Autumn landscapes in Romania

[Ayesha Erotica 1,925]

18 hours ago, FfFfFfFF said:

These are interesting observations, Latin languages like Romanian indeed tend to be pretty melodic!

The only way forward for Moldova is political union with Romania.

 

Transnistria is not a legit country with aspirations for ethnic self-determination and independence but a glorified money laundering scheme.

About Romanian as a language:

I think the Germanic influence and the Slavic influence on some Romance languages are like sugar and spice: they improve the dish as long as it is not too much. Romanian is Romance+a pinch of Slavic, like Pommes frites with ketchup, it sounds gound. French is Romance+a pinch of Germanic, it sounds beautiful. It makes languages hotter to have sugar and spice. The pure Romance languages (Italian, Spanish) sound very basic and melodically impoverished to me, like rice without any other ingredients; like Pommes frites without salt.

About the reputation of Romania:

You are right that Romanians and Bulgarians have a rather negative image in the rest of wealthier Europe. The Romanians who came during the communist/socialist times or shortly afterwards are now perfectly integrated and are sometimes so normal that they are no longer perceived as "the Romanians". I know some who are super integrated, but they are people who have been here for a long time. In my opinion, the EU with its labour caravans is to blame for the bad image of the Romanians who emigrated to richer EU countries and Switzerland since around 2010: big companies exploit Romanians and Bulgarians - they recruit them from Romania, they are then packed into blocks of flats where practically only other Bulgarians or Romanians live and they are socially segregated. They then do low-paid jobs, jobs with low prestige that no one else wants to do, but which are better paid than if they were to do them in Romania.

So they get a negative reputation. Of course, people then celebrate their Romanian festivals in such blocks of flats. And of course there is little motivation to learn German, Dutch, Polish or Danish if their work contract is temporary and they will soon return.
But this is one advantage of Moldovan independence: Moldova is so small and so unknown that it has no reputation really, and no reputation is better than a bad reputation, no reputation is like neutral reputation and this is OK.

I condemn this EU exploitation practice; the richer countries increase their prosperity at Romania's expense. I think the EU has rather a bad influence on Romania: people emigrate en masse and Romania remains rather poor.

About Moldova independent/unification:

I share your pessimism that Moldova is and will be ultra-poor now and in near future. Yet, I believe it shouldn't make the same mistakes as East Germany. EG joined Germany, well, it was bought by west Germany and now East Germany is unhappy about Germany's situation but they can't change anything b/c West Germany always overvotes them. They are not independent, cannot rule on their own. They gave up something so precious : their independence. To me, Moldovia joining Romania would be like Britney returning into her conservatorship: destiny is out of control. East Germany is now in a conservatorship. 

Switzerland and Ireland used to be poor, too, before world War II. Now Switzerland is one of the world's richest countries and Ireland managed to become a wealthy country. Estonia managed to become a better-doing post-Soviet country. I believe, Moldova, in a far future could do better.

There's so many advantages of being independent, here are some:

- If in a distant future, Moldova, Ukraine will be in the EU, and Ukraine ignores Romanian-language/ethnic peoples rights, TWO EU-members, both RO and MOL, can condemn UKR and cast TWO vosts. Two is 100% more than one.

- If other EU members threaten RO with punishments, MOL could use a veto and vote in favor of RO.

- MOL can cast televotes for RO at ESC.

- Chisinau is in the special league of capital cities. It can welcome world leaders. Chisinau may be much poorer than US cities of equal size, but none of the other US cities except for Washington is a full capital. Chisinau joining RO would turn Chisinau into, I'm sorry to say, irrelevant city to the world.

- Moldovan singers who migrated to Bukarest can claim to be famous in two countries, to be famous abroad.

About Transnistria:

I'm sorry I should have expressed myself clearer: I meant a bridge between Russia in a cultural sense (not geographic)  and Romanian-speaking world, like Québec is a bridge between America and France, without bordering France. Like London is a bridge between the UK and India, without bordering India; like Singapore is a bridge between China (in a cultural sense) and global anglophone culture, without bordering any of these. I support a federalized Ukraine and Odessa Oblast should become a federal state of Ukraine, in my vision Transnistria borders to the East Russian-speaking Odessa federal state that is part of Ukraine and Moldova to the West.

