Tag: tension

  • February 8, 2022

    February 8, 2022

    COVID-19 36,269 new SARS-CoV-2 infections were
    reported for the past 24 hours in Romania, along with 193 related fatalities,
    the Strategic Communication Group announced on Tuesday. Since the start of the
    pandemic 2 years ago, more than 2 million Romanians have had the disease and
    over 60,000 died. Meanwhile, since the start of the vaccine roll-out in
    December 2020, over 8 million people have received a full vaccination cycle,
    and 2.4 million have also got the booster dose.


    MOLDOVA
    The number of supporters of
    the R. of Moldova’s union with Romania is growing, according to an opinion poll
    quoted by Radio Chişinău on Tuesday. Over 34%
    of the respondents in Moldova would vote in favour of the union, says the poll
    commissioned by IDIS Viitorul in Chișinău and the Institute of Political
    Sciences and International Relations with the Romanian Academy. This is a
    record-high number of union supporters, over 10 times higher than in 2010. According
    to the same poll, which focused on citizens’ perception of the relations
    between Moldova and Romania, over 62% of the people with dual citizenship would
    vote for the union. However, in the case of new tensions similar to the one in
    Ukraine, more people would back a military alliance with Russia (22.5%) than
    with Romania (12.5%).




    POLITICS The Prosecutor General’s Office announced on Tuesday that a criminal
    investigation was initiated with respect to an incident in Parliament, where
    the Romanian energy minister Virgil Popescu was assaulted by the co-president
    of the nationalist opposition party AUR, George Simion. Popescu had previously filed
    a criminal complaint against Simion. While attending a Chamber of Deputies
    meeting on Monday, the Liberal minister Virgil Popescu was insulted and
    assaulted by Simion. The meeting was suspended, and subsequently resumed with only
    the opposition MPs from AUR and USR in attendance.


    POLLUTION Romanian authorities have today launched 2 programmes, RABLA Clasic and
    RABLA Plus 2022, with a combined budget of around 240 million euros. Under the
    2 programmes, the Government provides subsidies for scrapping old and heavily
    polluting motor vehicles. The same rules apply as in previous years, but
    novelties have also been introduced. One of them is the option of using 2
    vouchers obtained through scrapping used vehicles for the purchase of a hybrid
    or electric vehicle.


    UKRAINE The president of France Emmanuel Macron discussed with the Russian
    leader Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Monday about the need for dialogue in the
    context of the Ukraine standoff. At the end of the meeting, Emmanuel Macron said
    all parties should behave responsibly in this crisis. He pleaded for
    maintaining the current system of agreements concerning European security, and
    suggested that a system of concrete security guarantees be put together for all
    stakeholders. In turn, Putin said a number of ideas and proposals put forth by
    the French president may pave the way for the de-escalation of the current
    crisis over Ukraine. Vladimir Putin also added that Russia and France have
    shared concerns regarding security in Europe. Today the French president meets
    his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv, in the first official
    visit of a French president to that country in 24 years. Macron has repeatedly
    discussed the need to deescalate tensions and to find diplomatic solutions to
    the situation in the east of Europe, and emphasised that finding a political
    way out of the standoff was his priority. Meanwhile in Washington, following
    talks at the White House with the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, US president
    Joe Biden said diplomacy remains the best way to settle the Ukraine crisis. He warned
    however that the US and NATO will be prepared in case Russia attacks Ukraine. (tr. A.M.P.)

  • Tension is mounting along Romania’s neighboring borders

    Tension is mounting along Romania’s neighboring borders


    The build-up of Russian forces
    along Ukrainians borders has been extremely carefully monitored as of late,
    amid fears that Moscow could prepare a sweeping attack, to be launched in January
    next year, most likely. Russia has already strengthened its presence in the
    region with tanks and almost 100,000 military. The military deployment is ongoing,
    and tension is mounting. What we failed to carry through in 2014, we’re now prepared
    to achieve, the White House leader warned his counterpart in Kremlin. The US
    president pointed to the likelihood of Russia invading Ukraine yet again, which
    is quite similar to the invasion that resulted in Russia illegally annexing
    Crimea. As part of a secured video conversation Joe Biden had with Vladimir
    Putin, the US President cautioned that, should Russia invade Ukraine for a second
    time around, the US and the European allies will respond with strong economic
    sanctions. Washington is set to supply Ukraine with more defensive equipment, while the allies’
    position along NATO ‘s eastern flank will be strengthened. On the other side,
    Vladimir Putin stated his army threatened nobody. Putin has also called for guarantees
    to be offered, whereby NATO would not expand to the East, that is to Ukraine. Moscow
    has accused NATO of the swift destruction of Europe’s security architecture, that
    including the anti-missile shield in Romania and Poland. Moscow also accused NATO
    of having deployed its military infrastructure as far as the Russian borders. As
    a guest on a Radio Romania International programme, Professor Alba Popescu of the
    National Defense University gave details on the geo-political context in the
    region.


    Dr Alba Popescu:

    In fact,
    the underlying cause is the localization of this region from a geographical
    perspective, the so-called Ponto-Baltic isthmus some of geography specialists
    say it is Europe’s real border. A strip of land between the Baltic Sea’s southern
    coast and the northern coast of the Black Sea, between the Moravian gate-way
    and the Caucasus Mountains, which, from a geopolitical perspective, make a buffer
    area lying between the power which for centuries has been controlling Eurasia’s
    centrality area and which now bears the name of the Russian Federation, and, on
    the other side, the dominant powers of Atlantic Europe. A space which,
    geographically, is dominated by the flatlands which make the Russian
    Federation’s western frontier. Hence the problem, since it is the federation’s
    most vulnerable frontier. Furthermore, it is a space of a tremendous
    geo-strategic value because it is a territory that can turn into a barrier or
    into a gateway capable of facilitating or, on the contrary, stemming the flows
    between Europe and Asia, between the northern and the southern part of the
    continent. So it is a space, which, in geopolitical and geostrategic terms, is
    called a pivotal space, a hub and a nexus, geoeconomically and geopolitically,
    so it is Eurasia’s most valuable space from a geostrategic perspective.


