Viorel Cibotaru: Russia is using Moldova to compromise regional security

The Minister of Defense of Moldova (2015), Viorel Cibotaru, believes that through Moldova, Russia is compromising regional security. He spoke about this at the 12^th Kyiv Security Forum, organized by the Arseniy Yatsenyuk "Open Ukraine" Foundation.

"As a result of Russia’s abuse, Moldova is a weak spot in the building of collective security founded on European and Euro-Atlantic principles, based on the resolve of our countries to bring security to the region," he noted.

Cibotaru stressed that since the establishment of an army base in Transnistria, Russia has been trying to maintain influence over his country and the situation in this sense worsened when Igor Dodon, who is a supporter of cooperation with Russia, was elected president of the country.

"This greatly undermined Moldova's security system. The Parliament had to "cut off" the powers of the president as the supreme commander-in-chief. There were many scandals, like the refusal of the pro-Russian president to send the Moldovan armed forces to Ukraine for NATO conducted training," he recalled.

Cibotaru also noted that because of the actions of the president, Moldova currently doesn’t even have a national security strategy.

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The annual "Kyiv Security Forum" was initiated by the Arseniy Yatsenyuk "Open Ukraine" Foundation in 2007. Since then, the Forum has become a platform for high-level, international discussions about relevant matters of national security, as well as the security of the Black Sea region, Europe, and the world.