A Lithuanian who has visited a country that has become a hole in the region: in one respect, it is more fortunate than Lithuania

For decades, it has been stably the poorest country in Europe. And let other countries do nonsense, land foreign planes, not work or go to war – no one can take away the name of the poorest country from Moldova. Neither Ukraine, which is in a state of constant war, nor Belarus, which lives solely on Russian benefits, can still compete with Moldova.

As I have already mentioned, the main contributor to this poor situation has been the fact that since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Moldova has become entangled in corruption, with the former communists and all sorts of outrage taking over the pockets.

All this was compounded by the fact that the Moldovan authorities had been stumbling for a long time and had not decided in which direction to surrender to Russia now, as most Russians wanted, or to look to the West, as most Romanian-speaking Moldovans wanted, or to become Switzerland in the region. , which is total nonsense for a failed state. All that distraction has made Moldova just a hole in the region.

Many years have passed and the distraction continues, although the advantage of the country’s European-minded population has become clearer recently. The country has elected a pro-Western president and is reluctant to declare its ambition to move towards Europe. If we manage to maintain that direction, it cannot be ruled out that Belarus, which is falling into the abyss in the near future, may change the title of the poorest European country from Moldova.

Of course, the standard of living in Moldova is already improving, albeit slowly. The capital, Chisinau, for example, has changed quite dramatically compared to when we first visited it.