Romania isolated itself from Western partners by supporting oligarch Vlad Plahotniuc, who has controlled politics in the Republic of Moldova for years, says in an interview with debate and analysis platform Contributors.ro Armand Gosu, an expert on politics in Russia and former USSR republics. The way institutions in Bucharest managed relations with Chisinau during these years should lead to a massive shakeup in the security and foreign policy system in Romania, he says.
In the interview, he says Plahotniuc - who fled limelight and abandoned power at the height of a major political crisis in June - had built a network of influence in Romania, with corrupt people, blackmailed individuals and useful idiots. This network contributed decisively to the fact that Romania has failed to properly evaluate the political situation in Moldova, Gosu says in the interview.
Key points in Gosu's interview with Contributors.ro:
- The fact that Moldova PM Maia Sandu pays her first official visit abroad to Romania is aimed at underlying the importance Romania has in the eyes of the new government in Chisinau. It is also aimed at sweetening the pill of Romania's governing party, the Social Democrats, losing their key pawn in Chisinau, oligarch Plahotniuc
- It's summertime and nobody in Brussels has any time for Moldova; Washington is too far; Moscow is too risky to get close to; so they better soothe relations with Bucharest and pretend they forget rivaling stances of the past
- But time is short: Moscow is very active these days, with deputy PM Kozak visiting Chisinau twice in a month; a significant delegation of MPs was invited to Moscow and resulted in possibly higher chances to export agricultural products to Russia; Russian bankers who were involved in money laundering schemes with Plahotniuc have been arested in Moscow; Kremlin scores points these days and not for Moldova's President Igor Dodon and his Socialists, but for Kremlin's own interests.
- A fight for the hearts and minds of the Moldovans is developing. If one goes to Chisinau and speaks to people there, one learns that Russia got rid of Plahotniuc, not anybody else.
