Vladimir Putin insisted Moldova not to sign the Association Agreement with the EU, says former President Nicolae Timofti
Russian President Vladimir Putin has insisted that Moldova should not sign the Association Agreement with the EU, former President Nicolae Timofti told DW in an interview. This happened at the 2014 CIS summit in Minsk, the source notes.
"(Editor's note: Vladimir Putin) tried to treat me from a position of superiority. I explained to him that it's not like in Russia - that the president cannot change the acts voted by the parliament and I told him firmly that Moldova is moving resolutely towards the EU," the then former president revealed.
The Association Agreement with the EU was not signed by President Nicolae Timofti, although he was supposed to do so in Brussels. The former head of state explained in an interview with DW what prevented him from signing.
"True, I should have signed it. But do you know what Leanca told me then? I called him and asked him why he was doing this? I told him that I was ready to go and sign to exclude any problems related to the constitutionality of the procedure. He told me that he wanted to go down in the history of the Republic of Moldova by signing that agreement... And he did go down in history, but with another episode, which I don't think he can handle. But then all I could do was to send Leanca to sign the Association Agreement with the EU. I was called by several European leaders who asked me not to do that. And Mr Basescu called me from Bucharest. In the end, I agreed to let him go, to avoid internal conflicts related to what we call "Moldovan's pride", Nicolae Timofti said.
Returning to the relations between Chisinau and Moscow, Nicolae Timofti was asked if there were any direct threats from Russia against Moldova during his time as President.
"They always blackmailed us. Economically, with embargoes. But the biggest danger was the 'Novorossiya plan' to rebuild the USSR. We knew we were the target of that odious plan. And we were discussing it with our foreign partners. Even with Mrs. Victoria Nuland we discussed it. This was before Crimea was annexed. The Russians were still talking then that those who would oppose the Novorossiya project would be wiped off the face of the earth," Timofti said.
Nicolae Timofti was the last President of the Republic of Moldova elected by Parliament and led Moldova from March 2012 to December 2016.
