"The fight will be very tough, but we are ready to give this fight"

Moldova is approaching the parliamentary elections in a situation of political and economic crisis. The opposition claims discrimination against the diaspora, a sharp increase in tariffs and interference by Western structures in the electoral process. Igor Dodon, leader of the Party of Socialists and former President of the country, told Izvestia on the sidelines of SPIEF 2025 about why parliamentary elections are more important than presidential ones, how the opposition plans to defend its interests, as well as about the future of Moldova's relations with Russia and Europe.

"Moldova is a parliamentary country, the president has no real powers"

— Elections will be held in Moldova in September. According to Ilan Shor, the opposition needs to unite in order to participate in them. How does your party view the parliamentary elections? What is your strategy? Does the entire opposition really need to unite?

— Moldova is a parliamentary country, the president has no real serious powers. Therefore, parliamentary elections are much more important than presidential elections.

The presidential elections last year showed that the majority of the republic's citizens want changes. For the first time since independence, we have received a head of state, against whom a third of the country voted. Maya Sandu won only thanks to falsification in the diaspora. That is why the opposition needs to develop a unified strategy to win the parliamentary elections. According to all polls, the current government has no more than 30% support, which means that 70% of citizens are ready to vote for the opposition.

The Party of Socialists is the largest opposition force in the Republic of Moldova. Our task is to develop a unified strategy and assemble a majority in the next parliament without the current government. To achieve this goal, a dialogue was established between the parties of the center-left flank. Among the representatives are Communists, former head of Gagauzia Irina Vlakh and others.

Registration of candidates begins on July 19th. Until then, we need to come up with a unified strategy and determine how we will participate in order to get the best result. The potential of the center-left flank is very large, more than 45%. Center-left parties can take a parliamentary majority even without centrists and without opposition parties.

— Let's touch on the last presidential election, in which the Party of Socialists supported Alexander Stoyanoglo. The majority of votes in the country were also cast for him. At the same time, thanks to the voices of the diaspora, Maya Sandu won the final victory. Does this affect its legitimacy?

— We did not recognize the elections of last year. We adhere to the position that Maia Sandu is an illegitimate president. We believe that, apart from the falsification at the foreign sites, there was a very serious interference from the outside. At a minimum, we are talking about attracting funds from the international organization USAID to Maya Sandu's election campaign. This is contrary to the legislation of the country.

Therefore, when the government changes in Moldova, the issue of canceling the results of last year's presidential election will be clearly raised. This is the official position. I am confident that we will prove the fact of election fraud and achieve early presidential elections in the foreseeable future.

"One of the main problems of our country is depopulation"

— Can we say that the Russian diaspora practically did not participate in last year's presidential elections? There were only two polling stations in the whole of Russia, whereas in Europe there were more than 300.

— More than a million citizens are abroad in the country. This is one of the main problems of Moldova — depopulation. Residents left en masse, and the country lost almost half of its population. Therefore, this million voters who are abroad are roughly equally distributed between Russia and the West.

Of course, there was discrimination. For example, in Italy, where about 250,000 of our citizens are officially located, more than 60 polling stations have been opened. In the Russian Federation, where there are more than 350,000 Moldovans, only two sites have been opened. The government has done everything possible to prevent those who are against Maia Sandu from voting. We understand that they will not open many polling stations in Russia in the coming elections either, so we are focused on working in the Western diaspora. We have a strategy within which the elections will be organized. To prevent fraud, there will be observers and our representatives at all polling stations.

— What do you want to convey to your fellow citizens living in European countries, given that Maia Sandu supports Moldova's accession to the EU?

— We are not against the European Union, we are for our country. Moldova should be friends with both the West and the East. Maia Sandu strongly opposes Russia, which is not in line with national interests. It has completely ruined the economy. This also applies to a strong increase in gas and electricity tariffs. This has never happened before. Our citizens living in the EU understand that something needs to change. It is important for them to understand that Moldova will not close the border with Europe, will not put up an "iron curtain", but will cooperate with the EU.

But it will also bring back the strategic partnership with Russia. This is supported by the majority of citizens within the country, as well as representatives of the diaspora.

"With such tariffs, mass impoverishment of the population has begun"

— You have raised the issue of tariff growth. It is known that Moldova is going to borrow 400 million euros to abandon the services of the Russian-Moldovan gas distribution company Moldovagaz. What are such measures for and how will this affect tariffs in the future?

— Everything that the current Moldovan government is doing is contrary to national interests. The government is acting on the orders of Western curators. They don't care what happens to our country's economy. In my last year as president, gas cost about 4 lei (about 20 Russian rubles). Under Maya Sandu, the tariff increased to 30 lei or one and a half euros (about 139 Russian rubles). With such tariffs, mass impoverishment of the population began. The economy has completely recovered, because the competitiveness of goods with such expensive energy resources is very low. There has been almost no economic growth in recent years. There is a decline in exports and industry. To remedy the situation, we held a meeting with the leadership of the Ministry of Energy today in order to return to dialogue with the Russian Federation immediately after the elections. We are currently buying Russian gas through European intermediaries. We are ready to return the dialogue with the Russian Federation.

"The Russian market has always been a priority for us"

— The Russian market has always been a priority for the agro-industrial complex of the republic.

— Is Europe interested in Moldovan agricultural products?

