Amid the reverberations of the tragedy provoked by the War in Ukraine, the spotlight of the international news turns to the leadership of one of the poorest countries in Europe, target of intense political, economic and military challenges.
President of Moldova, Maia Sandu, in the face of threats, is a candidate to win the epithet of the new “iron lady”, following the example of the British Margaret Thatcher (1925-2013).
The former Soviet republic sandwiched between Romania and Ukraine grapples with threats of Kremlin military action and Moscow-backed separatism. At the same time, its fragile economy has deep ties to Russia, which, for example, supplies 100% of the imported gas.
A pile of problems, of course, already challenged the Moldovan government before the fateful February 24, the beginning of the Russian invasion. Maia Sandu promised to bring the country closer to the European Union, fight corruption and reduce the power of groups linked to the Kremlin, but without a definitive break. Reasons: economic vulnerabilities and the presence of Moscow troops in the breakaway region of Transnistria.
In 1992, a year after the independence obtained with the disintegration of the USSR, a ceasefire interrupted the war involving separatism in the east of the country, a region inhabited mainly by Russian speakers. The small territory of Moldova (slightly larger than that of Alagoas) is home to a population of around 3 million inhabitants and an ethnic and linguistic mosaic.
In addition to the majority Moldovans (75% of the population), Russians, Ukrainians, Bulgarians, among other ethnicities, live in the country. From a cultural and linguistic point of view, the strongest ties are to the west, with Romania. And, on the eastern horizon, historical contacts with the Slavic universe.
Maia Sandu won the 2020 elections with a promise to review previously directed ties, from a political and economic point of view, especially to Moscow. She spoke of more contacts with Western Europe and also of lessening tensions in the multi-ethnic melting pot. At the end of her inaugural address, she spoke in Russian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian and Gagauz, a minority language originating from Turkish.
The first foreign leader to visit the capital Chisinau after Sandu’s electoral victory, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis has shown his intention to increase influence over the neighboring country, bringing it closer to the European Union’s orbit. The Russian government, concerned with preserving space in the new Moldovan government, congratulated the president on her triumph at the polls, despite support for the opposition.
The tragedy in Ukraine and the heavy hand of the Kremlin led the president to intensify the movement towards western stops and to seek shelter under the political and economic umbrella of the EU, with the application for accession made in March, but with no intention of embarking. in NATO, the US-led military alliance.
Now at the forefront of international media interest, Moldova has historically attracted the attention of many Brazilians. The region, for example, corresponded to the point of origin, in the early 20th century, of an intense flow of Jewish migration to Brazil, particularly from part of an area known by its historical name, Bessarabia.
Among the immigrants fleeing persecution and poverty were my maternal grandfather and his family. I visited the region several times, in the 1990s, in search of information about my roots, in a research that is now facilitated by the internet and also by the presence of an honorary consul of Moldova in São Paulo, Flavio Bitelman.
