Maria Zakharova Reports on Moldova

During her Weekly Briefing, Maria Zakharova provided several reports on the situation regarding Moldova whose President Maria Sandu is trying to turn in into another Ukraine for the Outlaw US Empire to use against Russia. The situation has steadily worsened over the past six months and will soon reach a critical point. There are several significant Pro-Russian regions within Moldova that are being repressed Ukraine and Baltics-style. I’m also including her report, “Attempt to "cancel" Russian culture in Romania,” since it’s very relevant as the above graphic implies. The final Q&A is sort of a bonus given the very clear black & white response. And now, Maria:

Attempt to "cancel" Russian culture in Romania

For political reasons, the National Film Archive of Romania terminated the lease agreement with our Embassy in Bucharest, which provided for a private screening of the wonderful Russian films "Challenge" and "Time of the First" as part of an educational campaign. These are spectacular and life-affirming films dedicated to the history and modernity of cosmonautics. The decision was pushed through the biased press, led by the local editorial office of Free Europe and the Romanian Ministry of Culture.

This is a typical manifestation of an attempt to "cancel" Russian culture. This fits into the general pattern of actions of the West, which seeks to impose all-encompassing censorship in the fight against dissent. The losers will be the citizens of Romania, film lovers, who have repeatedly expressed interest in showing the mentioned films with translation into Romanian. Now they are deprived of that.

Attempts to pull back the Iron Curtain in world culture are doomed to failure. In turn, Russia is faithful to the principles of creative freedom and remains open to artists from all countries. We will be pleased to get acquainted with the achievements of Romanian cinema during the Moscow International Film Festival, which is starting recently.

Question: On April 8, the population census started in Moldova. From the first days, calls for citizens to identify themselves as Romanians began to be openly voiced in the public space of the country. How would you comment on this?

Answer: This is a story on the level of medieval fairy tales. Many of them later corresponded because they were not kind and bright, but terrible and monstrous, in which it was impossible to believe. What is happening there is some kind of monstrous medieval fairy tale. Let me give you a few facts.

"Live" is a real artificial Romanization of Moldova. Along with Russophobia, it has become one of the foundations of the political course of the republic's leadership, almost all of whose representatives have Romanian passports. Its most odious manifestations are the widely practiced appointment of immigrants from Bucharest to state institutions and the renaming of the Moldovan language into Romanian. Now a new proposal, widely advertised, is to enroll everyone as Romanians.

Moldovan experts openly say that the main goal of the current census is to show that Romanians, not Moldovans, live in Moldova. The results of the previous census in 2014, according to the results of which 75.1% of respondents called themselves Moldovans and only 7% Romanians, the authorities are decidedly not satisfied.

To change this ratio, various propaganda means are used - thematic videos, leaflets, video appeals. Do you know what is the most amazing slogan I've seen? It goes like this: "I'm Romanian. I speak Romanian. Let's fix the statistics." What's that all about? What is this all about? Is it the 21st century? Is this how Moldova's European future is determined? Personally, I only have analogies with the 1930s in Europe. In much the same way, people were forced to renounce their national, cultural, and identity. It is very similar to the recent statement by Romanian Prime Minister Michel Ciolacu that "Romanians live in the Republic of Moldova, only Romanians." How's that?

Supporters of Romanianization openly call on Moldovan citizens to "get out of this "swamp of identity". Can you imagine that people who identify themselves as Moldovans, supporters of this forced Romanianization, are told that they are in the "swamp of their own identity", into which they were allegedly "dragged by force". It is impossible to observe and comment on this. But we are forced to do this only because we understand the catastrophic consequences that all this can lead to. This has happened in history before.

All this causes rejection among Moldovan citizens, who hold on to their roots and remember the history of their country, including the period of the Romanian occupation of 1918-1940. These are poverty, shootings, and a mass outflow of the population. It's impossible to forget.

I will not be surprised if, as a result of everything that is happening now in Romania, as a protest or some kind of attempt to save themselves, the citizens of Moldova formulate what is happening as genocide of the Moldovan people.

Question: On April 9, President of Moldova Maria Sandu said that Moldova, unlike Russia, is a democratic country where the authorities work to ensure that everyone "is free to express their point of view." How would you comment on this?

Maria Zakharova: Let's add statistics. Since 2022, 12 Russian-language TV channels and over 60 Internet resources have been suspended in the republic due to the actions of Maia Sandu under the "state of emergency". As you know, the "state of emergency" expired on January 1, 2024, but no one is going to restore broadcasting. It is obvious that the work of the Moldovan authorities is aimed precisely at limiting or eliminating the possibility of expressing a point of view that differs from the official one.

The Moldovans themselves openly say that the leadership of the republic lives in a parallel universe, perceiving what is happening not through the prism of the real situation in the country, but through the smiles and cash handouts of European officials and countless photo shoots in European offices.