 

 

[Ultimecia 6,885]

On 10/23/2023 at 7:06 PM, LoliLux said:

Not only Romanias landscapes are beautiful but also its music.

Pe Cimpoi my beloved.

[littlepotter 76,616]

Omfg so gorgeous, the lakes

[VasilisVas 5,213]

Meanwhile in Greece we are having abnormally high temperatures raging between 24-28°C and it feels like summer with greenery and flowers everywhere. 

[FfFfFfFF 58,336]

22 hours ago, dit said:

is it true that Romania is one of the most densely forested countries in Europe still or no?

30% of Romania's territory is covered by forests - this is actually more or less the EU average (32%). What Romania has unique is its percentage of old growth/ virgin forests, which is one of the highest in Europe. But deforestation and Austrian involvelment in timber mafia are greatly endangering them, so who knows to what extend they will survive.

 

The core part of Romania is one continuous dense forest extending around the Carpathians. But Romania also has a great share of agricultural fields and other ecosystems (Romania, Ukraine and Russia actually share the same type of black soil which is incredibly productive - the East European Plain extends from Russia to Romania E of the Carpathians and its soil is why Romania, Ukraine and Russia are such successful grain exporters).

 

About Romania becoming less forested - percentage-wise Romania actually became more forested as a result of Soviet-imposed border changes of the last century, because the steppe regions were largely taken over by the USSR (nowadays they are part of independent Moldova and Ukraine). Side note: If Moldova will merge with Romania, Romania will become again less forested, because Moldova as a territory is predominantly made up of steppes.

Outside the Carpathians which make up 1/3 of Romania's territory, there are pockets of forest here and there all over the place - including inside Bucharest where a natural wetland park was established in a former industrial area taken over by nature (Parcul Vacaresti):

Another forested area of Romania which is now endangered (not by deforestation, but by war spillover) is the Danube Delta. The Turkey-mediated  Russia-Ukraine grain deal expired this year so Ukraine resorts to exporting its grains over the Danube which led to multiple drone explosions in the area, at the start of the year Ukraine itself dredged a Danube canal which likely affected water levels in the nature reserve).

[FfFfFfFF 58,336]

5 hours ago, VasilisVas said:

Meanwhile in Greece we are having abnormally high temperatures raging between 24-28°C and it feels like summer with greenery and flowers everywhere. 

It's similar in Romania. The autumn sceneries should have happened in late September/early October, not now, but summer is getting longer and longer. The last days of October actually gave Romania a record-breaking day in terms of heat - it was this week or the week before and we had 30 degrees. As if it was summer again, but before that it snowed in some parts of the mountains.  

[FfFfFfFF 58,336]

@LoliLux will come back with a an equally detailed response later which I take my time with 

[FfFfFfFF 58,336]

6 hours ago, littlepotter said:

Omfg so gorgeous, the lakes

The pictures of the lake are from Cuejdel (natural dam lake created by a landslide, which removed part of the mountain together with the trees)

Its more famous equivalent is the Red Lake (Romanian Lacul Roșu), which is actually pretty close nearby and has similar origins.

 

 

[FfFfFfFF 58,336]

@LoliLux

East Germany would not nearly be as economically succesful as it is today if it didn't reunite with West Germany (the situation is the same in regards to Romania proper and Moldova except they are proportionally less whealthy, which means Moldova is just slightly above subexistence). My personal take is that we cannot live in a world where every small sized province is independent - I also say this also looking at the tendencies there are in the Western Balkans today. Moldova has no future on its own (it's no fiscal paradise, has no banks, it's not part of Western systems like Ireland or Switzerland and unlike Latvia has no chance to join the EU without merging with Romania). And the EU reached its full capacity and countries like France wouldn't accept new members unless the EU is reformed from the semi-unified block we have now to a ''multi- speed Europe''. Ukraine will only be accepted in this manner, which means it will not become a full member like Romania. Moldova merging with Romania would be the last push the EU in its current form that and that would be a net positive for Moldova and for the goal of decreasing Russian influence in the region and undoing the effects of its colonization and imperialist actions. The alternative is that Moldovans do the work on their part and aquire Romanian citizenship (already between 40% or 60% Moldovans have Romanian citizenship).

