Moldova Matters!
Another European country kills democracy to head West.
On Sunday, the small country of Moldova is holding important local elections that are expected to bolster pro-EU President Maia Sandu for the national elections in 2024. It’s not a fair fight.
If you don’t know about this country, and are too distracted by Israel, Ukraine and insane USA politics, then start with my link below (it’s an easy read).
BANNING THE OPPOSITION
Many Moldovans, wanting to resist the creep of their country towards becoming part of Romania, supported the pro-Russian and Euroskeptic Shor Party, the loudest opposition to President Maia Sandu.
Under Sandu, who has dual citizenship with Romania (and is seen by many as a key figure in Romanianization), the Shor Party was accused of being subversive and banned in June this year.
Shor’s lawmakers were told they would be allowed to act as independents but were barred from running for 5 years. They appealed, and won in October, gaining permission for ex-members to run as independents or for another party in the local elections this Sunday.
CONTROLLING THE NEWS
“The head of the Moldovan Information and Security Service SIS, Alexandru Musteata, told media on Monday that he has signed an order to block 31 websites for spreading pro-Russian disinformation”.
He never provided evidence.
He never banned Western outlets spreading pro-EU propaganda.
He deprived 14% of the population of most news in their language, that article playing with words to reduce the number affected to only “4% ethnic Russians”, thus excluding most rural Moldovans who speak Russian.
The situation is aggravated by the Moldovan parliament, in March this year, voting to replacing the phrase "Moldovan language" with "Romanian language" in all legislation.
WHAT IS EUROPEAN DEMOCRACY?
Undoubtedly, there’s a battle for the minds of Moldovans, but how that’s approached cannot be called fair and legal if it only benefits one side of a political spectrum.
In a Constitutional democracy, citizens have the right to run for office, choose their own identity, speak the language they want, or listen to the news of their choice. That they can’t suggests that Romanianization is real, and that Romanianization is part of the plan for Moldova to be enveloped by the West and become another border against Russia.
That’s emphasised by the EU and USA supporting Sandu instead of criticising democracy being challenged. Instead, Sandu claims she’s defending democracy, a duplicitous strategy that has worked well for the USA as it invades and interferes in foreign countries globally.
RUSSIA LAMBASTS MOLDOVA’S PRESIDENT
Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for Russia's foreign ministry, made a statement regarding many geopolitical issues. It’s an interesting but long speech so I’ve only extracted the relevant section from Karl Sanchez’s website, wherein she condemns Moldova’s election toxicity and castigates President Sandu.
We are closely monitoring the situation on the eve of the general local elections, which will be held in 898 localities and municipalities of Moldova on November 5. The election campaign is in full swing, candidates are presenting their programs and fighting for votes.
The central authorities of the Republic are also actively involved in this process, but in their own way. The main "slogan" of the Moldovan leadership remains the thesis of a non-existent "Russian threat", which is used to divert attention from its own managerial failure.
Moldova's State of Emergency Commission and the Intelligence and Security Service continue to purge the country of any manifestations of dissent, using repression against political opponents who have already reached an extreme point.
On October 30, the authorities suspended the licenses of six TV channels for allegedly "promoting foreign interests." Moldovan President Maia Sandu is a Romanian citizen, and Russian channels promote the interests of other countries? Is everything okay with logic? A Romanian citizen, being the leader of Moldova, renamed the Moldovan language to Romanian. But are Russian channels "promoting foreign interests"? Some kind of looking glass. People can't be so sure that any fake can pass.
The Moldovan authorities have blocked 31 information portals. All of them are allegedly "used in the information war against the Republic of Moldova" and "distort information". Let me remind you that a few days earlier, on October 24 of this year, 22 Russian-language news websites were blocked.
Moldova itself has already assessed these steps. They were called a desecration of the media space, another attack on independent media and freedom of speech. It is indicative that even local pro-Western non-governmental organizations expressed concern about what was happening and called for an assessment of the proportionality of such interference in the media sphere. At the same time, these and other gross violations by Chisinau of its international obligations in the field of protecting the rights of the media – a form of desecration of the very principles of pluralism of opinions and freedom of access to information – in the usual manner do not receive any reaction from the relevant international structures. We understand why. These international structures, including the OSCE with its "package" of authorized and specialized bodies, work only "for the sake of appearance". They just continue to be called so, receive a lot of money, go on business trips, use their mandates (it's not clear why), go to canteens. Where is the odious OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Timo Ribeiro? It used to be said that they were engaged in "quiet diplomacy". Only the results of this pseudo-activity are loud, scandalous, "screaming".
The Moldovan authorities do not stop at the infringement of freedom of speech. On October 29 this year, the candidate for mayor of Chisinau from the Party of Communists, D. Caraman, was denied the right to participate in televised debates only because she spoke Russian. This is despite the fact that 80% of Moldovans know and constantly use the Russian language. Insanity is different, let's go back to language. You can't speak Russian. Why? Six months ago, it was impossible, because you have to speak Moldovan. And now in Romanian? Where will they go from there?
