Moldova turns from EU to Russia

[RickHolland]

Moldova’s president has said he would like to scrap his country's EU treaty, and confirmed that he has begun making preparations to join a Russia-led bloc instead.

Igor Dodon, who came to power in December, made the announcement at a press conference with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Tuesday (17 January).

“I believe that the agreement has done Moldova no good," Dodon said, referring to an EU free-trade and political association treaty concluded in 2014.

"We have lost the Russian market and, strangely enough, our exports to the EU have also fallen. In other words, we have received nothing from signing the agreement."

He said that if his Socialist Party won parliamentary elections in 2018, then: “I hope they will get a parliamentary majority and the agreement will be repealed."

Dodon also said he had set wheels in motion to sign a memorandum on cooperation with the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), a Russia-led bloc of six former Soviet states.

He added that he had asked Putin to give Moldova observer status in the EAEU’s Economic Commission.

He called for a new “strategic partnership with Russia” and said that his election, on a pro-Russian ticket, meant that Moldovans were interested in “preserving traditional Orthodox Christian values”.

Dodon has flip-flopped on the EU pact in recent months.

He said on Tuesday that he would visit Brussels in early February to "talk about this with our EU partners".

If Moldova were to scrap the EU treaty, it would mark another reversal for the EU’s policy of aligning itself with former Soviet countries.

The ousted Ukrainian leader, Viktor Yanukovych, rejected an EU treaty in 2013, prompting a popular uprising and Russia’s subsequent invasion.

The Armenian leader, Serzh Sargsyan, in 2013, also opted to join the EAEU instead of signing an EU pact. EU diplomats accused Russia of pressuring Sargsyan into the deal.

Dodon’s claim that Moldova “received nothing” from its EU ties was not borne out by EU figures.

The EU foreign service says Moldovan exports to the EU have grown by 27 percent since it signed the EU free-trade treaty.

It says the EU is spending over €335 million in aid to Moldova between 2014 and 2017.

Moldovan nationals were also granted visa-free access to the EU three years ago.

Read more: https://euobserver.com/foreign/13658...ampaign=buffer