Moldovan leader Igor Dodon met Russia’s President Vladimir Putin on January 17 in his first visit abroad since he won the presidential elections last December. 

Beside vocally confirming his pro-Russian orientation, which prompted equally vocal reactions from the pro-EU coalition in Chisinau, Dodon explored the pragmatic options for turning country’s external orientation toward the Eurasian Economic Union.

“I believe that the PSRM [Socialist Party] will win the [parliamentary] elections in 2018 and we will abrogate the Association Agreement with the EU,” Dodon said at a joint press conference with Putin.

In his talks with the Russian president, Dodon asked for observer status with the Eurasian Economic Union and Eurasian Commission for Moldova. After the 2018 elections, which he hopes his PSRM will win, Moldova plans to scrap the Association Agreement, Dodon added.

Dodon proposed signing a memorandum on Moldova’s cooperation with the Eurasian Economic Union within a few weeks. This does not breach the Association Agreement signed by the country with the European Union in 2014, he explained. The memorandum would be a first step toward observer membership status, he added, implying that full membership would be considered in the long term.

Dodon also informed Putin about his plans to thoroughly evaluate the results of the Association Agreement with EU officials in Brussels.

Dodon’s pro-Russian orientation is not something new, but his pragmatic approach could invalidate the broad belief that his rhetoric was only for electoral reasons.

After his election victory, he has toned down calls for a public referendum on Moldova’s Association Agreement. The option, technically within the power of the president, is politically unrealistic since voters would hardly give up the visible benefits brought by the agreement for the uncertain prosperity promised by the Eurasian Economic Union. Dodon and his PSRM have a strong lead in the polls, but this is partly because he advocates country’s dual partnership with the EU and the Eurasian Economic Union.