When asked about the union with Romania, she said with a slight exaggeration: “It would lead to faster entry into the EU and NATO, but we are a democratic country. A referendum would have to be held and the constitution changed.” She herself considers Romania to be a key partner of the country.
According to her, Moldova is also looking for other security guarantees, in case it does not become a NATO member country. However, she refused to specify the negotiations with regard to the sensitivity of the topic and the fact that the negotiations are not public.
For Fairpress, she emphasized that for Moldova “the protection of its airspace is a priority”.
When asked by Novinek, she said that Moldova is trying to gain energy independence: “We no longer take any Russian gas, before in 2020 we only took gas from Russia and Moscow abused that. Russia refused to negotiate only on price, it dictated other conditions,” she added.
After the major blackout that affected the country this year due to damage to the energy network during the Russian attack on the Ukrainian energy system, Moldova is concentrating on building alternative routes.
“70 percent of the population was without power. We are building two high voltage lines to Romania,” said Sanduová. This also solves the problem that the key line runs through separatist Transnistria, where there is also a large power plant.
Sanduová emphasized that Moldova faces daily interference from Russia and a hybrid war that is being waged in the media field. Russia uses advanced technologies in it.
The authorities also try to prevent influencing the elections. They therefore focus on money flows, because without them no one can be influenced. But this is complicated by the fact that Russia uses more and more cryptocurrencies in similar activities.
In the case of Gagauzia, an autonomous region located in Budzak in the southern part of Moldova, where Russia supports separatism, according to the president, the authorities are trying to make news in Gagauz available so that residents do not only have information from Russian television. The government also redirected more money there to limit Russian influence.
