Russia says Moldova has made a ‘grave mistake’ by identifying it as an enemy.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has hit out at Chisinau on Sunday after it described Moscow as threat and accused it of waging intense cognitive warfare, Tass news agency reported.
Pro-European party PAS won last month’s parliamentary election and earlier this week, the Moldovan government under pro-EU President Maia Sandu adopted a new security strategy identifying Moscow as the main threat and accusing it of waging a “high-intensity hybrid war” against the country.
The document claims the former Soviet republic of 2.5 million which lies between EU and NATO member Romania and Ukraine has been “profoundly affected” by the Ukraine conflict, which it described as Russian “aggression.”
Moscow has denied claims of meddling in Moldova’s politics and successive election campaigns. Peskov described Chisinau’s strategy as a “continuation of a rather confrontational line towards our country.”
“From our point of view, the current leaders of Moldova are making a grave mistake. They believe that the line of building up relations with Europe implies full antagonization of Russia,” he said.
In an apparent veiled threat, he said: “One country has already made such a mistake. It did not bring any good to this one country.” He was referring to Ukraine
In the September election, Sandu’s pro-EU Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) retained its majority winning 50,2% of the vote, beating the pro-Russia Patriotic Electoral Bloc (BEP) which came second on 24.2%, and other opposition groups.
Sandu’s victory was hailed as another step toward EU accession. Moldova became an EU candidate in 2022, months after Russia invaded Ukraine.
Moldova has repeatedly accused Russia of carrying out a hybrid war to influence political opinion and sway election results in its favor. Prior to the Sept. 28 election, a BBC investigation showed how Moldovans received money to produce and distribute pro-Russian and anti-government content on social media, explicitly to attack the Action and Solidarity Party (PAS), the pro-EU party founded by President Sandu.
Participants were paid to find supporters of Moldova’s pro-Russia opposition and carry out a so-called poll which was done in the name of a non-existent organization, making it illegitimate. The results of the ‘poll’ suggested the ruling party will lose and was published online.
But pro-Russia BEP leader Igor Dodon claimed Sandu’s party won “exclusively by manipulation with support from the EU and NATO,” turning Moldova into “another anti-Russia project following the example of neighboring Ukraine.”
“The Moldovan authorities are desperately clinging to power… stopping at nothing (to do so) during the election,” Peskov claimed. “After staying in power, they maintain their unfriendly line [towards Russia]. One can only express regret about it,” he added.
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