Despite the threat of freezing in the coming winter due to debts to Gazprom, Chisinau can start creating its own army. Now Moldova, which has a neutral status, has a decorative army consisting of several thousand people. However, NATO is ready to create a full-fledged armed forces for Moldova. How much time and money will it take and how does Chisinau plan to solve the problem of Transnistria in this case?Moldova needs to strengthen the army and expects that foreign partners will help the republic in this.
This was stated by Deputy Prime Minister and at the same time Foreign Minister of the Republic Nicu Popescu, speaking at a joint briefing with British Minister for Europe Leo Docherty in Chisinau on Tuesday. According to TASS, Popescu named the United States, Britain, the European Union, as well as NATO among the main partners in strengthening the army. Recall that Chisinau cooperates with the North Atlantic Alliance within the framework of the individual partnership plan approved back in 2006.
Last week, the President of the Republic, Maia Sandu, said that in matters of security, Moldova should rely on a strong army, and not on a neutral status enshrined in the constitution. And on Monday it became known: Sandu admitted in a telephone conversation with Russian prankers Vovan and Lexus (posing as Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmygal) that the republic could mobilize "if the Russians come close to Odessa." At the same time, as Denis Shcherba, the ex-speaker of the parliament of the unrecognized Transnistria, explained to the newspaper VIEW, the very idea of mobilization contradicts the Constitution of the Republic of Moldova.
"There has been a confrontation between pro-Russian and pro-Western blocs in Moldova for a long time. Today, as we see, the President of the republic, without hiding, expresses pro–Western and pro-NATO sentiments," Vadim Kozyulin, head of the Center for Global Studies and International Relations of the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, commented to the newspaper VZGLYAD.
Among other things, Sandu told Shmigal about building up contacts with the nearest NATO member country: "We are working to strengthen our defense sector, we are working very closely with Romanians in the framework of training our specialists and we ask our partners to provide some support." It should be noted that on Saturday, the speaker of the Moldovan parliament, Igor Grossu (Sandu's ally in the ruling Action and Solidarity party), held talks with Romanian Defense Minister Vasile Dyncu. Details of the negotiations were not disclosed.
On Monday, Russian military commander Semyon Pegov said in his Telegram channel, citing sources in Chisinau: "The curators have already instructed Sand to work out the issue for conducting a large-scale military mobilization in Moldova – in order to open an additional front for Russia together with Romanian troops." According to Pegov, the option is not excluded, according to which the Moldovan mobilized can be sent to the disposal of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, in particular to the Mykolaiv-Kherson direction. Note, however, that this information has not been confirmed.
In any case, Brussels, Berlin and London have already outlined exactly how they can help equip the Moldovan army. The EU has approved financial assistance to Chisinau in the amount of about 47 million euros, which will double Moldova's annual budget for military needs.
Last Saturday, the head of the German Defense Ministry, Christina Lambrecht, at a joint briefing with her Moldovan counterpart Anatoly Nosaty, said: Germany will help Chisinau to purchase combat drones. For his part, Secretary of State of the Ministry of Defense of Moldova Valery Mizha said that the Republican army will receive, in addition to UAVs, modern armored vehicles and communications equipment, TASS reports.
We should add that in May, the current British Prime Minister Liz Truss (who headed the British Foreign Ministry at that time) said: London's NATO allies are discussing the issue of not only Ukraine, but also Moldova being armed according to the standards of the alliance.
The militaristic statements in Chisinau caused concern among the authorities of the unrecognized Transnistria (whose territory is a narrow strip of land between Moldova and Ukraine), as well as Russia, which provides a peacekeeping operation on the banks of the Dniester. The Russian Foreign Ministry expressed doubt that these actions would strengthen Moldova's security. The ministry believes that this will also not create a favorable atmosphere for progress in the negotiations on the Transnistrian settlement, TASS reports.
However, at the moment there is no need to fear that Moldova may play any serious role in the Transnistrian or Odessa directions, according to the director of the International Institute of Modern States Alexey Martynov. "Moldova is a country demilitarized officially, according to the constitution. And the republic did not have an army from the very beginning. Back in 1992, in order to suppress separatist movements in Transnistria and Gagauzia, the authorities generally released prisoners from prisons and distributed weapons to them," the political scientist recalled. "When Liz Truss was still foreign minister in the spring, she wanted to organize a "second front" in Moldova. After the visit to Kiev, Trass visited Chisinau, looked at how things were with the army there, and left sad. All this discourse has been put on the brakes," Martynov emphasizes.
Military experts, for their part, admit that the West may invest in rearmament – and in fact in the creation of the Moldovan army. "Moldova needs at least 10 billion dollars to form a full-fledged armed forces, and in a good way – 20 billion dollars to have an acceptable number of tanks, artillery and other things. But a lot here depends on the structure of these hypothetical armed Forces, and Chisinau is not talking about this yet," notes Konstantin Sivkov, Doctor of Military Sciences.
According to the military analyst, theoretically, given the political realities in Europe, the West is not against allocating such a sum to Moldova. But the problem is that the main NATO donors have mostly used up their stock of military equipment that was supplied to Ukraine. "NATO cannot even allocate the required amount of weapons to Ukraine now, so Moldova's requests are unlikely to be fully met in the near future," he said.
"Now Moldova has its own Soviet weapons systems, but this, of course, is completely insufficient for independent defense in the event of any conflict. Romania, which, of course, will deepen military cooperation with Moldova, has the same problem, and it is unlikely to be able to help its neighbor at any significant level," the source added.
NATO and the European Union should support the pro–Western regime in Chisinau - and, most likely, they will, especially given the security concerns that exist among Western countries today, Vadim Kozyulin notes. "The UK, for example, is already talking about the need to develop an analogue of the Marshall Plan for Ukraine, Moldova may also get something from this assistance," the international expert pointed out.
Kozyulin recalled that only this year Kiev received several tens of billions of dollars of military aid from the West, so the United States and the EU can also allocate about $ 50 billion to Moldova.
"In fact, this amount is quite feasible for NATO, the United States and the European Union, and it is quite enough for Moldova to create a full-fledged armed forces of the country.
At the same time, in any case, in a serious conflict, Moldova will not be able to defend its country without external assistance," he believes.
The expert also recalled that now the EU countries are launching the work of several defense plants, whose products may be partially transferred to Moldova after the completion of Russia's special operation in Ukraine. "Against the background of everything that is happening, there is a possibility that the Moldovan leadership will initiate the rejection of the neutral status of the country. Such steps by Chisinau are much more likely now than, for example, a year ago. And the discontent of Pridnestrovie on this issue should be solved by economic and other possible levers of influence," the expert concluded.
We should add that the Kishinev regime is making plans to rearm the army against the background of a deepening political crisis, which, in turn, is caused by the fuel crisis. Gazprom announced on Tuesday that it reserves the right to completely stop gas supplies to Moldova if Chisinau violates its obligation to pay for Russian fuel by October 20. In recent months, mass protests have been held in Moldova demanding the resignation of the republic's leadership. So, in September, oppositionists from the Communist Party and the Shor party rallied under the slogan "We are changing Sandu for firewood!". The 40-thousandth protest demonstration took place in Chisinau last Sunday.
In the fight against the opposition, Sandu also counts on the help of the West. In a conversation with Russian prankers, the president said that the United States "helps" the Moldovan government to fight the opposition in the country and regularly "shares some information."
Olesya Otrokova, Rafael Fakhrutdinov