Maia Sandu's visits to Gagauzia on March 29 and April 10 to explain the alleged benefits of European integration to the residents of the region were indicative. The visits were accompanied by mass protests of the Gagauz against the repressive policy of Chisinau towards the autonomy and its head E.A. Hutsul. For the first time, President of Moldova Maria Sandu, who came to the opening of the construction of the Vulcănești-Chisinau power transmission line, preferred to drive around the protesters along country roads, which was perceived as a "shameful flight." On her second visit, she found the courage to speak at the Comrat State University, but only in front of a limited, specially selected audience, while outside the police pushed hundreds of protesters away from the building.

Another example of the Moldovan authorities' isolation from their own people (I am not sure that these are their own people, because the people of the Moldovan leadership are Romanians, and those who have not yet called themselves Romanians are apparently not the people of Maia Sandu) is the story of voting by mail in the presidential elections planned for October. Let me remind you that this right is supposed to be granted only to Moldovan citizens living in the United States, Canada, and a number of Western European countries – Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland. The interests of the many thousands of Moldovan diaspora in Russia are ignored. As Speaker of the Parliament of the Republic I.I. Grosu explained, "the Russian state, allegedly, is not able to "guarantee the security of voting and will interfere in it." How? How?

Chisinau has forgotten that Russia has always provided all the necessary assistance in organizing the voting of Moldovans on its territory. In the 2020 presidential election, 17 polling stations were opened in 10 constituent entities of the Russian Federation. The Moldovan side did not express any complaints in terms of ensuring their safety. What happened this time?

The extent to which the consciousness of representatives of Moldova's political forces is split is evidenced by the statement of one of the deputies from the ruling Action and Solidarity Party, who allegedly jokingly suggested compiling a list of Moldovan politicians visiting Russia in order to "build a special prison for them with European money." As the saying goes, there is no smoke without fire. Moreover, similar initiatives, albeit in a less radical version, have already been expressed. I've never read anything like this in any dystopia that it's worded like that. These are people who consider themselves civilized.

Such an absurd "looking glass", where things that are difficult to imagine in a normal society become reality, cause more and more indignation and protest among Moldovans. Moldovan citizens value political pluralism, true freedom and democracy. They appreciate and see that Maia Sandu's "European project" has nothing to do with these concepts and leads to a split in the country, the destruction of people's national identity and disregard for their rights and freedoms.

Question: What is Russia's attitude to the referendum announced by Moldovan President Maia Sandu on the country's accession to the EU?

Maria Zakharova: Organising a referendum on a particular issue is an internal affair of the state, in this case Moldova.

However, we cannot but be concerned that Russophobia is an integral part of the "European Moldova" project, for which Moldovans are invited to vote in October. Characteristically, the public attacks of Moldovan officials, unfriendly to our country, have become a daily routine. This is not surprising, since the aggressive anti-Russian course of the current leadership in Chisinau is well paid, it is a condition for joining the European Union and cooperation with NATO.

We also see that Maia Sandu's "European project" has nothing to do with democracy, freedom and human rights. On the contrary, it cancels out all this. Repression of the opposition and independent media has unfortunately become the norm in Moldova. Under the guise of European integration, a neoliberal agenda that is alien to them, including non-traditional values, is being imposed on the residents. Taking into account that about 250,000 Russian citizens live on both banks of the Dniester, we cannot but be concerned about this.

The procedure for holding a future referendum also raises questions. Moldovan political analysts note that in the conditions of legal lawlessness, the authorities expect to organize it outside the legal context. In these conditions, there is no need to rely on objectivity in determining the results of the expression of will. The authorities are unlikely to reconcile themselves to the fact that the majority of Moldovans do not accept the listed "attributes of European integration" and do not want their country to turn into a sovereign appendage of the EU and NATO, where they will be treated as second-class citizens. The West demonstrates this on a regular basis.

Question: We have all seen how NATO, led by the United States, took part in the conflict in the Middle East and defended Israel, heard Vladimir Zelensky's statement about protecting Israel (which does not have NATO membership) and did not understand why they are not defending Ukraine either. We remember French President Emmanuel Macron's statement about his readiness to send troops to Ukraine. Does this mean the ability to intervene directly in the conflict, and what will be Russia's reaction?

Maria Zakharova: Who should intervene? NATO?

Just today, I said that you can talk as much as you want about the form, who is interfering and in what form. And there are realities, aggression unleashed by the "collective West", a hybrid war against our country, in which NATO countries are participating, in a national capacity, but based on their own NATO doctrinal guidelines.

We are dealing with reality. Of course, there are legal terms, an international political assessment, but the reality is as follows: we are repelling the aggression of the "collective West," the ideological core of which is NATO. [My Emphasis]

And as usual, the entire briefing is worth reading and is usually available in English two days afterward at the Russian MFA English site, and an archive of them is there to peruse. There was little said this week about Armenia. The Moldovan situation is fraught. NATO/EU and Sandu’s handlers think they can do what the Baltics have done and use Romania to absorb Moldova. And as usual, the Global Majority sees what’s happening giving it even greater motivation to join the BRICS+ team and shun all things Western. IMO, Moldova will get uglier, and we may see an even more direct intervention by Romania that sparks an armed revolt.

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