Vladimir Putin already has his eyes set on another target, according to the first-ever EU ambassador to the URSS and Russia.
Michael Emerson, associate senior research fellow at Brussels-based think tank CEPS, has warned the Russian President may feel emboldened after his record-breaking victory at the fraudulent elections held in Russia earlier this month.
According to figures shared by Russian authorities and disputed by international experts, Putin claimed more than 87 percent of the vote as he stood against three other candidates who actively avoided criticising the president during the electoral campaign.
With a similar landslide victory, Putin can now tighten his grip on power, and claim he is backed by the vast majority of Russians in enforcing anti-Western policies.
And, according to Mr Emerson, the Russian President already knows where to strike next.
In an op-ed for Euronews, Mr Emerson referred to the deals that brought to an end the fighting between Kyiv and pro-Russian troops in the Ukrainian Donbas region.
He wrote: “This year, Putin could seek some new version of the post-2014 Minsk agreements that had implicitly endorsed the then-territorial status quo, which left the door open for the 2022 invasion.
“Putin aims to take Odesa next and the whole of the Ukrainian coast down to Moldova, allowing him to re-establish Transnistria as an effective Russian military base and overthrow Chișinău’s current pro-European leadership, thus ending Moldova’s EU membership bid.”
The Moldovan leadership has repeatedly sounded alarm bells in recent months, with its Western-leaning President Maia Sandu accusing Moscow in February last year of plotting to oust her – an allegation rejected by the Kremlin.
The dangerous position in which Moldova is finding itself has been highlighted also by Romanian Foreign Affairs Minister Luminița Odobescu last month, who claimed the country is at the forefront of a hybrid war orchestrated by the Kremlin.
Chișinău, she said, has encountered “manipulation attempts and various actions visibly orchestrated from outside” – but has strenuously remained committed to its goals.
Ms Sandu, who elected in late 2020 led Moldova to acquire the EU candidate status in December last year, thanked Ukraine for defending her country by resisting Russian troops.
She said during a joint press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in November: “President Zelenskyy, today I thank you on behalf of the people of the Republic of Moldova for the huge sacrifice that your soldiers are making on the battlefield to resist Russian brutality, and the sacrifice that all Ukrainians are making to keep their country free and independent.
“Without this resistance, we in Moldova know that our country would be next on Russia’s hit list for occupation. Next and probably not the last. By defending Ukraine, you are defending Moldova too.”
