The UK Has Thoughts About Moldova
Some reading and listening recommendations for your holiday break
Hello and welcome back to Moldova Matters! Merry Christmas (Old Style) for all those who celebrate! We’re still in the middle of Moldova’s long holiday season here and I’ll be back early next week for a roundup of the news of the past weeks. In the meantime, I wanted to give you some reading and listening recommendations. There have been a few excellent English language pieces about Moldova in the last few weeks so in case you missed them here are some links.
“The leader Putin failed to break”
That was the title of the article published on December 31st when the Telegraph named President Maia Sandu as their pick for World Leader of 2025. Senior Foreign Correspondent Adrian Blomfield traveled to Chisinau to interview her for the occasion.
The interview resulted in an excellent article which I highly recommend. He also interviewed her on camera and you can watch that interview on Youtube here.
The Rest is… Moldova!
My second recommendation is the most recent episode of The Rest is Politics podcast. Hosts Rory Stewart and Alastair Campbell traveled to Moldova this week to interview Maia Sandu for their second podcast “Leading.” That episode will be out on Monday and you’ll be able to watch it on Youtube or find it where ever you get your podcasts on the Leading feed.
On the same day as they interviewed Maia Sandu, Rory Stewart and Alastair Campbell also recorded an episode of their main podcast The Rest is Politics from Chisinau. The first half of the episode is dedicated to a discussion of whether or not Donald Trump’s actions in Venezuela indicate that the United States will soon annex Greenland1. The second half of the podcast is dedicated to a discussion of Moldova. It’s an excellent listen and we discover that 2 of Rory Stewart’s great grandparents were Moldovan!
You can find it wherever you get your podcasts or watch it on Youtube here:
Personally, a Pretty Cool Week
When he was in town in December I had the pleasure of meeting and chatting with the Telegraph’s Adrian Blomfield. As I’m basically the only foreign correspondent (of sorts) in Chisinau I’ve gotten to meet a lot of impressive and fascinating journalists over the years. This week though was quite a surprise as I got a last minute invitation by Rory Stewart to meet with him, Alastair Campbell and their team to discuss Moldova. I’m a huge fan of their podcast and a loyal listener since it launched in March 2022 so this was very cool.
“The Best is Yet to Come”
Finally, I hope that all of you are enjoying your winter holidays wherever in the world you are. In Moldova, we greeted the new year with a rather unexpected holiday wish(?) declaration(?) from the US Embassy. Here was their post:
This seems to be US Embassy Chisinau’s own special way of greeting the new year, as other Embassies such as those in Bucharest, Kyiv and Tbilisi took a slightly more traditional approach. Is it a prediction of the year to come in Moldova? I’ll leave that up to you to decide.
Once again, from me this time, Happy New Year and Happy Holidays. We’ll be back next week with a roundup of the news and we’ll resume our normal schedule.
Spoiler - they think he might and I completely agree.