Moldova, about the size of Maryland, has not been on my radar until recently when I learned that Putin is fomenting a revolution in Moldova to destabilize it. Moldova is southwest of Ukraine with a thin land ribbon between it and Ukraine called Transnistria. Moldova was part of the Soviet block. When the USSR broke apart, Moldova became an independent democratic state just like Ukraine. The small ribbon of land forming the most easterly border of Moldova wanted to stay with Moscow. The people that want to remain with Russia are considered to be a “breakaway” group of pro-Russians loyal to Moscow, even though the most recent count shows forty percent of the population is Moldovian, only about a third of its population is Russian-speaking and Russian-culturally, and a fourth is Ukrainian. Nevertheless, Russia stationed 1500 Russian troops there “to protect it” from being taken over by Moldova. All of NATO and the rest of the world do not recognize Transnistria as a separate state and see it as currently illegally occupied by Russia.
Moldova is neutral at this time, but it has had a varied past. A mix of people settled there, Germans, Austrians, Romanians, Ukrainians, and of course, Russians. Although Moldova was never part of Austro-Hungary, parts of it (Bukovina) were annexed. My Grandfather, a portrait painter struggling to make a living there, likely was in that turmoil of unrest. So he decided around the turn of the previous century to migrate, and like most Jews, the ideal place was Jerusalem, which he decided to do, briefly stopping in Czernowitz, Bukovina, to meet up with my Grandmother-to-be.
So with the recent collapse of the Moldovian government and what has been euphemistically called “the little green men” Russia sent to take over Crimea in 2014 started appearing in Moldova, my Moldovian genes started to flash the red lights. That is how it started in Crimea. Green camouflaged uniformed men with automatic weapons and no insignia on their uniforms started taking over public buildings, rounding up people, and confining them; basically taking over the country by armed force, creating civil unrest, holding public officials hostage, or just making them disappear. That is what Russians do.
Moldova is the poorest country in Europe, with a GDP per capita at $17,779 (GDP is the total value of all goods and services of a country divided by its population) compared to the US at $75,180. Its 2.6 million people are deeply affected by the Ukrainian war next door with energy shortages, pressure from an influx of refugees fleeing Ukraine, an inflation rate in excess of 30%, and now having to deal with the Russian Secret Service trying to undermine its government. Russia has already shot missiles into Moldova as well. Putin is holding all the cards. If Moldova falls into Russian hands, it will be a major disaster for Ukraine, which now would have its southwestern border as an enemy as well.
This is what Tucker Carlson, Lauren Boebert, and MTG fail to understand. Putin is not honorable, smart, clever, or reasonable. He is a former KGB operative. Nothing is off the table. He will bomb, kill, destroy, and take over whatever he needs to gain his objectives, which are to make Russia great again. This means the West (us) must be weakened or preferably destroyed. All his actions up until now point to it.
Ukraine is not the endpoint, and neither is Moldova. Poland, then the Baltic countries, London and Berlin, are in his crosshairs too! His propagandists have said so. If that happens, there is no way the US can stay out of it. I wish all those people who want to cut Ukraine off should be in the front trenches. They should be grateful that Ukraine is fighting and dying for them this very moment.
It has now been established without a doubt by irrefutable intelligence, intercepted communications, and an International Joint Investigation Team of experts from the Netherlands, Australia, Malaysia, Belgium, and Ukraine that Putin was personally behind the downing of Malaysia Flight 17 with a BUK missile he supplied and gave the OK to shoot down, 280 civilians with 80 children aboard. He gives orders to specifically bomb maternity hospitals and apartment buildings, which has been verified by captured pilots, and cannot be denied just by looking at the pictures of the bombed-out buildings. He has given orders to drain a water reservoir in Ukraine that would deprive a million people of water and damage the ecology of thousands of acres. His list of war crimes rivals the cruelest monsters in history. He sends untrained Russian soldiers into war, knowing they will be ground up in a meat grinder. He has created a kleptocracy (a government led by criminals that steal from its people). He has amassed obscene personal wealth beyond belief that clearly is the product of theft and corruption. He has been behind dozens (if not more) of assassinations, all documented. He is a murderous psychopath who has tremendous power and no conscience.