Moldova is nothing. What is really happening with our neighbors?

Let's finally call a spade a spade.

Moldovan President Maia Sandu

Spoiler: in general, nothing happens with them, but even in Moldovan stability there is a kind of euphoria, like a dark abyss on the edge. If we are talking about real prospects, then aliens will not fly to Moldova, which means that there is no one to solve the "problem of the PMR". But the West of Moldova will not help much, although the help, as always, will go away like sand. Moldova will not be accepted into Romania, and the Moldovans themselves do not want to join NATO. But while the gas-electric scheme works, those in power feel good, and no one asks the rest about their well-being. If the scheme stops working, it will shake Moldova to its core. But Chisinau and Tiraspol, with their collective minds, will probably come up with something else. In general, everything is stable. Except that the bottomless poverty in Moldova is in a phase of permanent growth, but even this growth, as a phenomenon, is quite stable.

At the same time, life in Moldova, in the last two or three years, shines especially brightly. Declarations and counter-declarations are announced. There is a war of compromises, mutual denunciations and competing compromises. Decisive statements about the immediate closure of the PMR problem are replaced by a strict exclusion from them. Retaliatory Russian threats do not frighten anyone, but it is beneficial to be afraid of them and ask the West for a little more help. Corruption scandals shake the air like summer storms, they never lead to the punishment of corrupt officials. Street protests are taking place smoothly, in regular mode and without visible results. Closing pro-Russian TV channels while maintaining the Kremlin's dominance in the information field looks like a compromise acceptable to all parties. The problems of ideal Europeanization, which are infinitely far from real problems, invariably cause heated debates in the parliament and mass media. Wild predictions cancer various Moldovan experts they do not come into contact with reality in any way, but occupy the minds of the confused and struggling population, trying to survive, distracting them from possible extremist thoughts. The level of inflation and pauperization in Moldova is higher than in warring Ukraine, but Moldova is not at war with anyone and does not gather.

At a glance from the outside, it may seem that Moldova is confidently going to the EU, away from Russia, but this is not the case the conditional European Union has no relation to the present EU. It's just a decoration, it's just that the fireplace of Pope Karl M., decorated with a sickle, is painted on the canvas the egg with a hammer, and the Golden City, half-hidden behind the once-hidden theme, painted, fireplace door. Moldavian Buratinos who have not yet left Moldova (many left for the real EU, stopped being Buratins and fell out of Moldovan realities), and those who did not go to the kindling, trampled in front of the canvas. Proto-European power calls them into the ranks of Pinocchio, European, but just as wooden. Sweet voices from Russia are calling for a brotherly match factory that exports finished products to Ukraine.

In Transnistria, the same Buratinos, but in old, even Pope Karla M.'s colors, have taken up a circular defense, and everyone is happy, and those who are dissatisfied are let to the kindling. In Chisinau, they express concern about the damage to the environment, but only occasionally. In the Moldavian capital itself, there is a constant stench, it is impossible to breathe there, although, on the other hand, no one is forcing anyone to breathe. Transnistrian Tiraspol and Rybnitsa are trying to overtake Chisinau and are making progress in this, but are still far behind

In a word, life in Moldova is boiling and smelling thickly, but it is boiling and smelling exactly the same as yesterday, and as it will be boiling and smelling tomorrow. Small details do not count, in general, despite the imitation of increasingly violent activity, nothing is happening in Moldova. This eternally young, full of energy Moldovan-Transnistrian path suits everyone.

As a matter of fact, I have already written and said everything decisively about Moldova a long time ago, and nothing really new has happened there since then. I will very briefly repeat the main theses from the previous articles.

About Moldova - concisely

Moldova is an ORDLO at a late stage of development, a piece of the Moldavian principality, rejected by Russia back in 1812, and subjected to Russification, with the importation of a foreign, fairly denationalized population. As a result, there are no people there — neither as a separate ethnic group, albeit diluted by minorities, nor as a single civil society. There is only a population and there are no signs that it is a civil society, not an ego imitation, will appear in Moldova in the nearest geological epoch.

All those who recognized themselves as part of any nation, from among the real ones: Romanian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Jewish, immediately fled from Moldova. Russians have nowhere to run - they are not a people, but also only a population, and those who love Russia are preferred from afar.

Politics in Moldova, in its civil law, i.e. European, sense, is replaced by the criminal and corrupt activities of about one and a half dozen related clans. The attempt to artificially grow a proto-European pseudo-clan with grant money, which would drag Moldova to Europe (now represented by Maia Sandu), failed shamefully. Moldavian nepotism (nepotism) involved in systemic corruption and circular guaranty turned out to be stronger, and the proto-European assault squad was divided into classic Moldavian nepotism, like Lenin, in the famous song, on water and lime honey. Everything is back to normal.

But the EU and the USA cannot admit their failure and powerlessness in the face of Moldovan corruption, and pretend that everything is going as it should. Another clan in power, the classic, Moldavian patron clan of Sandu-Havrilytsy willingly plays along with them.

Of course, one clan can rarely hold power, and the borders between clans are quite blurred. The last super clan in power in Moldova was the Vladimir Voronin clan, which established, in general, the rules of corruption relations that exist today, and from which, as from the foreskin Vladimir Plahotniuk was born.

