Sandu: Russia Wants to Rebuild the USSR, It Directly Affects Us

Maia Sandu gave an interview to the Romanian media, in which she spoke about the hybrid war being waged against our country. The President believes that disinformation affects not only Moldova, but also Romania, and the authorities of Chisinau and Bucharest must cooperate on this issue, writes rfi.ro “It is true that Russian propaganda goes beyond what it broadcasts from Moscow in Russian, and that they have also invested in propaganda in Romanian. We’re trying to fight back, we’ve amended the legal framework to create some barriers to propaganda and disinformation. We are trying to strengthen the capacity of institutions to prevent and combat disinformation. But joint efforts from Chisinau and Bucharest are needed, because we cannot do it alone. A consolidated effort will be much more effective than a small effort in Chisinau,” said Maia Sandu. She also explained that much of the propaganda and disinformation is in Russian, and many Moldovan citizens do not speak Romanian and only receive information from sources influenced by the Kremlin. These dangers become even more pressing in the context of the war in Ukraine. “For Moldova, this war is a threat to our freedom, our democracy and our European path. I have heard several times from Moscow about the desire to rebuild the Soviet Union. This directly affects us. We do not want to go back to the Soviet Union. We want to live in a free society, in a democratic country,” said the President. The Head of State believes that Russia doesn’t want to see Moldova leave its sphere of influence and is doing everything possible to overthrow the legitimate government in Chisinau. For this reason, it first artificially created an energy crisis, leading to a massive increase in prices, and then financed the Chisinau protests through its agents. “It is clear that Moscow wants a pro-Russian government in Chisinau. These things are no secret. There are attempts to destabilize the situation through paid protests, using the energy situation and the very high prices of gas and electricity, reducing the volumes supplied under the contract we have with Gazprom. This is a unilateral decision by Gazprom, which has no legal basis. All this is done to undermine the pro-European government in Chisinau,” noted the Head of State.