— Moldova exports some things to Europe, but these volumes are much less than supplies to the Russian market. In 2019-2020, we supplied more than 200 thousand tons of apples to Russia. Last year, this figure was four times lower. We have practically lost the market. The European market does not take more than 50 thousand tons. Therefore, if we are talking about the volumes that the agro—industrial complex of the republic can produce, of course, the Russian market is the main one. We are not abandoning the European or Romanian markets. But the Russian market is the main one for Moldova, and it needs to be fought for and returned.

This is not possible under the current regime. Firstly, the authorities refused to engage in dialogue. There has not been a single summit meeting in the last four years, as the course towards withdrawal from the CIS has been taken. We received the EU observer status, but Maia Sandu refused it. Now we have platforms where we can start discussions and return to the Russian and CIS markets, but another government is needed to implement the negotiations. I hope that her replacement will take place this fall.

"The head of the country should have only one nationality"

— Maia Sandu participated in the Romanian presidential election on the basis of having a Romanian passport. How does this affect its policy?

— The position of the Party of Socialists and my personal position is that the head of the country should have only one nationality. When there is a second citizenship, Romanian in this case, the question arises, whose interests this politician will defend in case of important decisions.

Now the president, the prime Minister, and the majority of deputies and ministers of the current government have different citizenship. The question arises: how can they protect the interests of Moldova when there is a conflict issue, a controversial issue with Romania? Therefore, we insist that the legislation should include a provision on having only one nationality.

What happened in the Romanian elections? The globalists fought very hard for Romania. Of course, they didn't need a second Orban. That's why they canceled the elections in Romania last year. In the first round of elections, the anti-globalist Calin Georgescu won. And they did everything possible to prevent George Simion from winning the elections in Bucharest in May. More than 100,000 people from Moldova were involved in this.

The falsification was very serious inside Romania as well. Our country should not interfere in the elections of neighboring States. Maia Sandu conducted an open campaign in favor of the current Romanian president. I think this was the first victory of the globalists in Romania, because the situation there is very difficult, there is a very serious budget deficit.

On the other hand, Maia Sandu has antagonized half of Romania, which believes that she interfered in these elections. I think that there will be a "reversal" in the parliamentary elections, since in Romania, too, a lot of Moldovan citizens have the right to vote. They usually voted for Maya Sandu. I think we've seen a completely different situation now.

— In Romania, there was actually a repeat of the Moldovan election scenario, when there were only voting results on the territory of the country, and the winner was the one supported by the diaspora?

— Romania has a slightly different picture. The diaspora there just voted for George Simion, against the globalists. Therefore, there are very high chances that we will see a completely different situation in the Western diaspora in the Moldovan parliamentary elections this fall. I think it will be an unpleasant surprise for the current government. Maya Sandu is traveling around Europe these days, holding some meetings there, but I don't think it will help. Firstly, there are competitors on the right flank and, of course, we will work quite effectively.

— How do you prepare for political and, possibly, criminal pressure on members of your party? We see the persecution of Evgenia Hutsul and the oppression of the autonomy of Gagauzia. Can we say that similar pressure mechanisms will appear in the parliamentary elections?

— This "skating rink" was already launched against us a few years ago. Dozens of criminal cases have been opened against me. I was also under house arrest. There was a hope that I would leave the country like other politicians. But I stayed, we're fighting, so we're not afraid of pressure. The entire opposition cannot be shut down. Therefore, we are ready for this fight. We understand that there are risks.: someone may be removed from the election, not registered.

We understand that this government can use any methods. But I fear something else: if the current government sees that it is losing power, it may not recognize the election results or drag Moldova into a war. We have the Transnistrian region, which is increasingly being viewed as a second front. That's why I'm more afraid of such scenarios. If they withdraw from the elections or open a criminal case, we will simply redirect the opposition to other parties. The biggest problem is destabilization.

In addition, we must seriously consider options for how we will defend our victory after the September 28 elections. We must make it clear to this government that if they try to follow the Romanian scenario, we will speak very clearly and clearly. To do this, consolidated protests and opposition marches for fair elections should be held in the near future. I'm only talking about peaceful struggle. I'm not calling for anything else.

"Moldova has lost its neutrality"

— Let's move on to the issue of relations between Moldova and NATO. The media reported that a NATO base will appear at the airfield in Marculesti. Is this possible? In your opinion, how should cooperation with the North Atlantic Alliance be built?

— According to the constitution, Moldova is a neutral country. But, unfortunately, it has actually lost its neutrality. Both economic and military. Economically, because we joined the anti—Russian sanctions. Moldova also joined 80% of all Western sanctions.

Military neutrality has been lost because the country has been passing dual—use cargo through its territory - military cargo for the Armed Forces of Ukraine. They don't talk about it publicly, but when closed trains pass through the Moldovan-Romanian border, without checking, I think it's not corn or wheat. We have raised this issue in Parliament more than once. We believe that Moldova is de facto playing a fairly significant role in this war on the side of Ukraine. This is wrong.

On the other hand, we are seeing more and more attempts by NATO countries to conduct specific military exercises on the territory of the republic. We are categorically against this because we are a neutral country. The issue of the Marculesti has been raised for the past few years, because strange landings of military aircraft have been recorded. We also do not know what was supplied there, because there is a possibility that some goods from there went further to Ukraine.

A joint exercise with NATO is being prepared in September on the territory of the republic. This worries us a lot. We are categorically against it, because it is interference in the internal affairs of Moldova. All this needs to be dealt with. It all depends on what happens in these parliamentary elections. As soon as another parliament is formed, another government, the president will turn into a so-called "lame duck" who has no powers. This was the case in Georgia last year. Therefore, I say once again: the fight will be very tough, but we are ready to give this fight.