There are places where they always knew the Cold War never really ended. Moldova is one of them.
It knew Russia would never allow it to go its own way following the collapse of the Russian Empire (disguised as the USSR). As with Georgia and Ukraine, the Kremlin does not see Moldova as a sovereign entity, but as a region which should continue to bend to Russia’s will as it had done for most of the period since being colonised in 1812.
This week there were Moscow-orchestrated pro-Russian demonstrations, and allegations of Kremlin backed coup plans. These are only the latest attempts to bring Moldova to heel. Last week a US official at the White House claimed that Russians “some with current ties to Russian intelligence” were seeking to use the protests “to foment a manufactured insurrection”.
