This Is Why To Call Moldova's Uprising 'Pro-Russian' Is Wrong

Anti-oligarch mass protests in Moldova's capital Chișinău are “definitely not Maidan 2.0”, French freelance  journalist Sébastien Gobert explains to Hromadske.   He stresses crucial differences between political unrest in Moldova and Ukraine's Maidan Revolution of 2014. Moldova has been experiencing ongoing protests since November 2014’s banking scandal plunged the country into political turmoil. The protests are a reaction towards widespread corruption among the political elites in what Gobert describes as a “a captured state”.

Although demonstrations have been taking place regularly in Chișinău, they are being organized by three “extremely diverse and quite divided” opposition forces that are unable to “put forward a clear agenda for change and reform,” Gobert thinks. According to him,  the uprising leadership is currently made up of pro-Russian sympathizers and “nostalgics of the soviet era”, populists who are “looking for association with Russia” and the pro-European movement the Platform for Dignity and Truth.

Sébastien Gobert, correspondent for Liberation, RFI and Le Monde Diplomatique joined Hromadske live via Skype from Chișinău on 24th of January 2016. Gobert was interviewed during The Sunday Show by Ian Bateson and Natalyia Gumenyuk in Kyiv.