Dodon Says Moldova Has Abandoned its Anti-Russian Stance

Moldova will no longer take a hostile attitude towards Russian journalists and investors, Moldovan President Igor Dodon said in an interview for the Russian daily Kommersant on Monday.

In the interview, Dodon said this had been agreed in the government coalition that unites the pro-Russian Socialist Party and the pro-European ACUM [NOW] bloc.

On September 16, the two partners signed a new collaboration agreement concerning the next steps of their coalition, which includes softening their respective and opposing geopolitical stances.

The former ruling Democratic Party took a tough stance on Russian journalists coming to Moldova as part of its ban on "Russian propaganda", claiming most of them were hostile Kremlin propagandists. 

Bans on Russian media visiting Moldova occurred regularly after 2015, as Moldova sought closer EU ties.  The pace of rejections picked up after August 2017, when the former Russian Deputy Prime Minister, Dmitry Rogozin, was declared persona non grata in Moldova. 

Over 10 Russian journalists were barred from entering Moldova from June 2017 to March 2018, when the ex-ruling Democratic Party proposed amendments to broadcasting regulations to "safeguard the info-sphere" from alleged Russian propaganda.

The ex-cabinet justified these decisions, claiming that some Russians had used journalism or political activities to conceal operations in Moldova that posed "a threat to national security".

"We agreed that we would not continue the practice of forbidding Russian journalists and Russian investors from coming to Moldova," Dodon said in the interview, adding that "Moldova will no longer take a systematic anti-Russian approach, as it was; this will no longer be."

"If there are any...

Continue reading on: