Radio România Internațional

Tag: pro-Russian

  • Presidential elections in Moldova

    Presidential elections in Moldova

    Organised in special circumstances dictated by the coronavirus pandemic, Sundays presidential election in the Republic of Moldova, Romanias eastern neighbour and home to a sizeable Romanian-speaking population, brought a major surprise. The pro-Western Maia Sandu, a former prime minister running on behalf of Action and Solidarity Party in opposition, won the largest number of votes in the first round, coming out ahead of the incumbent president, the pro-Russian Igor Dodon by several percentage points.



    Eight candidates were in the race, but none of them got 50% of the votes, so a second round will be held on November 15. So the results announced by the Central Electoral Commission point to a rerun of the ballot held 4 years ago, when the same Igor Dodon and Maia Sandu competed in the second round.



    The former PM, who lobbies for closer ties with the European Union, won over voters by promoting the fight against corruption and accusing her challenger of having obstructed reforms in the judiciary.



    In turn, the incumbent president promises to defend and strengthen Moldovas statehood and a balanced foreign policy in relation to Russia and the European Union. He said Sundays election was fair, free and democratic, although Maia Sandu spoke about election fraud attempts.



    Ranking below were 2 candidates that are competing with Igor Dodon over Moldovas left-wing voters. The controversial mayor of Bălţi, Renato Usatyi, won around 17% of the votes, while Violeta Ivanov, backed by the hideaway businessman Ilan Shors party, got over 6%. The other 4 pro-European candidates, who are in favour of Moldovas uniting with Romania, only won a combined 8% of the votes.



    A record large number of Moldovan citizens, 146,000, voted abroad this year. Of them, nearly 13,000 cast their ballots in the 13 polling stations opened in Romania. In the Republic of Moldova, the turnout was over 1,214,000, including 14,700 from Transdniester.



    A number of incidents were reported in this breakaway region in the east, which has been technically outside Moldovan control since 1992, when an armed conflict killed hundreds of people and was ended by Russias troops moving in to support the separatists. The election day was marred by scandals and petitions filed by several candidates with respect to voters being bused to polls and vote buying in Transdniester. (translated by: A.M. Popescu)

  • Severe political crisis in the Republic of Moldova

    Severe political crisis in the Republic of Moldova

    The pro-Russian Socialist President of the Republic of Moldova Igor Dodon has requested international mediation for the political crisis in Chisinau, one of unprecedented magnitude in the nearly 3 decades since the country declared its independence. Essentially, the 2 sides in the dispute are the Constitutional Court and the incumbent Government formed by the Democratic Party, both of them controlled by the controversial and unpopular tycoon Vladimir Plahotniuc, on the one hand, and President Igor Dodon and the new parliamentary majority, on the other hand.



    This past weekend, the political conflict reached its peak. The Constitutional Court ruled to suspend Igor Dodon, replacing him with the Democratic PM Pavel Filip, and to dismantle the current Parliament. In response, the new parliamentary majority made up of the Socialists and the MPs of the Pro-European right-wing bloc ACUM, voted in a new government, headed by former presidential candidate Maia Sandu.



    The 2 teams exchange accusations of usurping power. Sandu says the Democratic Party blocks the functioning of public institutions, and after the chief of police refused to recognise the authority of the new Interior Minister she urged civil servants to peacefully hand over power. Meanwhile, Plahotniuc took his supporters to the streets and asked them to be prepared to defend public institutions.



    On behalf of neighbouring Romania, President Klaus Iohannis has called on all political forces in Chisinau to respect democracy and the rule of law. Stability is vital if Moldova is to follow through its European accession efforts, translating in a large-scale reform process, including in terms of the rule of law and good governance, reads a news release issued by the Romanian Presidency. The Government of Romania has also announced that it watches closely the political developments in Moldova, and urges all political players in that country to comply with the rules of democracy.



    Brussels, in turn, calls for calm. The European Union stands ready to work with a democratically legitimate government, on the basis of a mutual commitment to reforms and to the core principles enshrined in the Association Agreement, reads a joint statement issued by the EU diplomacy chief Federica Mogherini and the Commissioner for Neighbourhood Policy, Johannes Hahn. Moscow says it is vital for the forces in charge with Moldovas foreign policy to comply with the actual will of the people.



    All these come after 3-and-a-half months of failed attempts at forming a parliamentary majority. In the February 24 legislative elections, the Democratic Party and ACUM bloc each got around one-third of the seats in Parliament. This, analysts noted, reflects the dramatic fragmentation of the Moldovan society between the pro-Russians and pro-Europeans, between the supporters of the fight against corruption and those who favour an oligarchic regime.



    (translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)

  • Romanian-Ukrainian relations

    Romanian-Ukrainian relations

    Just like his predecessor, Traian Basescu, just like the Romanian Government, Parliament and Foreign Ministry, the new head of the Romanian state was adamant in disapproving of the aggressive actions of Russia, which a year ago annexed the Crimean Peninsula in Southern Ukraine and then supported the secessionist revolt in the East of that country.



    President Klaus Iohannis: “Romania stands for EU sanctions to be further imposed on the Russian Federation as long as there is no full compliance with the Minsk ceasefire or if the situation on the ground continues to deteriorate.”



    During his talks with Ukrainian president Petro Porosenko in Kiev, president Iohannis confirmed that Romania also wanted the deepening of Romanian-Ukrainian relations and Ukraine’s EU accession. Actually, president Porosenko thanked president Iohannis for Romania’s support for Ukraine’s European undertaking and recalled that last year, Romania had been the first state to ratify the association and free trade agreements concluded by Ukraine with the EU.


    President Porosenko told the joint press conference that Ukraine had contracts on the delivery of defensive weaponry with 11 EU member states and he wouldn’t mention any state in particular. They also agreed with several countries on the training of Ukrainian military and in Berlin and in Kiev with president Iohannis, they agreed that Ukrainian wounded soldiers undergo treatment in Germany and Romania.



    It will not be the first time when the victims of violence in Ukraine are going to be taken to Romanian hospitals. In early 2014, also for humanitarian reasons, people injured in the crackdown of pro-Western protesters in Kiev by the former pro-Russian regime were admitted to hospitals in Bucharest. Porosenko went on to say that the creation of a direct Kiev-Bucharest airline was being looked into and that issues had been addressed such as cross border traffic and the visa waiver for Ukrainians traveling to Europe.



    They are all confidence-building initiatives. Romanian-Ukrainian relations have not been flawless over time, to mention the Romanian-Ukrainian dispute over the delimitation of the Black Sea continental shelf, which was settled by the International Court of Justice in favour of Romania, the rights of nearly half a million ethnic Romanians living in Western Ukraine, the idea of the former administrations in Kiev to build a man-made canal in the Danube Delta, with serious consequences on the environment and the retrieval of the investment made by Romania in the former Soviet aggregate works in Kirvoi Rog during the communist regime. Ukraine’s pro-Western stance and the adoption of European values in Kiev would benefit Romania too.