Eventually the existence of Moldova will be called into question when its entire population is made up of a supermajority of Romanian ethnics with Romanian citizenship - it's just that is a slower process with less opportunties for growth and opens up the possibility of Russian coups and whatnot.

I understand that to have proxies is useful for countries to gain influence on the world stage because it allows them to pursue their interests in sometimes a hidden manner, but Romanians don't have this outlook, moreover Romania could gain more influence from within from becoming a more unified, larger state in both population and territory than to be split into 2 countries - one in NATO and one under heavy Russian surveillance. Russia is the biggest proponnet of Moldova's independence because it's a gateway to Russian manuevers and soft powers in the region.

To put it in more plastic terms, Moldova being independent from Romania is like Corsica being independent from France because Italy occupied it and refused to let it go, and coined a new national identity, moved Italians to colonize and to split the country of France in 2 (Corsica in this scenario is the equivalent of Moldova, while Italy is the equivalent of Russia) - clearly the French would not want Corsica to be independent and under Italian influence. Wwhich brings me to the point that Russia should be allowed SOME concessions, but only resonable ones to not reignite its impersialist desires, like the ethnically Russian areas across its border with Ukraine or Crimea. 

I support the idea of the federalization of Ukraine for 2 reasons: 1) it's good for the minorities in Ukraine whose rights are limited; 2) could be a way to solve the war - but for obvious practical reasons the EU should have a buffer space to the Dnipro river at least (there are many Russians in Odesa oblast and a federalized Odesa would help Russians gain a foothold here). 

My second point regarding this - nodoby wants Transnistria to be independent, neither Romania, neither Moldova, neither Ukraine and neither Russia and Transnistria themselves. Transnistria is only useful as a territory to station Russian troops close to the Chisinau capital, Russia itself doesn't recognize its independence because it sees it as a Trojan Hourse inside Moldova.

Agreed with the metaphor regarding the Slavic/Germanic influence on French and Romanian - I never looked at it thise way myself, but it makes sense. Many people describe Romanian as Italian mixed with Russian which is pretty exotic and unexpected because people associate Eastern Europe with Slavic languages and probably think Romania and Moldova are Slavic-speaking as well.

[dit 46,738]

On 10/25/2023 at 3:45 PM, FfFfFfFF said:

30% of Romania's territory is covered by forests - this is actually more or less the EU average (32%). What Romania has unique is its percentage of old growth/ virgin forests, which is one of the highest in Europe. But deforestation and Austrian involvelment in timber mafia are greatly endangering them, so who knows to what extend they will survive.

 

The core part of Romania is one continuous dense forest extending around the Carpathians. But Romania also has a great share of agricultural fields and other ecosystems (Romania, Ukraine and Russia actually share the same type of black soil which is incredibly productive - the East European Plain extends from Russia to Romania E of the Carpathians and its soil is why Romania, Ukraine and Russia are such successful grain exporters).

 

About Romania becoming less forested - percentage-wise Romania actually became more forested as a result of Soviet-imposed border changes of the last century, because the steppe regions were largely taken over by the USSR (nowadays they are part of independent Moldova and Ukraine). Side note: If Moldova will merge with Romania, Romania will become again less forested, because Moldova as a territory is predominantly made up of steppes.

