He's real for saying USA, China and Russia redestributing the world

You think Moldova gonna try to join NATO?

It's been very unpopular so far, but you think this invasion will sway public opinion enough or at the top? Especially with Macron saying Russia might invade Georgia and Moldova.

And he's right (mostly about China and the West tho, Russia's reach isn't all that)

All the talk in the West any discussion about Chinese exploitation in the third world is just about how it should be Western countries that keep exploiting them

In the near future, I don’t think so, simply because Russia wields direct and large influence over Moldova through the Transnistria dispute, Russian troops in Transnistria, strong economic ties, Moldova’s membership in CIS and the Russian minority in Moldova. In addition, while the current government is broadly pro-Western, most previous ones were not, and the main opposition is pro-Russian, so it’s pro-Western orientation is a bit more precarious than somewhere like Georgia and it has to placate Russia/Pro-Russians more. Therefore, even if there was strong support from the populace or the politicians, it’s somewhat impractical at the moment.

However, I think this will definitely accelerate the trend of Moldovans being pro-Western, which manifests itself in the following ways: a vague pro-Western orientation (by far the most popular, a clear majority among Moldovans today), support for EU membership (the most popular concrete step, probably a slim majority would vote “yes” if it was possible), unification with Romania (the most recent polls say support is at 40%, a huge increase in the past decade - in Romania itself a clear majority supports union and has ever since 1989), and only then NATO membership (which I don’t know exact numbers, it’s the one the average person cares least about, but I’d guess somewhere around unification numbers, maybe a bit lower). Probably this will reinforce the people who support this, and maybe push a few fence-sitters into the support category.

As for the politicians, the current government would almost certainly join NATO and the EU if it was practical. While the conflict might reinforce their ideological position, it doesn’t change the geopolitical realities of Moldova. However, they would not unify with Romania even if it was practical, they’re mostly of a pro-independentist yet pro-Western persuasion. I suspect that this is a standing is a kind of post-Soviet peculiarity, and if the pro-Western and pro-unionism trends continue, they will eventually converge, and probably unionism will piggyback off the popularity of Europeanism for two reasons: unification is a backdoor into European/Western organizations, and because ultimately (in my opinion) Moldovan nationalism derives from a pro-Russian position, not the other way around (for example, there is no separatism or Moldovan nationalism in the part of Historical Moldova which is part of Romania). This is already the main schism in Moldovan politics, but it will only be more pronounced, especially if an openly pro-Union politician or movement arises (as I said, currently pro-Western politicians are independentist).

TLDR: It will reinforce the current trends and galvanize pro-European and even pro-unification sentiment, but NATO or EU applications are probably not in the cards in the near future.

Damn very in depth answer thanks

You're Romanian yourself right?

No problem not often I get the opportunity to talk about Moldovan politics

I am indeed Romanian but I grew up in America, but currently I am “repatriated” and living in Romania for a bit. I actually visited Moldova in December, met both Romanians and Russians, it was interesting to talk about this stuff and see the cultural dynamics and similarities/differences to Romania.

the most surprising thing hes ever tweeted tbh
~

have you seen the george floyd tweet

yeah, that at least made ideological sense tho

this was just out of left field

Establishment of a new global economy based on Corn/Ethanol instead of Petroleum.

Illinois to become the power center of The Midwest Corn Empire

What does this potentially imply?

Well apparently I wrote all that just for Moldova to also file its application to become an EU candidate today along with Georgia (of course NATO is a different thing, but still a quite concrete step towards the West). More political will for this than I was expecting, but really it's about the political will existing right now, I was expecting this move maybe later in the decade as support for Europeanism grows (and presumably Moldova develops economically), but I guess the war has really shaken up and polarized things more than I thought. Still more surprising from Moldova than Georgia IMO, Russia has a good deal of direct influence on Moldova, and Georgia has been much more vocal about wanting to join the EU.

