- In Russia it’s no longer possible to search the internet for trivial information, such as details about Alexei Navalny’s life, without risking a fine (for the moment, “only” a fine). Of course, not without risking attracting the attention of the “special bodies” as well because internet searches like this automatically classify you as a potential dissident. And dissent, as we know, is a capital sin in systems such as Russia’s.
- In Russia, you can no longer chat via Whatsapp and Telegram. From September 1, ‘Max’ entered the lives of Russians, a messaging app pre-installed on every phone and tablet sold in outlaw state led by Vladimir Putin. Instead of encryption and thus at least relative privacy like in the days of Whatsapp, Max connects you directly to the FSB (Eds: Russia’s intelligence agency). And depending on how talkative you are, the FSB can quickly find a place for you in a cell connected to the traditional “hospitality” of the repressive regime.
- Finally, Russia is moving quickly towards incorporating cyberspace into the shell of the so-called Russian internet – Runet; a narrow, even prison-like space, but also perverse. It’s a space as suffocating and profoundly aberrant as every square inch of national territory the Kremlin governs over.
The details above represent only the latest developments in terms of soft Stalinism and full-blooded North Koreanization of the life of the common man in Putinist Russia.
And above all, these developments coincide, ironically, with the historical moment when Moldovans across the Prut went to the polls and decided that, in a majority, they prefer Europe more and more, as much Europe as possible and they want less and as close to zero as possible of Russia.
In order for Sunday’s legislative elections to take place properly and for the result of the election to be able to defeat Moscow’s attempts to shape it according to the whim of the Kremlin, the authorities in Chisinau, a significant part of the press and civil society in the Republic of Moldova, as well as the Western strategic partners of this small country, made colossal efforts and worked round the clock.
At the same time, give Caesar what is Caesar’s! The Russian Caesar must also be rightfully given what belongs to him. Through the violence it used to implement its repressive policies and total control at the domestic level, as well as through the shamelessness and aggressiveness with which it tried to export its model to the Republic of Moldova, the Kremlin has offered a sufficient number of Moldovans a sufficient number of reasons to remain lucid, to understand what is at stake and to know what they need to do on the day of the vote.
Like any absolutist regime, the Putin regime is also a rather simplistic one. So, despite the background noise with which it bombards his targets, it actually ends up helping his targets discern organic truths, to make the choices that really suit him.
For example, through what he is doing at home right now – see points 1, 2 and 3 – and through what he has tried his best in the Republic of Moldova, even if only in the last four years, Putin has practically facilitated the deliberation process for Moldovans. It has made it easier for them to decide their path among the options they have: a future in a country that resembles a barbaric mix of soft Stalinism and full-blooded North Korea or a country integrated into the EU.
As one in five Moldovans, approximately, lives or works in the European Union area, how this percentage seriously multiplies horizontally if we take into account those at home (who live from them and who are inspired by their model), and if we add the Moldovans who live or work in the United Kingdom, Turkey or Israel – countries fundamentally different from the Russian-North Korean model proposed by Putin – are becoming easier and easier to explain why Moldovan voters resisted so well in Sunday’s legislative elections. And this, despite the titanic effort of the Russian dictator to sell them poisoned apples cheaply.
On Sunday, in the Republic of Moldova, Putin practically lost with his own hands. He lost because of what he essentially represents. He lost because the story he tells through what happens every day in his country was stronger than the fairy tales that his propagandists sell to other countries.
Moldovans have proven (once again) that in the end it is enough to look at how people live in Russia and what Russia really means, to initially become suspicious and then even deaf to everything that Putin claims to be Russia and everything that his propaganda spreads.
Putin’s reality really beats Putin’s fiction – and Moldovans have shown the whole world that things are not and cannot be otherwise.
Romanians and the authorities in Bucharest only have to pay attention and take notes from what happened on Sunday over the Prut.
Once, because we are also subjected to the same type of hybrid war orchestrated by Moscow. And the second time, since on the domestic political scene there are enough elements that, under the cover of the “sovereignist-nationalist” label, have tried to sell out their compatriots and brothers alike, cultivating and amplifying the confusion; and all this, for the benefit of soft Stalinism and the thoroughbred North Korean model, promoted by the Kremlin and in plain sight, and subversively. And aggressive.
