. They are trying to direct the society’s anger to the leaders of the right opposition and the Party of Socialists, who failed to agree on a coalition in Parliament. Residents of Moldova are forced to choose between Plahotniuc and social upheaval. What will they choose, disappointed in the opposition parties?” asks the expert. “In the current situation, the ACUM bloc and PSRM still have an opportunity to turn back the train of events at the last moment in order to change the present and future of Moldova. To do this, both Brussels and Moscow should make every effort to remedy the situation and support their ‘protégé’ in Moldovan politics. Perhaps this is where the window of opportunity will open for the cooling of the situation throughout Eastern Europe and the restart of the Russian-European dialogue. Otherwise, the logic of the confrontation will be used further, and Moldova will soon be an area of interests of Washington and neighboring Bucharest exclusively,” Astakhov stressed.