Moldova Foreign Ministry expresses alarm at Lavrov’s threatening insinuations about Moldova as new ‘anti-Russia’
In an interview to Russia Today CEO Dmitry Kiselev, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that the West “has got its sights” on Moldova as a country that might “follow Ukraine’s path” by turning into an “anti-Russia.”
Lavrov’s insinuations, particularly about President Maia Sandu and her alleged desire to join NATO, were met with sharp criticism from Moldova’s Foreign Ministry. Its spokesman Daniel Voda underscored how familiar and threatening Lavrov’s language sounded. “It is clear,” he tweeted, that Lavrov’s statements “are part of the already well-known threatening rhetoric of Russian diplomacy.”
Vladimir Putin and other Russian officials have indeed used similar rhetoric to justify the invasion of Ukraine, by presenting Ukraine as an “anti-Russia.”
Moldova’s Foreign Ministry, Voda tweeted,
would like to remind the Russian side that the path that Moldova is taking is the path of joining the European Union. This is a choice supported by our citizens. Moldovans regardless of political or geopolitical preferences want Peace, Freedom, and Democracy. We will appreciate that all countries of the world, including Russia, respect this decision of our people. Moldova has clearly chosen its future, and this future is [to be] part of the free world.
Last June, Moldova and Ukraine were both granted EU candidacy.