Outside the Carpathians which make up 1/3 of Romania's territory, there are pockets of forest here and there all over the place - including inside Bucharest where a natural wetland park was established in a former industrial area taken over by nature (Parcul Vacaresti):

Another forested area of Romania which is now endangered (not by deforestation, but by war spillover) is the Danube Delta. The Turkey-mediated  Russia-Ukraine grain deal expired this year so Ukraine resorts to exporting its grains over the Danube which led to multiple drone explosions in the area, at the start of the year Ukraine itself dredged a Danube canal which likely affected water levels in the nature reserve).

what an incredibly insightful post. Thank you so damn much!  

[Blackout19 15,877]

On 10/22/2023 at 9:17 PM, Killa said:

i love how proud you are of you're country.

I wish I could say the same

[Ayesha Erotica 1,925]

On 10/24/2023 at 10:58 AM, FfFfFfFF said:

The only reason why Moldova exists is because Russians wanted to carve up Romanian territory and we ended up in 2 states instead of one. This is the legacy of Russian colonization and should be undone – and I say this as a Moldovan.

 

17 hours ago, FfFfFfFF said:

Transnistria is only useful as a territory to station Russian troops close to the Chisinau capital, Russia itself doesn't recognize its independence because it sees it as a Trojan Hourse inside Moldova.

About Moldova & undoing historical mistakes:

Fun fact #4: Most people consider Moldova to be landlocked without access to international waters. Moldova has a 430 metres access to the Danube river and because the Danive river is an international waterway, Moldova has a 430 metres access to international waters through Giurgiuleșt port and if Romania and Ukraine both blocked MOL, it would not totally be blocked and have this little window as an access to the outside world that cannot be legally denied. So, technically, Moldova is only 99,999% landlocked. MOL has the shortest access to international waters of any country in the entire world. While you consider the partition of historical Romania as a mistake that should be undone by a unification with present-day Moldova, I consider something else that Russia has done as a big mistake that should be undone:  the Budjak region. The Budjak region historically belonged to Moldova/Bessarabia and Old Russia gave it to Ukraine because it wanted to divide Moldova and bereave it by its ports to make MOL poor and because it believed that Ukraine forever will be a RU vassal and therefore Budjak in UKR would be like in Russia according to Russian logics. In my opinion, Moldova should give Transnistria to Ukraine in exchange for Budjak region or give some of its northern territory in exchange for Budjak region. While 430m are better than nothing, a larger coastline would be better and help its development. MOL's priority shouldn't be unification with Romania, it should be Budjak getting back (reunification with Budjak!).

If Ukraine will collapse in future and RU will make more advances into the west, I think RO and MOL should team up and reconquer Budjak before RU will steal it - this is a hypothetical scenario. MOL shouldn't allow RU to take over Budjak. Also Ukraine never respected Budjak's linguistic diversity. MOL does the best job in establishing and giving autonomous regions special rights and deserves Budjak the most, imo.

About Transnistria being a Trojan horse:

I agree that RU wants to use it as a Trojan horse. I think it only partially succeeded. TR was supposed to becoma federal part of MOL with Veto right at state level, yet MOL didn't like this idea and rejected it. So, RUs plan was a failure. Also there is some advantage for MOL: because the most hardcore RU-supporters are in TR and TR is "shadow independent", they CANNOT vote for MOL politicians, correct me if I'm wrong. So TR doesn't really have a real influence on MOL politicis in the sense of having a meaningful voting base, if they are influenced then directly from Moscow. Imagine how pro-Russian Moldova would be, if TR was a real part of it and people could cast a vote there that counts for all of MOL. Sometimes I think, the Trojan horse plan failed. I think the war in Ukraine will turn pro-RU politicians in MOL more moderate and their numbers will drop. MOL is in the process of looking more West.

Why don't MOL and Ukraine impose both a blockade on Transnistria?? Transnistria is totally land-locked and if MOL and UKR denied access, RU soldiers couldn't be re-supplied.

