The country desperately wants to go to Europe, but Lenin still has his place. The Republic of Moldova has been an official candidate for accession to the European Union since last year, but in the south of the republic lies the autonomous region of Gagauzia, which doesn’t really want to follow suit and prefers to maintain excellent relations with Russia. In the regional capital Comrat there is a large statue of the founder of the Soviet state, there is Lenin Street, Victory Street, Tankers Street, Komsomol Street. In Gagauzia, Brussels seems like a distant cosmos.
On Sunday, the people of Gagauzia elected a new head of government because Irina Vlah, the previous governor, is stepping down after eight years. In Gagauzia this post is called Başkan. Since none of the eight candidates (one female, seven candidates) received an absolute majority, the decision in a runoff election between Yevgenia Guzul and Grigory Usun will be made on May 14. However, Gagauzia’s course will not depend on this: both are considered pro-Russian.
Close ties with Moscow are traditional in Gagauzia, but times have changed with Russia’s brutal campaign against Ukraine. The Republic of Moldova borders Ukraine and has felt particularly vulnerable since the beginning of the war at the latest. Rocket debris landed in the country a couple of times. The Moldovan government has therefore asked the West for help with defense and airspace surveillance. An area in their own country that is extremely difficult to deal with in this explosive situation is now a special reason for the Moldovan government to be vigilant.
Moldova’s course towards the EU should not be endangered
Moldova’s President Maia Sandu wants to avoid the Gagauzia region becoming a source of unrest and destabilizing the entire country with Russian help. And in the end endangered the EU course. A few days before the vote in Gagauzia, Sandu accused Russia of interfering in Moldova’s internal affairs. Several of the Gagauz candidates are agents of Moscow and not politicians acting for the benefit of Gagauzia, she said. Russia wants to “create chaos and prevent our European path”.
Shortly before the elections on Sunday, Moldova refused a Russian delegation entry and thus a planned visit to Gagauzia. The head of the delegation should be the governor of the Russian Republic of Tatarstan, which, like Gagauzia, belongs to the Turkic peoples.
It was noticeable that Russia reacted years ago to the Republic of Moldova’s EU course with an import boycott of Moldovan food and Moldovan wine, but continued to allow imports from Gagauzia. The outgoing governor, Irina Vlah, also initially said she was firmly on Russia’s side, but was then obviously shocked by Russia’s war of aggression against its Ukrainian neighbor. She recently posted many European projects, kindergartens built by the West and newly created jobs on her Twitter account.
But now? There was never even a pro-European candidate in Gagauzia. Yevgeniya Guzul and also Grigory Usun, who made it into the run-off election for mid-May on Sunday, make no secret of the fact that they are aiming for closer ties with Russia. They reject clear integration with the EU. It was downright “absurd,” said Guzul, that the Moldovan government proudly emphasized that exports to Russia had fallen by 30 percent.
Usun is supported by the Socialist Party, while Yevgenia Guzul is the candidate of the Shor Party, which Moldova is suspected of having organized mass protests against President Maia Sandu with the help of Russia. If Yevgenia Guzul wins, the Shor party promised it would invest half a billion euros in Gagauzia and create thousands of jobs. Entrepreneur Ilan Shor himself was sentenced three weeks ago by a Moldovan appeals court to 15 years in prison for money laundering and fraud. In absentia, because he lives in Israel. Apparently, none of this bothered the voters in Gagauzia.