Moldova’s membership in EU possible only through creation of 'New Greater Romania': Russia

Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev stated on Sunday that Moldova’s membership in the European Union is not possible directly, however, through the creation of the "new Greater Romania", it can be. Moldova has also entered the long queue for accession to the EU, and they want membership at the earliest, but there is another way to obtain membership, and it is by the creation of a new Greater Romania (Romania Mare), Medvedev told the people on his Telegram space, responding to a question from TASS. This comes at a time when the EU has provided candidate status to war-hit Ukraine and former Soviet state Moldova.

Hitting out at the politicians of Romania, he said, "Romanian politicians have been politically dancing in circles around Moldova for a long time. Today, this is happening literally today, "he further said. "The first joint meeting of the Moldovan and Romanian parliaments was finalised by the lawmakers dancing while holding hands. It looked rather amusing," Medvedev said. However, the consequences can be way less fun," he asserted.

On Friday, Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov stated that it is up to Brussels to decide on whom to grant EU candidate status, however, it should be done in a way that wouldn't create any trouble for Moscow. When asked to share his opinion on the European Council’s decision to grant Ukraine and Moldova the status of EU candidates, he stated that "those are, of course, internal European affairs." However, he said that "it’s very important for us that those processes won’t create more problems for us and for our relations with those countries."

He further stated that providing candidate status to the former Soviet Republics shouldn't lead to further deterioration of ties between Moscow and Brussels. He regretted that Moldova "for some reason associates its candidate status with taking an increasingly anti-Russian stance." "They think that the more anti-Russian they become, the more the Europeans will like them." "We really don’t want that to be happening," he stated.

He further stressed that just by securing a candidate's status, there is no guarantee of becoming an actual member of the EU. Recalling Turkey's candidature for the EU, Peskov stated that Turkey was ready to give up a lot in order to become an organic part of Europe, but "Turkey hasn’t yet gone anywhere further than this candidate status," he noted. Meanwhile, Russia's Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, stated that Brussels was continuing its strategy of "active geopolitical development of the former Soviet space to contain Russia." She added, "All means are being used," she added, "from financial and economic leverage to military support," reported farsnews.ir.

Image: AP/ Representative