The Authorities’ Star Fever and the West’s Blessing for Repressions

The degradation of the ruling party is gaining momentum – with our Western partners’ full connivance

Semyon ALBU, RTA: The PAS’s inept management has brought Moldova to the brink of an abyss. Because of the situation with energy resources, the country is on the edge of a humanitarian catastrophe. And the president, as if mocking the Russians, says that Gazprom must fulfill its contractual obligations, while completely omitting to mention how the government failed to meet all the deadlines for auditing the historical debt. Instead, the idiotic version that gas deliveries could stop for the alleged reason that Moldova had to pay a lower price next month is being hyped. Who would believe that? But hardly anyone cares about the facts anymore. The authorities create their own reality through a network of pet media and by persecuting everyone else. In this reality, all is well. Internationally, the status of an EU candidate, top meetings one after another and help from all over the world. Domestically, the unanimous support of citizens and successful reforms. In such an environment, power quickly gets star-struck, becoming more and more detached from its own society. This is also proven by the way in which public outreach is conducted, as one failure follows another. It is surreal when, in a country with tons of all sorts of problems, the president is concerned about the rights of Iranian women. At the same time, she keeps silent when Moldovan citizens are killed by a Ukrainian attack, without even expressing basic condolences. Or take Spinu, for example, whose offshore accounts have become public knowledge long ago. But Maia Sandu suddenly decided to clumsily “vindicate” her appointee by declaring that he had earned all his money honestly. A little later, the Deputy Prime Minister himself declared that he had no accounts and no money at all, taking the citizens for complete fools and putting the President out to be a liar. What difference does it make, though, when the regime established by PAS does not provide for any mechanisms of public control anyway? No one can clearly explain where we are going or how we are going to act in the current difficult conditions. Only the “yellow team” keeps trumpeting about European integration. And about the need to strengthen the military potential. Every day we are assured that there is a threat from aggressive Russia, that the status of neutrality allegedly no longer applies and that it is time to arm ourselves. It is not difficult to guess who puts such narratives into the mouths of our administrators. It is not for nothing that our VIPs go to Ramstein and New York. Not surprisingly, Maia Sandu, having returned from a long overseas tour, including meetings with such respected people as U.S. Secretary of State Blinken and NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg, quickly convened the Supreme Security Council. The actual topics of discussion are a mystery, but the tone of the President’s subsequent statements was belligerent. There was talk of nuclear incidents and an escalation of the conflict in Ukraine. In this context, many threats followed: she promised Transdniestria “stricter monitoring of the regional situation”, criticized the peacekeepers for “incidents” in the Security Zone, and promised to deprive of citizenship those Moldovans who have Russian passports and “fight for the aggressor”. Even that is not so bad. Much more ominous were the threats to tighten sanctions against those who commit treason, promote separatism and war. The way in which the ruling government interprets these notions is clear. In fact, it is used only as an excuse to suppress any “troublemakers”. Thus, Sandu’s statements about the protests look very natural here. She did not hesitate to call all those who want her dismissal as thieves, and she believes that criminal groups and foreign players are behind the current protests in Chisinau. By the latter, of course, she means Russia. Our rulers have clearly learned the techniques of the American embassy in Chisinau, which initially labeled all the protesters as Sor bought masses. Hence the massive “annihilating” of the protests by the pro-governmental media, portraying the protesters as marginal, trashy, alcoholics, etc., and their demands as either stupid or naive. Thus, they create disgust in the public, especially in the capital. There is almost no doubt that while on a foreign business trip, Maia Sandu was given full carte blanche to scatter the protests and sweep the political landscape in the country. In this regard, we are following the path of our Ukrainian neighbors. There, too, with the tacit and sometimes even quite official approval of our Western partners, the main opposition parties and media outlets were shut down. We have no military conflict yet, behind the scenes of which the last strongholds of democracy in the country can be liquidated, but the dawning of the Ukrainian scenario is there. Only the blind will not see the preparations for the prohibition of the Sor party and PSRM, there is also a draft law on information security, in fact – information dictatorship. And who can guarantee that Maya Sandu won’t suddenly announce that these measures are vital, because we are under a hybrid attack of Russia and all the disturbances in the capital or, for example, in Gagauzia, were inspired by its agents. This has already been said almost directly and for many months, and you don’t think it’s just for show, do you? Those sporadic signals from individual European organizations about PAS abuses should not mislead anyone and inspire false optimism. There is a full consensus at the level of Brussels and Washington about the current government – and it assumes that it will remain at the helm of Moldova for many years to come. And especially now, they are ready to turn a blind eye to any lawlessness and excesses, as they do in Ukraine. Today the end justifies any means, make no doubt. And the ruling party, which has almost completely abandoned its own society, will take any steps to maintain its sole rule. And with the connivance, or rather with the full support, of the West.