Nevertheless, I'm not sure how this will end up... EU accession negotiations take time anyways, and although at least Ukraine is asking for expedited membership, whatever that actually means, all of these countries lag behind today on all measures (economy, corruption, rule of law, civil society) compared to where Romania and Bulgaria were when we joined 15 years ago, and we lagged behind the rest of the EU lmao. Also, all of them have territorial disputes, and unlike Cyprus, which was allowed to join with the assumption that a peace plan would go through (when it failed it was too late) there's no foreseeable way of resolving them peacefully. I guess that in the best case, it will be years before they join, ample time for things to change one way or another.

It would be kind of funny if the EU makes the accession process a lot easier right after Brexit considering the British were the ones who wanted a larger and more-economic focused EU, and an EU that includes even a peaceful 2022 Ukraine simply could not be that deeply integrated

Here's Boris making the pitch for Turkey to join the EU and also wanting to bring back the Roman Empire

fr though

the eternal turk strikes again

deadass

yeah lets not be doing this

tfw you've never had a cold pint on a cobblestoned istanbul street by the waterfront during a warm evening in july while the sun sets as you contemplate existence to the sound of a light breeze softly rustling your unbuttoned button up

Zizek spitting:

"After the Russian attack on Ukraine, the Slovene government immediately proclaimed its readiness to receive thousands of Ukrainian refugees. As a Slovene citizen, I was not only proud but also ashamed.

After all, when Afghanistan fell to the Taliban six months ago, this same government refused to accept Afghan refugees, arguing that they should stay in their country and fight. And a couple of months ago, when thousands of refugees – mostly Iraqi Kurds – tried to enter Poland from Belarus, the Slovene government, claiming that Europe was under attack, offered military aid to support Poland’s vile effort to keep them out.

Throughout the region, two species of refugee have emerged. A tweet by the Slovene government on February 25 clarified the distinction: “The refugees from Ukraine are coming from an environment which is in its cultural, religious, and historical sense something totally different from the environment out of which refugees from Afghanistan are coming.” After an outcry, the tweet was quickly deleted, but the obscene truth was out: Europe must defend itself from non-Europe.

This approach will be catastrophic for Europe in the ongoing global struggle for geopolitical influence. Our media and elites frame that struggle as a conflict between a Western “liberal” sphere and a Russian “Eurasian” sphere, ignoring the much larger group of countries – in Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, and Southeast Asia – that are observing us closely.

It’s not enough to “defend Europe.” The true task is to persuade other countries that the West can offer them better choices than Russia or China can. And the only way to achieve that is to change ourselves by ruthlessly uprooting neo-colonialism, even when it comes packaged as humanitarian help.

Are we ready to prove that in defending Europe, we are fighting for freedom everywhere? Our disgraceful refusal to treat refugees equally sends the world a very different message."

Damn that's wild

How you feel Russia would react to it if they pushed and got pulled by the West for EU & NATO membership? Could it be another Ukraine situation?

The people who are like "WE HAVE TO INTERVENE, WHERE WILL THE RUSSIANS STOP" are funny to me. The one time this was actually true in WW2, the West ignored it multiple times for their own imperialist interests, for example when Italy invaded Ethiopia in 1935:

"On 30 June, Selassie spoke at the League of Nations and was introduced by the President of the Assembly as "His Imperial Majesty, the Emperor of Ethiopia" ("Sa Majesté Imperiale, l'Empereur d'Ethiopie"). A group of jeering Italian journalists began yelling insults and were expelled before he could speak. In response, the Romanian chairman, Nicolae Titulescu, jumped to his feet and shouted "Show the savages the door!" ("A la porte les sauvages!").113 Selassie denounced Italian aggression and criticised the world community for standing by. At the conclusion of his speech, which appeared on newsreels throughout the world, he said "It is us today. It will be you tomorrow"

WW2 started in 1935, not 1939.

Selassie really PROPHESIZED

No wonder rastafaris think he's jesus

Also once again, shoutout to Romanians @lil_ufo @offline