TBILISI, September 5. /TASS/. President Maia Sandu is leading Moldova along the path of Mikhail Saakashvili, who dragged Georgia into the war, said former president, leader of the largest opposition Party of Socialists Igor Dodon.
"To understand which precipice Moldova is standing on, it is enough to compare the actions of Maia Sandu with the experience of Mikhail Saakashvili in Georgia. At first, Saakashvili convinced the Georgians that the path to the EU was realistic, they just needed to fully support it. When opponents appeared, he called them ‘anti-democratic forces’ that cannot be defeated within the framework of the law, which means that repression is needed. That's how arrests without trials and pressure on the opposition began. Then Saakashvili blamed Russia for all Georgia's internal problems and dragged the country into the war. Georgia has lost territories, economy and stability. Moldova is on the same path today, and Sandu is Saakashvili. Sanctions, repression, the destruction of the opposition and the media - all this is presented as a ‘movement towards the EU.’ In fact, the path to the EU is turning into a dictatorship, where laws and rights are ignored under the pretext of democracy," Dodon wrote on Telegram.
He called on Moldovans to learn from the experience of the Georgians.
"The EU's beautiful promises may hide a war. Nobody is waiting for Moldova in the European Union. Maia Sandu knows this. Her task is to bring the country to conflict, and she herself will be safe in the West," Dodon said.
After winning the 2020 presidential election, Sandu suggested using Saakashvili's experience, noting that she intends to involve foreigners in the justice reform. She met with Saakashvili on several occasions, and when he was arrested, she called on the Georgian authorities to release him several times. In response, head of the ruling Georgian Dream - Democratic Georgia party Irakli Kobakhidze said that Sandu should take care of ex-president Dodon, who spent six months under house arrest after criminal cases on accusations of treason, corruption, illegal financing of the party and other serious crimes, which were never proven, were opened against him.