http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Moldova-is-preparing-for-a-revolution,-Belarus-style-51461.html
http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Moldovan-elections-head-for-run-off-51513.html
Sandwiched between Romania and Ukraine, Moldova remains
poised for the same sort of unrest that has plagued both Ukraine and Belarus.
Indeed, the nation which is more or less Romanian in its ethnicity is divided
between it majority population and a considerable minority of Russians and
other Eastern Slavs.
Caught in a tug-of-war between Moscow and NATO, the nation
was already split in the 1990's with the pro-Russian Transnistria enclave
situated to its east. While still ostensibly part of Moldova, the enclave
functions as a Russian protectorate.
Since the 1990's and early 2000's NATO has marched east and
has attempted to swallow up all the former nations of the Warsaw Pact and the
non-Russian nations that were once part of the Soviet Union.
Vladimir Putin came to power at the end of 1999 and has spent
the last twenty years attempting to arrest the West's expansion and its attempts
to dominate not only his country but his part of the world. Haunted by history
Putin and other Russian leaders see the West as repeating its age old pattern
and even now is setting up the 'game-board' for yet another assault on Mother
Russia. And thus they are desperate to check this advance and establish the
long-sought buffer between Mitteleuropa (the Central European heartland) and
the East.
This is why nations such as the Belarus, Ukraine, the Baltic
States, Moldova and even the nations of the Caucasus are in play. They are
fault-lines in the latest chapter of this centuries-long conflict – a conflict
which reached its breaking point during the 1941-1945 war between Hitler and
Stalin. This combined with the realities of the nuclear age mean that though
the historical patterns repeat themselves, the stakes are higher – to repeat
WWII is unthinkable, as is a nuclear war. This is why Putin strains and
struggles, schemes and connives to do all he can to check the eastward
advancement. This is why there are fault-lines from the Baltics to the Balkans,
from the Black Sea to Lake Balkash.
But for the moment the contest is in Moldova.
Maia Sandu presently leads and is set to stand in a run-off
election against current president Igor Dodon. This is a repeat of 2016, a
contest in which Sandu narrowly lost. Dodon, the Russian favourite is this time
poised to lose and Sandu the pro-EU candidate stands ready to re-assume the reins
of power.
On the one hand someone might say Moldova is merely caught up
in a cycle of polarised politics and is following the democratic pattern of
swinging back and forth between the major parties. Perhaps, but this election
takes place under the shadow of the Belarus protest movement and growing
tensions in places like Ukraine and Poland. The pressure-cooker effect has been
at work for some time and in many respects it's remarkable that there has been
more tumult and conflict in Eastern Europe but eventually one of the tension
points will prove too much and there will be a deluge of unrest, conflict and
political upheaval.
Europe views Moldova as a threat because of Russia's Transnistria
beachhead located to the west of Ukraine. Russian control of Moldova would put
Putin (as it were) on NATO's doorstep, on the border of Romania and NATO bases.
From Russia's perspective Moldova is the road to
Transnistria, more bases, more missiles and a more open road to bringing
Ukraine into formal western alliance.
Moldova is neither Ukraine nor Belarus. It's a small poor
country but nevertheless it is tied to the larger network of tensions and
conflicts and thus anyone who is watching the situation will keep an eye on the
elections.
See also:
https://proto-protestantism.blogspot.com/2018/06/romania-and-prospect-of-moldovan.html
https://proto-protestantism.blogspot.com/2019/12/europes-ghosts-essential-questions-and.html
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