Georgian Dream’s message that the parliamentary elections were a chance for Georgians to choose between war and peace clearly proved more convincing than the opposition’s narrative of a choice between Russia and the EU.
As Moldovans prepare to go to the polls on Oct. 20, it looks like another round of the familiar geopolitical standoff between Russia and the West over the countries in Moscow’s former empire and sphere of influence.
Podcast host Alex Gabuev is joined by Maksim Samorukov, a fellow at Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, and by Paula Erizanu, a prominent writer and journalist from Chisinau who writes for Financial Times, The Guardian and The New York Times, to discuss the upcoming presidential election in Moldova and what leverage Moscow still has to interfere in Moldova’s path toward the EU.
The Russian regime increasingly resembles the gerontocracy that ran the late Soviet Union, with elderly officials replacing other elderly officials, and some starting to die on the job.
The issue of relations with Russia and the European Union is firmly back at the heart of electoral politics in Moldova.
Moscow’s approach to Moldova is to play for time and keep the country in geopolitical limbo by stoking internal divisions, stalling reforms, and fueling disenchantment with the pro-European course.
Normalizing discrimination against vulnerable groups like immigrants will make it easier for the Russian state to embark on future rounds of repression.