About Moldova & the EU:

If Moldova unified with RO, it would receive RO subsidies. But I think there are other ways to get subsidies: MOL is a candidate for joining EU in future, France isn't against Moldova. It can and likely will get EU subsidies from Germany once it will be a EU member and it is only a question of time (and RU not annexing MOL). And Germany's subsidies will be relevant for MOL. MOL as a souvereign nation will receive more subsidies from Germany than if MOL as just a province of RO because smaller EU countries get a little bonus. Also if MOL was a part of RO, well, some people say RO politcians are corrupt and would misuse the money, so there's the risk of EU subsidies not benefitting MOL. Of course, politicians in independent MOL may be corrupt, too, and may misuse the money but at least they would build luxury villas in Chisinau and not Bukarest

About East Germany:

Do you know any big relevant East German (excluding West Berlin) companies? I don't know any. East Germany is relatively rich but it is not rich on its own terms. It is rich because it is subsidized and bought by West Germany: "“Today, not a single east German company is listed on the DAX-30, the nation’s leading stock exchange index,” the report notes. “And almost no major companies have their headquarters in East Germany. Many East German businesses are part of western German or foreign corporations."

https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2019/11/06/east-germany-has-narrowed-economic-gap-with-west-germany-since-fall-of-communism-but-still-lags/

East Germany is like a poor woman that married a rich man and is living now a richer lifestyle - but not on its own terms. I think MOL should go the hard way and become richer on its own terms and remain independent.

 

About your example of Corsica and Moldova not being a fiscal paradise:

Well, Corsica in this case would have a good historical argument to join France but independence could also be a chance for Corsica and have made it a better long-term solution. Romandie in Switzerland for example doesn't want to join France because Fr is ultra-centralist and Walloonia in BEL has no intention to do so either despite having also historic connections with France. I believe, if MOL join EU, and politicians will behave clever, that it at least theoretically has the chance to become a fiscal paradise! I base my judgement on historic examples and analogies and refer now to Luxembourg.

Luxembourg was poor like Moldova and an agriculture country in the 19th century:

"In 1815, Luxembourg declared its independence, but none of its neighbors officially recognized the independence of this tiny country. Despite the country’s desire for independence, Its territories were owned by king William the 3rd of the Netherlands.At that time, Luxembourg was a poor economy mainly based on agriculture and iron mining. Most people in Luxembourg were moving to developed economies for a better quality of life, like in the UK or US."

https://medium.datadriveninvestor.com/how-luxembourg-get-so-rich-49a3cdbe755f

Yeah, and the Luxemburgers migrated to other countries just like people leave MOL nowadays. In the 20th century LUX became a tax heaven, attracted foreign headquarters and became very rich. I believe MOL has a chance to follow the LUX-model and also become a fiscal paradise by having the lowest taxes in a more distant future. I believe MOL will be poor for a very long time to come but it shouldn't give up independence. It can become like Luxmeburg, Ireland, etc. Poor countries managed to get rich in the past. I believe MOL can do it, too, in a distant future - and being independent will help MOL to achieve it.

 

[FfFfFfFF 58,336]

@LoliLux Moldova is so poor - African country level of poor, without exaggeration - that it realistically has no chance to have a similar faith to other wealthy small-sized countries in the West (wealth in Europe is also in a gradient from the West- mostly Germay, France and the UK to the East; Poland got wealthy because of its strategic importance/size and proximity to Germany, Moldova is simply too eastern and doesn't have a leveled playfield).

Transnistria has a population of 500k people - a third are Romanians, a third are Russians and a third are Ukrainians. In an unified Romania (19Millions + 3 Million), they would not be too influential - although there is a number of Russians in Moldova outside Transnistria as well, but there are Russians in the Baltics states as well and they function well.

France actually doesn't want Moldova to be a new member in the EU, actually France's strategy is to promote a reformed EU with countries that have various levels of integration (a glorified version of what we have now which allows EU to not make new commitments with countries like Ukraine and Moldova)https://www.politico.eu/article/france-president-emmanuel-macron-multi-speed-europe-enlargement-ukraine-moldova-balkans/ This is in part why I support Moldova merging with Romania as an already existing member, because EU reached its full capacity in terms of full members.

