https://www.thedailybeast.com/meet-the- ... n-invasion
Butwhen they got to the biggest news story that’s come out of Moldova in recent weeks—that the country could be Russia’s next target after Ukraine—the teachers seemed more excited than terrified about the prospect.
“That would be great,” one of the teachers, 36-year-old Anzhela, told The Daily Beast. “Maybe then Russian gas will be cheaper for us.”
The European Union granted Moldova, a country of 2.6 million people, candidate status in June. But the closer Moldova aligns to the West, the more dangerously pro-Russian regions like Gagauzia bubble with separatist ideas. This at a time when the Kremlin’s key propagandist, Vladimir Solovyev, announced on live television that Russia’s plan in southern Ukraine was to “reach Transnistria,” the breakaway territory of Moldova.
“If Russia attacks us, what shall we do? Will we send the army to defend us with a hoe?,” Moldovan President Mayu Sandu warned last week. “We do not want to become involved in the war, but it is a reality for which we need to be ready.”
The most influential leader of the country's pro-Russia movement is former president and opposition leader Igor Dodon, a man so loyal to Vladimir Putin that he’s earned nicknames like “Putin’s mini-me,” and “the czar’s doormat.” As president, he went so far as to say Moldova is in need of a “patriot” like Vladimir Putin. The Russian leader, on the other hand, seems perfectly aware of Dodon’s affinity toward him: he once publicly suggested that the Moldovan politician was his personal jester.
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Leichu is a fan of Putin despite the vicious, nearly five-month war that has destroyed dozens of Ukrainian cities and killed thousands of civilians. “A majority of Moldovans like Putin more than all other post-Soviet leaders because he is strong, he is winning, it’s easier for people to understand what he wants,” Leichu said. “Our recent problems with Russia started after President Sandu decided not to travel to Moscow and meet with Putin. The inflation is already 32 percent and Sandu fails to explain to our public why life without Russia and as an ally of the European Union would be better.”
“We speak Russian, we teach at school in Russian, we all have relatives in Russia, while under this government, we already have 30 percent of inflation, more than in the war-torn Ukraine. Our salaries are nuts!” the oldest of the teachers in the group, 62-year- old Tatiana, told The Daily Beast. “If Putin takes over, we’ll have decent lives.”
