Worry spreads about country Putin may target next

I want to tell you now about a country that many fear may be the next in Vladimir Putin's sights. Indeed, on Friday, Secretary of State Blinken expressed deep concern about Russian plots to destabilize the government there. It's a small, poor nation, just to the southwest of Ukraine, that holds within it a Russian-backed separatist region. The nation I'm speaking of is Moldova, and it happens to be my birthplace. So what in the world is going on there? Let's bring in Moldovan journalist Paula Arizona to explain. Paula, it's great to see you. Welcome to the program.

So let's give our audience a sense of what's happened in just the past few weeks. Last week, President Zelensky provided some intelligence and shared evidence with the Moldovan President, Maya Sandu, of an attempted Russian plot for a coup to overthrow the government there. Just this past week, and she gave more evidence and said that was indeed the case, she described it as a hybrid warfare aimed to destabilize society. Can you give us any more insight into what's happening? Yes, so President Maya Sandu mentioned that the plot would involve people with military preparation, some of them coming from abroad, in order to provoke violence and to break interstate institutions and take hostages during opposition protests here. So Zelensky's advisor, Mikhail Podolak, confirmed the details saying that actually Russia's new plan for Moldova does not involve tanks but bandits. By this, he meant the kind of leader of the opposition of the pro-Kremlin party, Shor Ilan Shor, who stands accused for money laundering in Moldova and has therefore fled for Israel. But meanwhile, his party in Moldova is organizing mass protests, we just had one today, and here appears via video live streaming during these protests.

What makes this even more concerning, we should note, is that the Moldovan government, the current government, is a pro-Western government. Do we know if this coup attempt has been thwarted successfully? Well, state institutions over the past week have talked about not allowing about 60 foreign citizens into the country. Some of them, they said, had forged papers with like different names and different nationalities. And more police have been patrolling the streets and the kind of Ministry of Internal Affairs released this kind of plan for bomb shelters in case of any kind of emergency. So it does feel like state institutions have intensified both their actions and their communication, which has been poorer in the past. Russia has become a candidate for EU status. That having been said, it's a very vulnerable country.

It's a very poor country. I believe its military defense budget is just around $80 million a year. And I know that has led to a lot of internal strife as well. And economic challenges, inflation is about 27%. What is a bigger threat? Is it the domestic issues regarding the economy or is it the external threat, perhaps, from Moscow? Well, the two are interlinked. So at the moment, of course, people are more concerned with their day-to-day economic struggles, but at the same time, the kind of pro-Kremlin opposition is trying to capitalize on these economic issues. They are asking the government to pay 100% of the winter bills and so on.

And obviously, if a pro-European government in Moldova was replaced with a pro-Kremlin one, then Moldova would be used in the war against Ukraine by Russia, because obviously, we also have a transnistria in the East, a breakaway region, where 1500 Russian troops are stationed and where 20,000 tons of ammunition, Soviet-era ammunition is still stored. And to this point, Russia is still providing Moldova with gas and about 70% of electricity comes from that breakaway region, transnistria, that pro-Russian region as well. I know Western allies have been quick to come to Moldova's defense and provide more aid. Is it enough to get Moldova to finally leave Russia's grasp and perhaps join EU? So foreign aid has been helpful in compensating people's bills this winter, but they weren't compensated up to the 100% that protesters today were demanding. And the government is saying that they want to invest in more green energy and diversify our gas and electricity kind of sources. But inflation at the moment is still the highest in Europe and people are struggling to pay their mortgages, to pay their bills, to kind of cover their basic costs. And people that I've spoken to have said that they're thinking of emigrating.

We already have a problem with very few kind of human resources here, a big diaspora that is looking for more economic opportunities outside Moldova in the EU. Is there any concern as Russia has launched its new offensive that it could take military action against Moldova? I know there had been fear of that early on in the war. Is there any concern now as Russia has launched a new offensive in Ukraine that it could make any sort of military attempt at Moldova? There had been concern of that early on in the war. Yeah there's a saying here Moldova that we depend on Odessa and Odessa depends on Mikolayev, but we also have the south that is vulnerable. So far Moldova has been protected by the Ukrainian army and the fact that the Ukrainian army managed to move the front line for the west has kind of appeased spirits in Moldova. People have become calmer as a result, but obviously we're following the situation closely and hope for the best. We have a large number of Ukrainian refugees here in Moldova and to them there's an obvious difference between Ukraine and Moldova at the moment, but still people are anxious.

CNN, News, Top News, Ukraine, Russia, Vladimir Putin, Putin, Moldova, Maia Sandu, Volodymyr, Zelensky, president, security, international relations, Soviet, republic, target, Transnistria, Soviet Union, troops, war, Bianna Golodryga, Paula Erizanu, Antony Blinken, Secretary of State, politics, world