Romania will also never block the acces of the Republic to the sea because any politician that would take something perceived as a measure against what Romanians see as their sister country would be political suicide (also why Greece never goes against Cyprus or why Turkey never go against Azerbaijan, because they see themselves as brothers and sisters - same in regards to Romania and Moldova as they are ethnically, linguistically and historically the same nation split in 2 by outside forces). That said Romania and Moldova have plans for the Giurgiulesti port (Moldova's only port) to be taken over by Romania sometime in the future, Romania also brought Moldova's gas conducts few months ago as it started to supply it energy.

In a way Russia has a veto in Moldova through Transnistria because it achieved its goal to stop the unification process which seemed on its way in the 1990s - and to answer your question, many Transnistrian locals are part of the Russian Army - to answer your other question, around 250k Transnistrias have the right to vote in Moldova's elections and they tend to vote pro-Russian.

Moldovan companies should continue to exist in an unified Romania, the same way local companies in Romania exist and function in Romania's various provinces - however what goes in and out over the Prut river shouldn't be counted as exports of importants but as good in national transits (in other words Moldovan wine should be sold in Romania W of the Prut river the same way it's sold in Balti, and without spending time at the border and being involved in border formalities). The fact that right now the EU border demarcates Romania from Moldova is a handicap.

I find a lot of common ground in what you're saying about Budjak, yes that is (or more fittingly was) Moldova's natural coastline. To this day it's a conglomeration of Bulgarian, Ukrainian, Russian, Romanian, Albanian and Gagauz villages - in the past it used to be Tatar/Bulgar but once annexed by Russia and the USSR they started to settle Ukrainians in large numbers which made them the majority. I actually very much dislike how Ukrainians try to deny this fact or when they negate that they benefited from the way Russian drew their borders. Both Budjak and the northern tip of Bessarabia were given to Ukraine and the Moldovan Socialist Republic received tiny and insignificant Transnistria as a compensation, which actually seceded either way because it was succesfully Russified.

[Ayesha Erotica 1,925]

15 hours ago, FfFfFfFF said:

France actually doesn't want Moldova to be a new member in the EU, actually France's strategy is to promote a reformed EU with countries that have various levels of integration.

In a way Russia has a veto in Moldova through Transnistria because it achieved its goal to stop the unification process which seemed on its way in the 1990s.

 

What France would like, especially Macron, and what the rest of the EU thinks are almost two different worlds. These are Macron's plans and proposals that have not yet been implemented and it is not yet clear whether they will ever be implemented because the other 26 EU states (or a [qualified] majority of them) would also have to agree. It is unlikely that a "multi-speed EU" will emerge because the majority of EU states does not want a class system with different categories, but rather a unified EU: either full member or not member at all [or having special biletaral treaties like with Switzerland & Norway]. Moldova is also treated differently than Ukraine. I agree with you that it is unlikely that Ukraine (in its current form) will be a full EU member in near future and mid-term future. The EU is skeptical and reserved and is actually showing inner signs of refusal towards Ukraine. However, this does not concern Moldova. Moldova only falls into the same bracket and league as Ukraine in terms of time, but it is treated differently: the EU has nothing against Moldova and wants Moldova to be in the EU, too, and Moldova will likely become a full member around 2030 (between 2027 and 2037) as long as it is not in the meantime attacked by Russia (then it won't be accepted) and adjusts its legal system to EU standards. MOL is so small and exactly b/c it is small, the EU does not consider MOL as danger. Because of its low population, it cannot flood working markets like Austria feared RO and BUL could do.

Romania can also stand up for Moldova, and if a multi-speed Europe really becomes reality, Moldova could become the last new EU member to enter according to old rules and newer rules would apply to subsequent nations like Ukraine. I have heard nothing that could stand in the way of Moldova's EU membership, other than a Russian attack. One should not overestimate Macron's words and wishes. France shows a lot of wishful thinking, for example with the EU army: this idea from Macron also failed. Not all, but some of France's reform proposals have already failed. Moldova can become a full EU member wihout RO unification.

