Moldovan soldiers flew to Moscow on Sunday, June 14. They will parade in common with soldiers from Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan at the Victory Parade, which will take place in the Russian capital on 24 June. Dmitriy Peskov announced which countries had confirmed their participation.
“There is a preliminary list, everything is in the process of working. We have confirmations from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan. There is also confirmation of the participation of Serbia, Croatia, Abkhazia, South Ossetia. “I remind you that the focus now is on inviting CIS heads of state”, Peskov told reporters, answering the question of whether they were sent invitations to the Moscow Victory Parade and to the Russian President’s counterparts from the five UN Security Council member states and whether they received answers.
He also noted that several state leaders have received an invitation, and Russia, within days, is expected to receive confirmation from them.
On June 14th, the ceremony of the deployment of 75 soldiers from the Honor Guard Company took place in Moscow. As Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, President Igor Dodon appointed Major General Victor Gaiciuc, Presidential Adviser on Defence and National Security, Secretary of the Supreme Security Council of the Republic of Moldova. The pictures from the ceremony were published on Igor Dodon’s Facebook page.
Shortly after, the head of state was accused by the internees of inconsistency. Former Finance Minister Veaceslav Negruța referred to Igor Dodon’s statements of 12 June that “Moldovans do not listen to the doctors’ advice, they climb into minibusses as in the sprat bank, 40 on top of each other”. “June 14: 75 young people in the same enclosed space and also like “sprats” in a tube, based on a doctor’s order, contrary to doctors’ advice, contrary to the prohibitions ordered,” Negruța wrote on the Facebook page.
Previously, the president’s decision to send a group of soldiers to take part in the parade in the height of the pandemic was harshly criticized. DA Platform Deputy Iurie Renita proposes to Igor Dodon to go to Moscow with the 2000 soldiers of the former 14th Army of Transnistria. Renita told jurnal.md that this gesture is a political challenge that compromises the National Army.
Political analyst Ion Tăbîrță had stated that President Igor Dodon’s decision to go to Moscow during the pandemic, accompanied by the Moldovan military, would be electorally motivated.
“A clear demonstration to his electorate that he is a loyal and personal ally of Vladimir Putin, which are the foreign and geopolitical priorities of the Republic of Moldova as long as it is led by Igor Dodon. Direct and indirect references in the election campaign to this participation in the Moscow parade will surely be made,” Tabârță told Radio Free Europe.
In Russia, mass solemnities dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the Victory in the Great War for the Defence of the Fatherland were postponed because of the pandemic. Russian leader Vladimir Putin proposed holding the Victory Day parade on June 24 and the Immortal Regiment March on July 26.