“Sovereign Chișinău or abyss with NATO” Moscow and the Moldovan EU referendum 2024

The Moldovan EU referendum in October 2024 proved a page-turner; the Yes votes won by a thin margin. Russia was the first to condemn the process. In this article, I apply discourse analysis to scrutinize the language of the Russian MFA through the utterance of its spokesperson, Maria Zakharova. Intermittently, securitization schemes are employed. My aim is to divulge Moscow’s standpoint on Moldova via the maneuvers that Zakharova takes advantage of in her official statements. Zakharova’s stratagems vary. She claims the referendum failed to meet the European norms, i.e., the EU alignment threatens core civil rights. Thereafter, Zakharova turns confrontational and views diplomacy as a conflict. This echoes Putin’s views on a Chisinau with unbreakable ties with Russia; Moldova would no longer enjoy sovereignty in the EU. Once Zakharova poses diplomacy as a movement, she exhorts the Moldovans to counteract the true motive behind “the Western meddling”. It is no more, no less, than the NATO enlargement.