These are tough times for Moldova since the war in Ukraine, and UKR, an important trading partner for Moldova, is making the economic outlook worse. But it also means that the percentage of trade with the EU will increase and Moldova is looking more and more towards the West and thus towards EU accession.

Perhaps Odessa Oblast will be taken by RU in the coming years (Ukraine's army is shrinking) and Moldova, fearing that Russia will also take it, will declare emergency mode and declare an emergency reunification with Romania so that it can get the NATO umbrella. It will then fully depend on whether the US (...and Turkey will accept it...Turkey might block it for some time and insist that Romania declares a Turkic language official because of Gagausia and gives them many extra rights... although Turkey never gives extra rights to minorities within its own country...) accepts Moldova as a NATO member. Because it is an emergency, Moldova would then also recognize Transnistria's independence, otherwise it would not be able to join NATO [but it could also become an EU member like Cyprus without recognizing Transnistria's independence]. So far, RU only made clear that it intends to counter-attack the West, if it directly gets involved in Ukraine, but this was not said about MOL excluding TRA. So MOL joining NATO wouldn't trigger a nuclear threat. Isn't this a possible scenario?

I'm surprised that TRA can vote for MOL politicians. It seems the pro-RU parties of MOL want it that way so they can get these bonus votes. However, I think, as long as Chisinau has no control over TRA, TRA shouldn't be allowed to vote.

[FfFfFfFF 58,336]

@LoliLux I agree that Macron's ambitions are not always conform with reality, but I also don't think EU expansion fatigue could be mended any time soon: because the EU needs to work like an unified body despite being made up of almost 30 independent states, all states are given veto power. So there only needs to be one country to oppose a measure an create trouble (those countries are often times Poland and Hungary). Many EU countries want to get rid of the veto which goes hand in hand with a reform of the system which would favor different levels of integration for member states. There needs to be only 1 country to oppose it and Moldova's ascension to the EU would be blocked. 

On Ukraine's membership I see conflicting statements from EU heads of states and politicians - like the German foreign minister who said “EU will stretch from Lisbon to Luhansk” - frankly I believe they give false hope to the Ukrainians considering that Ukraine will either not join the organization, either join it after it was throughuly reformed to accodomate future expansions.

And while I am a big supporter of the integration of the Republic of Moldova in the EU, I will also say we shouldn't glance over its flaws (lots of corruptions, influential shady oligarchs which have ties to Russia are very much real problems in Moldova's political landscape - unification with Romania would at least partially solve these as Moldovan institutions would be replaced with already existing Romanians one already adapted to EU standards and regulations - further, because a significant percentage of Moldovans in the Republic already have Romanian citizenship, Moldova is in a way already part of the EU - a merger would only formalize and conclude a process which started earlier and which exist at the ground leve).

About an emergy unification in case Russia takes over Odesa - this is what I believed would happen back in 2022 - I never expected the West to rally to Ukraine's defence to the extend that it did, in the early days of the war Russia occupied Snake Island and I thought it was a matter of time until they reach Transnistria and Moldova. The war proved useful for Romania because it weakened Russia's position in Moldova (needless to say I am not mad in the least), but since then its entire coordinates changed. Now the West wants a forever war until Ukraine gets back all its land and a new regime takes over in Russia, and implicitely for Ukraine to be eventually become a continental power (this is dangerous because for Romania bc Ukraine acts as a little Russia - Romania has issues with the way Ukraine treats ethnic Romanians living indigenously in Ukraine's western oblasts, with Ukraine's exploitation of Danube canals despite previous bilateral agreements, Moldovs-Ukraine border issues etc). All of Ukraine's western neighbours (Poland, Hungary, Romania, Moldova) have nuanced relations with Kyiv and there is a reason for that.

About Găgăuzia and Turkey's opposition, I think we're good - Turkey and Romania have unexpectedly good relations despite their history and from Romania's perspective it would be better for Turkey to have soft power in Găgăuzia than Russia - there are actually more Turks in Bulgaria and Turkey didn't block Bulgaria's ascension to the NATO even though it had the means to.