Russia promoting information campaign on protection of Russian-language speakers in Moldova - ISW

That's according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), Ukrinform reports.

Russian state media reported on December 27 that 19.1 percent of school children in Moldova choose to receive educational instruction in the Russian language, while claiming that the Moldovan government's refusal to recognize Russian as a state language in 1989 led to the war in Transnistria and the conflict with Gagauzia. In addition, Russian media claimed that the ruling pro-European Moldovan Party of Action and Solidarity is exacerbating these alleged long-standing language divides by failing to grant Russian language the status of "a language of interethnic communication."

According to ISW experts, claims that the Party of Action and Solidarity is threatening Russian speakers in Moldova allow Russia to frame any potential Russian support for pro-Kremlin actors in Moldova as a humanitarian attempt to protect Russian speakers instead of an attempt to politically destabilize Moldova itself. Analysts note that the Kremlin used exactly this line of argument as one of the bases for its 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

ISW believes that Russia is likely attempting to justify any future actions in Moldova as an attempt to protect its "compatriots abroad," a term that Russia has broadly defined to mean ethnic Russians and Russian speakers outside of Russia regardless of their citizenship.

"Russia continues to justify its invasion of Ukraine, in part, by claiming Russia is protecting its "compatriots" in Ukraine and their right to use the Russian language and will likely continue to use this narrative when discussing any future Russian attempts at imperial reconquests," ISW said.