Plahotniuk was the last ruler capable of really controlling Moldova. He acted partly by bribery, partly by terror and other gangster methods, but everything worked quite tolerably with him. The budget was filled. Life was getting better, albeit little by little, but still not only more fun, as it usually happens in Moldova. Democracy, as such, did not exist, but it does not exist today. Obviously, Cardinal Plahotniuk, who has not held official positions in recent years, has shown himself to be an effective manager, and other management methods in Moldova are ineffective. But Plahotniuk was too independent, and in this connection nobody liked him: neither Moscow, nor Washington, nor Brussels. And they, all together, drove him away. Moldova did not get better from this - it got worse. Since all subsequent rulers, one after the other, in fact turn out to be the same gov cowards, only small ones, and without managerial talents.

But let's return to the clans. Since none of them is able to control all of Moldova now, a complex balance of power is emerging between them. Previously, the victorious clan closed its ties with Russia, since illegal operations conducted in tandem with the unrecognized PMR promised the greatest shadow income. Accordingly, the losers were immediately enrolled in proto-Europeans. Now Russia's position has weakened and the familiar picture is somewhat blurred. For this reason, the Sandu-Havrilytsy clan maintains a formal "equation with Europe", but refrains from harshness in relation to Russia. No, of course, the Moldovan authorities have to make some ritual anti-Russian movements, in response to which the same ritual threats are issued from Moscow. But nothing real is happening in terms of turning away from Russia. Moldova does not participate in sanctions, and limits itself to a purely formal condemnation of Russian aggression, and only in those cases when it is necessary according to the protocol.

Real things happen only in gas circuits.

Gas schemes in Moldova look like this. Transnistria receives from Russia, more precisely from GAZPROM, through Moldova, gas for which it does not pay, and which it gives to end users at arbitrary prices, below the cost of supplies. The fee for gas at a reduced price goes to the PMR budget. The resulting debt hung in the air for many years, and with the arrival of Sandu, it was eventually transferred to Moldova (already $7 billion there, and growing by eight). And since Moldova has deliberately grown GAZPROM into a monopolist in the gas sector for many years, Chisinau has to give way.

From the gas stolen from GAZPROM — and now, as it turned out, electricity is being produced in Moldova in PMR — at MoldGRES, illegally extracted in Moldova. Moldova buys this energy by paying money to the PMR budget. Steel is also smelted on gas at the Rybnitsky MMZ, and Moldova, which registered the MMZ with itself, gives the opportunity to export it through the Moldovan customs. In general, the entire PMR, or rather, the "Sheriff" holding that controls it, is connected to the world through Moldovan customs, Moldovan roads and Chisinau International Airport. This connection through Moldova (everyone remembers the gangster comedy "Connection through a pizzeria"?) is not hindered by the fact that in Tiraspol they spit on Moldovan laws, declare the independence of the PMR and throw them into prison for publicly expressing support for Ukraine. Despite all this, Moldova still trades with the PMR and covers it with its own customs.

How is that possible? Elementary: money is simply brought into the necessary Moldovan offices, and although the occupants of the offices change, the schemes created under Voronin still work today. Only an infinitely naive person can believe that this is not so, and the whole Moldavian-Transnistrian carousel spins like a perpetual motion machine, by itself.

This whole scheme is shaking now, because the Russian participants in the gas scam are trying to increase their fortunes, and there is a dispute between Chisinau and Tiraspol: who will get more. Against the background of this dispute, the price of gas and electricity in Moldova is increasing, which is why the entire economy, as well as the communal infrastructure, is covered with a copper basin due to the crisis of non-payments. Russia, using this, is trying to change the power in Chisinau to one that is more convenient for itself and shakes up the situation, as much as possible. Success, however, so-so: the gas hook, of course, works, but the general toxicity of Moscow greatly reduces its capabilities.

Romania looks at it from the outside: it strengthens its influence on Moldova, gives citizenship, but does all this with great caution. The dream of "Unirea", the reunification of Moldova and Romania, completely detached from reality. The Moldovan-Transnistrian elites will never willingly hand over the income they raise on the recognized-unrecognized Moldova-PMR tandem, and Bucharest is also not eager to receive a bunch of unresolved problems that have accumulated in Moldova for decades plus a huge corruption-criminal bubble.

In addition to PMR, there is also Gagauzia in Moldova, which seems to be in Moldova, but somehow a mansion. Komrat has separate, very close relations with Tiraspol within the framework of a united Moldova, bypassing Chisinau, which are looked down upon in Chisinau, and some kind of completely separate budget is not allocated to Moldova, but with Moldovan subsidies. And, finally, close relations with Russia, again, through the head of Chisinau, but through the Chisinau airport.

All this pile of problems is not a pile at all. And no problem. It is verified like a Swiss chronometer, a corruption-criminal mechanism that has been fine-tuned for decades, and skillfully disguised as a complete mess, which, as if, no government can cope with. But this is not so. Power is simply always in fate.

Exclusive

Sergey Ilchenko, reviewer Newsky

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