SPECIFICS OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION INTERESTS IN MOLDOVA IN THE CONTEXT OF NEW GEOPOLITICAL CHANGES

The USSR disintegration has generated a new geopolitical and geostrategic situation for Russia. She was „pushed deep inside Eurasia”, which was perceived as something inadmissible for a country that has been playing a major role in international politics and in Europe for centuries. Claiming to be qualified as a great power, Russia aspires to regain the former status - the superpower. Successive enlargements of NATO and the EU to the east have pointed out the inconsistency of Russian policy. As Georgia and Ukraine have embraced the Euro-Atlantic vector and Moldova - the European one, then it was revealed that Russian interests derive from the main (unofficial) objectives of its foreign policy, but also of geostrategic interests – to maintain control over the former Soviet republics. In order to preserve its great power status, Russia needs to maintain its influence, including military presence in Moldova as an instrument of exerting political pressure.