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 MARCH 2022 NR.3(193) Synthesis and Foreign Policy Debates NTheewnselewttselre-tutel resistedreevaelliozpaet ddebyMMădăădlăinlinNNeceșcușțuuț,ur,eeddaitcotor-rc-ocooordrdinoantaotror TOPICS OF THE EDITION: 1. Oleg Serebrian, Deputy Prime Minister for Reintegration: “There is currently no reason to believe that the Moldova could be targeted by this war” 2. Claudiu Degeratu, Romanian military analyst: “The Chisinau government should say politically that any involvement of Transnistrian forces in Ukraine means an attack on Moldova’s security” 3. Ludmila Nofit, Executive Director of the Foreign Policy Association(EPA): “The Transnistrian Danger- Implications for Moldova” Știri pe scurt: The members of the Supreme Security Council(SSC) made a series of recommendations on March 30 regarding the effective fight against big corruption. Its members stressed the need for a speedy finalization of respective cases of corruption and the recovery of financial means and assets stolen from the citizens of the Republic of Moldova. In this context, the Supreme Security Council has made several recommendations to the institutions responsible for combating corruption. More specifically, the Ministry of Justice, in collaboration with the Prosecutor General’s Office, needs to make the necessary legislative changes to reduce opportunities for abuse in the investigation and examination proceedings in the court. These institutions must also develop legislative instruments to increase the efficiency of the recovery of fraudulently obtained assets The Republic of Moldova will send a batch of humanitarian aid to the Ukrainian authorities amid the Russian military invasion. Part of the humanitarian aid stocks provided to the Republic of Moldova for the management of the refugee crisis will be redirected to the Ukrainian authorities as international assistance. The aid package will also include tangible assets to be released from state reserves, central government reserves and donations from economic operators. The decision was taken on March 31st, during the meeting of the Commission for Emergency Situations(CES), chaired by Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilița. The CES members ordered the release by the Material Reserves Agency of the state reserves of goods worth about MDL 7.5 million to the General Inspectorate for Emergency Situations, the institution responsible for the formation and transportation of the humanitarian aid batch to the neighbouring country. Subsequently, the Ministry of Finance will allocate the necessary financial means to replenish the state reserves. Moldova’s Ambassador to the EU, Daniela Morari, is encouraged by the first political steps of the European Union regarding the applications for accession submitted in early March by the Republic of Moldova, Ukraine and Georgia, but says in an interview with Radio Free Europe that the bureaucratic process cannot be expedited.“If we compare it with any country that has gone through this process, it takes months, if not years, from the application for membership to the submission of this application to the Council and then to the decision of the Council. In the case of the Republic of Moldova (Ukraine and Georgia) it lasted a week(...), it is an unprecedented speed“, says Morari. Moldova signs the EU membership application on March 3rd, following the example of Ukraine, which took the decision a few days after being invaded by Russian troops on February 24th. The war near Moldova: between uncertainty and insecurity Ukrainian soldier in Kyiv Russia is far from satisfied with the military results achieved in Ukraine more than a month after the beginning of its invasion of Ukraine. The “blitzkrieg” hoped for by Moscow in the early days of the attack is the result of extremely wrong calculations that Moscow has made about Ukraine. It has already entered a war of attrition and we could even say a change of the zero-sum game, because the Russian military is slowly but surely being pushed from the positions conquered in Ukraine. Visibly limited in the ground invasion of Ukraine, Russia is in a period of regrouping and rethinking its tactical plans for the February 24 invasion of Ukraine under the pretext of ‘denazification’. More recently, this discourse has been changed as Russia has failed in its initial Monthly newsletter, No.3(193), March 2022 111 Bucuresti St., Chisinau, MD-2012, Republic of Moldova, Tel.+373 855830 Website: fes-moldova.org. E-mail:fes@fes-moldova.org