What is this if not discrimination on the basis of language and violation of the basic principles of democracy, human rights and freedoms?
I recently learned that the sign language used for people with disabilities (who are deaf) has national schools. I believed that it was the same, that people everywhere understood it identically. It turned out that it wasn't. Just as there are different languages, there are total differences between sign language in different countries. If sign language originates from our country, Soviet or Russian schools, will it also be subject to total discrimination?
I talked to representatives of non-governmental organizations that deal with the rights and opportunities of people with hearing disabilities. Such discrimination already exists. Can you imagine what the world has come to? So many days, statements, press releases, NGOs have been created over the past decades to protect people's rights. Each aspect has received its own design in the form of everything (videos, resolutions, special holidays), but in practice it is the opposite. People are being deprived of their rights every hour. This is done by countries that are members of organizations that have worked on human rights issues.
How does this fit in with President Maia Sandu's promises (when she was still a candidate) to preserve the position of the Russian language in the country? Not at all. She deceived the people. She said that she would develop the harmonious coexistence of people of different cultures, languages, ideas and views on the territory of Moldova. All this has come to a state of persecution on national, ethnic and ideological grounds.
Interestingly, the Russophobic orientation of the domestic political course of the Moldovan leadership has significantly intensified after Chisinau received the status of a candidate for EU membership. Why? Because Brussels does not need states in the EU whose citizens have a good attitude towards Russia. Another "homework" for Maia Sandu is how best to curry favor with the West. It was necessary to strengthen Russophobia in the country. But it doesn't exist and never existed. This is an artificially created breeding ground of a nationalist nature, coming from the current leadership of Moldova. No one in the country (if we are talking about the overwhelming majority of citizens) has ever experienced or professed such approaches. Maia Sandu is a disgrace and a threat to the Moldovan people.
According to this president, the European integration of the Republic is possible without Transnistria, that is, in parts, outside the framework of the country's territorial integrity. She also said that in order to solve the Transnistrian problem, it is necessary to get rid of the self-proclaimed authorities in Tiraspol and break the established "5+2" negotiation format, excluding Russia from it and strengthening the role of the EU. Such statements are extremely dangerous for maintaining stability in the region. Maybe she doesn't understand. Although I believe that she understands and does exactly what they want her to do – another chaos in the post-Soviet space.
Legal arbitrariness, rabid Russophobia, repressions against the media and the opposition have become the norm for the Moldovan authorities. This is also seen by the people of Moldova, who remember the promises made by M.G.Sand before her election, and know perfectly well that no one gave her a mandate for such lawlessness.
It will be interesting to see how the monitoring missions, in particular the OSCE/ODIHR, will assess what is happening. Will they see the blocking of channels, the cleansing of the information and political space? How will it be presented?
Non-admission of a number of Russian OSCE observers to elections in Moldova
On October 30 of this year, the OSCE/ODIHR notified that the Moldovan authorities had denied accreditation to six Russian short-term observers as part of the organization's monitoring mission to the local elections on November 5. This decision was announced just one day before the start of their work. No reasons were given. ODIHR does what it wants.
Earlier, also without explanation, the Moldovan authorities denied accreditation to the employees of the Russian Embassy in Chisinau as observers from the diplomatic mission.
Of course, we have always emphasised that inviting international observers is an internal affair of the state.
At the same time, the Republic of Moldova is bound by a number of international obligations related to the observation of elections. For example, according to the 2002 Convention on Standards of Democratic Elections, Electoral Rights and Freedoms in the CIS Member States, it undertook to "strive to facilitate the access of international observers to electoral processes conducted at a lower level than the national level, up to the municipal (local) level." A similar obligation is contained in the 1990 Copenhagen Document of the CSCE, which has been repeatedly reaffirmed in subsequent decisions of the Organization. If President of Moldova Maria Sandu has decided to withdraw from these commitments, it is necessary to say so.
We regard the decision of the Moldovan authorities as a violation of international obligations and another manifestation of an anti-Russian course.
We hope that all this will not go unnoticed by the OSCE/ODIHR and that appropriate assessments should be made.
On the question of how external interests, goals and objectives are pursued in the internal space of sovereign states. Let me give you a historical example. We keep saying that Maia Sandu is doing this not because the people of Moldova delegated it to her, but because she was ordered from outside.
UPDATE 7 NOVEMBER 2023
Moldovan president's pro-West party wins local elections, loses in big cities, including the capital. Blames Russian interference despite banning Russian-language media and an opposition party (two days before voting began).
Democracy is now D€M0¢π@¢¥. And the most malleable word in the history of language itself.
This doesn't seem very democratic to me.