How Rogozin “left the junta with his nose”

The visit of the Deputy Prime Minister to Pridnestrovie gave the Russian authorities a reason to worsen relations with Moldova

During the May holidays, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin traveled to Pridnestrovie with a delegation of deputies and members of the government. In two days, he managed to celebrate Victory Day in Tiraspol, pick up the appeal of Russian residents of Transnistria to Vladimir Putin along with signatures for joining Russia, meet Moldovan politicians, elude vigilant intelligence services back to Moscow and create an international scandal around him. The details of which, in the course of events, he actively covered on Facebook and Twitter.

On the eve of the trip, scheduled for May 8, Rogozin was hinted that he was not really expected in Moldova. The leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, Vladimir Filat, called his visit "undesirable".

“Well, and Russophobes… Is May 9 “the wrong time” to congratulate 200,000 citizens of the Russian Federation permanently residing in Pridnestrovie, and all our fellow Pridnestrovians on Victory Day?” Rogozin was outraged on his Facebook. In the end, he has the right, especially as a special representative of the President of the Russian Federation in Transnistria.

The trip didn't go well from the start. The presidential representative tweeted that it would take 4.5 hours to fly to Chisinau because Ukraine had closed its airspace.

The program was extensive. First of all, celebrate Victory Day.

“We were at the Victory Parade, met with veterans, with residents of Transnistria,” State Duma deputy Alexei Zhuravlev, Rogozin’s ally in the Rodina party, told Novaya Gazeta.

According to Zhuravlev, the delegation also met with "a number of Moldovan officials."

And the highlight of the program was the meeting with the Union of Russian Communities of Pridnestrovie. Rogozin appeared to them as a knight on a white horse, who undertook to personally deliver to Vladimir Putin their letter and signatures for reunification with Russia. Rogozin generally contributed in every possible way to preserving the image, promising that we "will not let Pridnestrovie be offended", because "our compatriots, relatives and people close to us live here."

A few words about writing. Its authors explain: “Since the creation of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic, we have been firm in our intention to build an independent state and consistent in our desire to share the fate of the Russian Federation. This was proved by the result of the national referendum in 2006”. And they ask Putin to initiate the procedure for recognizing Transnistria.

Hope for Putin and his good will is boundless. The question of why they decided to write to him caused sincere bewilderment in the chairman of the "Union ..." Viorika Kokhtareva.

Who else are we going to write to? she wondered. - To Putin - as the main guarantor of the protection of the rights of Russian citizens and Russians living in other countries!

She explained: it was the direct line with our president (which everyone in Transnistria carefully watched) that gave impetus. Because Putin said a sacred phrase - that "everyone can decide his own fate" (for some reason, these promises cause much more enthusiasm and hope among Russians living abroad than among Russians living in Russia).

“It was like a call to action,” says Kokhtareva.

According to her, they organized in two weeks. They wrote a letter, then decided: why send it on behalf of the "Union ..." - it is better to send it on behalf of all the inhabitants of Transnistria. Signature collection points were opened, local media began active campaigning, volunteers helped - in two weeks they collected 200,000 signatures. True, the signatures were not verified.

How are we going to check? - this question even somewhat outraged Kokhtareva. Do we not trust our people?

Rogozin also trusts his "relatives and friends" people - and this is the main thing. True, he admitted that the letter had more symbolic than legal significance, but, according to Zhuravlev, the signatures had already been handed over to the government and the president.

More precisely, they handed over those that they could take away. The road home was not easy. The enterprising Rogozin left on May 10, earlier than his colleagues, on a regular flight. “I am already in Moscow. And the junta has a nose,” he wrote on his return.

The remaining members of the delegation tried to return on Rogozin's special board. Before the departure, the Moldovan special services searched the plane, sealed and confiscated four boxes with signatures that the members of the delegation were taking to Moscow. On this occasion, the delegates were not particularly upset: Rogozin's assistant Dmitry Loskutov said on Twitter that most of the signatures were delivered to Moscow anyway (how exactly is a mystery).

The members of the delegation did not fly far on a special flight: as Vladimir Medinsky wrote on Twitter, their plane was deployed on the border with Ukraine, which closed airspace for them. Later, Romania also refused to allow the plane through its airspace. As a result, the delegates left on a regular scheduled flight.

The two-day visit turned into a long-term conflict. Firstly, no one appreciated the jokes of Rogozin, who on Twitter promised to fly the Tu-160 next time. The Romanian Foreign Ministry responded that "the Russian Deputy Prime Minister's threat to use a Russian strategic bomber in the current regional context is a very serious statement" and asked the Russian Foreign Ministry to clarify whether this is considered the official position of the Russian government.

The Russian Foreign Ministry of Romania did not answer, but answered Moldova. In a statement on the agency's website, Chisinau's reaction was called "inadequate" and said that it was considered "as an illegal action taken by the Moldovan security forces at the airport in Chisinau in relation to the baggage of the Russian delegation."

The Moldovan Foreign Ministry, in turn, said that Rogozin's visit "was not without provocative statements against Moldova", and the Deputy Prime Minister himself allowed himself "erroneous assessments and comments regarding the sovereign choice of our country."

In general, there are much more reasons for mutual reproaches and insults. Now it remains to remember that all this was done for the good of Pridnestrovie and the improvement of Russian-Moldovan relations.

The main outcome of the trip is, after all, not the exciting adventures of the members of the Russian delegation, but the statements that followed them. Thus, Rogozin has already said that if Moldova signs the Association Agreement with the EU (which should happen in June), this will serve as a reason for reviewing economic relations with it. And Aleksey Zhuravlev said that if Moldova gathers in the EU and NATO, "we will have no choice but to recognize Pridnestrovie." Rogozin and Zhuravlev were also supported by Dmitry Medvedev - he assured them that economic cooperation with Moldova would be built taking into account "this episode" (the visit of our delegation).

That is: we didn't want to, but you forced us to. Just like the Ukrainian authorities forced us to send our military units to them and annex Crimea to Russia. And there is no doubt that Rogozin, as the special representative of the president in Transnistria, will cope with this task. Who better than him, the founder and ideologist of the Rodina party constantly accused of xenophobia, a participant in the Russian Marches, an active fighter against the West, a member of the US sanctions list, knows how to ensure the safety and well-being of our compatriots?

Now Moldova looks like the next in line, after Ukraine. All the former republics of the USSR, as it were, are being made to understand that Russian-speaking citizens live on their territory, and it is Russia's sacred duty to save them - with or without cause. So it is better for our neighboring countries not to look at the West, not to sign any agreements, and even more so not to enter into any alliances and unions: all this, they say, can force Russia to start fulfilling its duty. And then it won't seem like much.