Romania Launched an Attack on the Ruling Moldovan Regime

Bucharest is to coordinate with Washington its actions as to Moldova. This does not bode well for the current Chisinau government Vladimir Rotar, RTA: It’s no secret that the new Moldovan leadership has a lot of evil-wishers. Really and truly, it is hemmed in by enemies. Sometimes it seems that the head of state Igor Dodon and the ruling socialists sit on a “powder keg,” any moment ready to explode bearing sad consequences for them. Extremely bad is the relationship with neighbors. In Kiev, they prefer simply not to notice the Moldovan president, even despite his curtsies on Crimea and statements about the territorial integrity of Ukraine. But things are much worse with Romania. It would not be an exaggeration to say that relations between the two countries fell to their lowest point since many years. At the same time, Bucharest doesn’t demonstrate detachment as Kiev but rather “armed neutrality”. Romania does not miss the opportunity to express its “ick” about Sandu government resignation and does not show even the least politeness when talking about the new government in Chisinau. Almost immediately, the former Prime Minister, Ludovic Orban, announced that he did not consider the current Chisinau government to be a “serious partner” and called on the European Union to “consider with maximum caution” the situation in the Republic of Moldova. But the main problem is that Bucharest not only speaks but also acts. It was the neighboring state that initiated the revision of EU approaches to financing Moldova, and first began to actively break off all ties with the Chicu government. At the same time, President Klaus Johanis said that Romania will resume full cooperation with Moldova only when it sees "the continuation of the European path and the reform process in such areas as justice, administration and fight against corruption." However, it is clear that actually, all this is not about reforms at all, since the Sandu government did not succeed too much in dong it - but in pure politics. Afterwards, the Romanian ambassador in Chisinau, Daniel Ionita detailed a little his country new algorithm of actions by primarily changing the Republic of Moldova financing logic.  The diplomat said that Bucharest will only sponsor specific projects at the local level, hinting that direct transactions to the Moldovan government are impractical due to total corruption among Moldovan officials. At the same time, he expressed disappointment that, despite Romania’s large investments the Moldovan population mostly does not perceive his country as a serious investor. To be fair, Romanian help truly comes to the amount of billions lei. And its loss for Chisinau will be an extremely painful blow, especially within current difficult economic conditions, when other financial donors are in no hurry to support Chisinau. However, the Moldovan capital pretends everything is fine. And Prime Minister Ion Chicu recently announced that Moldovan-Romanian relations are at the highest possible level. According to him, between Moldova and Romania "there are no conflicting issues that could adversely affect bilateral relations." It is not clear who the Moldovan authorities are trying to calm down making such statements - themselves or the population. Anyway, Chisinau certainly does have an issue for concern. It recently became known that Romania and the United States of America will coordinate their position on the situation in Moldova. This was stated in a press release after the meeting of Romanian Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu and US Ambassador Adrian Zuckerman. Washington is now intensifying its influence in the countries of the post-Soviet space, taking the moment to tear them out of Russia's sphere of influence (or, at least, seriously weaken Moscow’s position there). In this sense, the US State Secretary Mike Pompeo’s tour to Ukraine and Uzbekistan and to the EAEU countries Belarus and Kazakhstan, are indicative. And although he did not visit Moldova, this does not mean that our country is not in the focus of American attention. Exactly the opposite - this is noticeable both in the activity of the US ambassador Derek Hogan and in the regular visits of major American officials. Washington began to prepare a new strategy for Moldova after the transfer of power to the socialists last year. Its specific parameters are, of course, not known, but it is easy to guess that the current "socialist regime" in the Republic of Moldova will become its main target. The United States will inevitably shake it before the presidential election, and the farther, the stronger. Apparently, Romania is to play an important role in this process. One can already see Bucharest delivering both large and targeted strikes: economic, financial, political, diplomatic. On the same line is the recent attack on the Moldovan language which can be perceived as a direct attack against the president, who has always advocated for the cessation of  country’s Romanization. They also hit directly at the head of state through reproofing media campaigns implemented by "affiliated" Moldovan media. Therefore, Chisinau now should not entertain illusions on "strengthening" relations with Romania but rather prepare to reflect new attacks from the West - which will only grow as the election date approaches.