As Russian President Vladimir Putin continues what increasingly seems to be a policy of expansion couched in a (barely) cocoon of plausible deniability, the question become: after he gets Ukraine, what next? And The Daily Beast’s Josh Rogin has an answer: keep your eye on Moldva, since there are signs Putin is already starting to tinker:
After Sunday’s elections in Ukraine, Vladimir Putin may turn his attention westward toward Moldova, where Russia is sending spies, beaming in propaganda—and threatening economic strangulation. It’s all part of an effort to help the Communists there defeat the Liberal Democratic government.
The name used for this in the 1960s was “subversion,” which Wikipedia defines as ” an attempt to transform the established social order and its structures of power, authority, and hierarchy. Subversion (Latin subvertere: overthrow) refers to a process by which the values and principles of a system in place, are contradicted or reversed.” I personally feel deja vu about this because when I was a student at Colgate University, in the early 70s using a monster computer they held an “Inter Nation Simulation” with students representing countries. I was on the Soviet Union team and we talked democratic reform (this was nearly two decades before the fall of the Berlin Wall) and put tons of resources into subverting other countries while we talked democracy and peace. We really got results (and angered some other students and the people running the simulation). More Rogin:
Russia already has 2,500 troops in Moldova’s breakaway territory Transnistria. But Moscow is also looking to take control of the rest of country by influencing the upcoming November elections, which could topple the current Western-friendly government—and replace it with political parties infiltrated and aligned with Moscow. Ever since the Russian successes in Crimea and eastern Ukraine, Russian interference has only grown; the flow of Russian intelligence forces into Moldova is going up, according to the recently departed prime minister, who is in Washington this week to ask for help…..
“We have seen increased activity of the intelligence forces of the Russia Federation in the Republic of Moldova,” Vladimir Filat, who served as Moldova’s prime minister from 2009 to 2013, told The Daily Beast.
Russian intelligence forces are spread out in Moldova in a variety of ways, according to Filat. They are burrowed into Moldovan political parties, non-governmental organizations, and in pro-Russian media outlets, which barrage Russian-speaking Moldovans with the Kremlin’s talking points 24 hours a day.
“They all have one objective: destabilization in order to ‘prepare’ for the elections in autumn,” he said.
AND:
Russia has imposed an embargo on export of Moldovan wine into Russia and Moscow is threatening a new embargo on fruit exports, Filat said. Moscow is also threatening to cut off the flow of natural gas to Moldova, a country nearly wholly dependent on Russia for energy. Filat said Moldova would not be deterred from its Western trajectory.
“The Republic of Moldova is now in the process of full European integration… It is vital for Moldova. We don’t have any other alternative,” he said. “We have many challenges and most of these challenges involve pressure from Russia.”
So keep an eye on Moldova:
Putin is.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.