    In Moscow’s terms, if the
    confrontational drift is to be prevented, the imperious condition is that
    of the long-term security guarantees with a mandatory legal value, whereby, for
    the future, any expansion of NATO towards the east is ruled out, as well as the
    deployment along the Russian borders of weaponry capable of threatening Russia’s
    security. Moscow’s stance to that end is closely linked to Russia’s security
    ring. Here is Professor Alba Popescu once again, explaining all that.


    Dr Alba Popescu:

    The security ring is made of
    those state and aquatic massifs surrounding Russia, that terrestrial colossus which
    is ring-shaped, so to speak. The Russians believes that security ring to be a
    space where their influence is exerted by default, it is a space of a vital and
    strategic importance for them. So everything getting
    closer to their frontier is viewed as a direct threat. Therefore, that security
    ring is the red line. The states of the security ring include Ukraine, then
    there are also the trans-Caucasian states, Moldova, Belarus. All those states are part of the security ring. Consequently,
    whenever Russia detects an advancement or an attempt from those states to stray
    away from the Russian influence and place themselves under the Western influence,
    Russia would take action under such circumstances. And, as we have seen it
    before, it was quick to take action to that effect in the 1990s. After the empire
    was dismantled, it orchestrated all those conflicts, which are frozen and
    reactivated periodically, as we could see. We’ve seen that happening in Ukraine
    as well, we also saw it happening in Georgia, in Nagorno-Karabakh…So things are
    developing on a large scale in the region. And all that has to do with Russia’s
    impending objective, a strategic objective, with a by now historical tradition,
    that of dominance in the region, which, as early as Tsar Peter
    the 1st’s reign, has been one of the eastern power’s set targets and which
    today are materialized in the hybrid action the Russian Federation takes in the
    Ponto-Baltic region. In the Pontic region, where we are, and, of course, in the
    Baltic region, where the targets are different, the Baltic States, then there
    are also Poland and Sweden. So that’s what that type of behaviour is about, a
    type of behaviour which has become increasingly aggressive, actually.


    The
    conflict in Ukraine won’t be sorted out, as far as I’m concerned, says Alba
    Popescu. Russia does not have any interest whatsoever, neither to rekindle it, in
    the coming period, or to sort it out, one way or another, with Ukraine having
    to remain in that grey area, alongside the other states. According to NATO, the
    very idea is unacceptable, whereby Russia can have its own sphere of influence,
    says NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. The very idea of bringing up such an issue
    prompts us to enhance our vigilance, such an idea is unacceptable, the idea
    whereby Russia could have its spheres of influence there. That might mean we must
    effectively admit that Russia can control what its neighbouring states can do, despite the fact that those states are sovereign states, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg went on to say.


    (Translation by Eugen Nasta)

  • Who is going to be PM of Moldova?

    Who is going to be PM of Moldova?

    Maia Sandu’s victory in last years presidential election reopened the European path for the small ex-Soviet state with a majority Romanian-speaking population, neighboring Romania. And the first gestures and actions of the new leader in Chisinau, including the reception of the Romanian President, Klaus Iohannis, have confirmed her intention to re-establish ties with Bucharest and Brussels, which were practically suspended during the previous socialist government. However, the enthusiasm caused by her election subsided in the face of analyzes that showed that, in the context of a hostile parliament and limited constitutional powers, Maia Sandu will find it difficult, if not impossible, to succeed in her reforming approach. The solution would be early elections, followed by the installation of a Government that should be her partner. For now, this scenario seems quite unlikely.



    On Tuesday, the Constitutional Court of Moldova declared unconstitutional the decree by which Maia Sandu once again appointed Natalia Gavriliţă to form a new Government. The court also called on parliamentary groups and the presidency to have new consultations for the appointment of a prime minister, especially since the head of state did not nominate a candidate backed by a parliamentary majority. Maia Sandu had announced on February 11, after consultations with parliamentary groups, that she had once again proposed Natalia Gavriliţă, already rejected, once, as the candidate for the position of prime minister, practically forcing the possibility of holding early elections.



    Following the Courts ruling, Maia Sandu compared the current situation in the Republic of Moldova with that at the end of 2015, when the former Democratic leader Vlad Plahotniuc created a parliamentary majority close to him and the President Nicolae Timofti was forced to nominate a candidate from that majority to the position of Prime Minister. Maia Sandu continues to plead for early parliamentary elections and asked the deputies, “who are not caught in the mafia network”, to go that way. President Maia Sandu believes that there is no majority in the current Parliament to support the fight against corruption and has expressed skepticism over the MPs’ intention to get the country out of the crisis. “Their so-called majority has nothing to do with saving the country. The country must be saved from thieves ” said the Moldovan President.



    From the opposite side, the Socialists leader, the former President Igor Dodon, accused Sandu of having seriously violated the Constitution and called on her to immediately issue the decree appointing a legal candidate the prime minister position, recalling that the majority formed around the Socialists did have a proposal for prime minister. Otherwise, the Socialists threaten with protests.



    According to a recent opinion poll in Chisinau, 42% of the respondents believe that, in the current political situation, the main priority was the formation of a new government and 39% are in favor of early elections. (tr. L. Simion)