Foreign Policy Association together with Friedrich­Ebert-Stiftung offer you a newsletter on foreign policy and European integration issues of the Republic of Moldova. The newsletter is part of the “Foreign Policy Dialogue” joint Project. NEWSLETTER MONTHLY BULLETIN AUGUST 2021 NR.8(186) Synthesis and Foreign Policy Debates The newsletter is developed by Mădălin Necșuțu, editor-coordinator TOPICS OF THE EDITION: 1. Vasile Șoimaru, PAS MP and signatory of the Declaration of Independence: We hoped to get rid of the Soviet power, but this did not happen, because the“Empire” was in us 2. Editorial by Victor Chirilă, executive director of the Foreign Policy Association(APE)): Declaration of Independence: a Testament for a better future 3. Cornelia Cozonac, director of the Center for Journalistic Investigations of Moldova(CIJM): I believed then Moldova will develop very quickly and move at the same pace as the Baltic states 4. Iulian Ciocan, writer and journalist: I didn’t have to look for topics for my novels for too long. They were at hand; they were all around me News in Brief: President Maia Sandu stated on Monday, August 23, in a speech held in Kiev on the occasion of the launch of the“Crimea Platform”, that the Republic of Moldova will support the territorial integrity of Ukraine.“Moldova has been and will continue to be your reliable partner. We support the Resolution 68/262“Territorial integrity of Ukraine” of the United Nations General Assembly, as well as its subsequent resolutions. The Republic of Moldova is a state devoted to peace and peaceful, diplomatic solutions. As a country, we have always depended on the regional rule-based security order. This order has been in jeopardy for some time. Undermining the rules enshrined in the UN Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Helsinki Final Act, the Paris Charter for a New Europe and other fundamental documents of international law is a threat to the security of all. The international order based on rules, not the brutal use of force, is the only basis on which a peaceful and prosperous region can be built, in the interest of all”, said Maia Sandu. The“Crimea Platform” is a Kiev initiative aimed at drawing the attention of the international community and at the same time seeking international support for the recovery of this illegally annexed territory by Russia in 2013. President Maia Sandu marked on August 23 the Day of Commemoration of the Victims of All Totalitarian and Authoritarian Regimes, established in August 2019 by the Government she led at the time.“Our country thus joined the decision of the European Parliament in 2008, which declared August 23- when, in 1939, the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany signed the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact- as the European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Fascism and Communism”, wrote Maia Sandu on her Facebook page. The head of state also spoke about the victims of Stalinist deportations and those of Nazi concentration camps, about those who suffered from political repression, died during the organized famine or were exterminated for religious and racial reasons.“Tens of millions of people were deprived of their liberty, tortured and killed just because they fell hostage of ideologies for which human life had no value,” she added. About percent of the citizens of the Republic of Moldova think that the current orientation of the Republic of Moldova is towards the EU, according to an opinion poll conducted by CBS­Research at the command of the NATO Information and Documentation Center in Moldova. Russia was mentioned by 9 percent of respondents and Romania by almost 5 percent. Also, the Russian Federation is the biggest threat to national security, according to a survey that measured the population’s perception of the security and defense system of the Republic of Moldova. The top also includes: terrorist groups, NATO and the United States. In case of security issues, respondents are of the opinion that these could come from Romania, Russia and the EU. The survey is part of a larger project carried out by the NATO Information and Documentation Center in Moldova. The Republic of Moldova under the sign of chances to overcome the endless transition of the last 30 years 30 years after the declaration of independence, the Republic of Moldova is still struggling with an endless period of transition. From leaders who did not rise to the status of statesmen, to rapacious leaders and businessmen who entered politics to protect their pecuniary interests, the Republic of Moldova has seen them all in the last 30 years. While in the first decade of the existence of Republic of Moldova as a subject of international law after the declaration of independence from the USSR we can speak more or less of political dilettantism and lack of vision, in the second decade dominated by Vladimir Voronin’s communists we can talk about a period of laying the foundations of the kleptocratic state, one dominated by a president with dictatorial powers in internal leadership and hesitant in foreign policy. The clumsy political ballet between East and West has left Moldova in a grey area of ​p​ olitical uncertainty. Led by the principle invented by the former communist president Vladimri Voronin of the“gentle calf” with two mothers, Chisinau failed to cut a firm path in the medium term. The April 7 revolution recorded only a repositioning of internal forces and a false impression of external reorientation. The compromises of the three Alliances for European Integration(AIE) have revealed only internal struggles to control Monthly newsletter, No.8(186), August 2021 111 Bucuresti St., Chisinau, MD-2012, Republic of Moldova, Tel.+373 855830 Website: fes-moldova.org. E-mail:fes@fes-moldova.org