rising prices are continuing to hit president biden s poll ratings. now on bbc news, hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk, i m stephen sackur. russia s invasion of ukraine has raised anxiety levels across eastern europe, nowhere more so than moldova. this former outpost of the soviet empire shares a border with ukraine. it also hosts a pro moscow breakaway territory. it is poor, beset with corruption, and it could ultimately be in vladimir putin s sights. my guest is nicu popescu, moldova s foreign minister and deputy pm. how can moldova best protect itself? nicu popescu, in chisinau, welcome to hardtalk. it s good talking to you, stephen, hello. it s a pleasure to have you on the show. now, mr deputy prime minister, you ve had more than 100 days of observing vladimir putin s invasion strategy in ukraine. right now, do you fear that putin represents a threat to moldova, too? i think this war is making every single person living on the european continent not only feel the insecurity
moldova s foreign minister and deputy pm. how can moldova best protect itself? nicu popescu, in chisinau, welcome to hardtalk. it s good talking to you, stephen, hello. it s a pleasure to have you on the show. now, mr deputy prime minister, you ve had more than 100 days of observing vladimir putin s invasion strategy in ukraine. right now, do you fear that putin represents a threat to moldova, too? i think this war is making every single person living on the european continent not only feel the insecurity generated by this war, generated by this blatant breach of international law. and of course we, as all other people living on the european continent, feel the impact of this insecurity. of course, given our geography, our history, this insecurity in moldova is indeed felt quite strongly. at the same time, we are, of course, ready for all possible developments, for all possible contingencies. but in our assessment and this assessment is shared by our partners throughout the
the outbreaks have raised concerns about a city wide shutdown just as china s second largest city shanghai re emerged from a two month lockdown. now on bbc news, hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk, i m steven sackur. russia s invasion of ukraine has raised anxiety levels across eastern europe, nowhere more so than moldova. this former outpost of the soviet empire shares a border with ukraine. it also hosts a pro moscow breakaway territory. it is poor, beset with corruption, and it could ultimately be in vladimir putin s sights. my guest is nicu popescu, moldova s foreign minister and deputy pm. how can moldova best protect itself? nicu popescu, in chisinau, welcome to hardtalk. it s good talking to you, stephen, hello. it s a pleasure to have you on the show. now, mr deputy prime minister, you ve had more than 100 days of observing vladimir putin s invasion strategy in ukraine. right now, do you fear that putin represents a threat to moldova, too? i think this war is making every
my guest is nicu popescu, moldova s foreign minister and deputy pm. how can moldova best protect itself? nicu popescu, in chisinau, welcome to hardtalk. it s good talking to you, stephen, hello. it s a pleasure to have you on the show. now, mr deputy prime minister, you ve had more than 100 days of observing vladimir putin s invasion strategy in ukraine. right now, do you fear that putin represents a threat to moldova, too? i think this war is making every single person living on the european continent not only feel the insecurity generated by this war, generated by this blatant breach of international law. and of course we, as all other people living on the european continent, feel the impact of this insecurity. of course, given our geography, our history, this insecurity in moldova is indeed felt quite strongly. at the same time, we are, of course, ready for all possible developments, for all possible contingencies. but in our assessment and this assessment is shared by o
and i m just wondering, when you tell me that your assessment is, for the moment, you re safe, how long you think you re safe for? we cannot predict how this situation will evolve. at the same time, we are obliged as a government to be preparing for the full spectrum of threats and scenarios, including negative military scenarios. and we have been doing that since november. so, from before the war, we started preparing for the full spectrum of threats. this is what we re doing. so now we re not in a position to allocate different probabilities to this or that scenario. it s very clear that the situation in the region is dangerous. it s very clear that the russian aggression against ukraine is a major problem for all the countries on the european continent. it s also a problem for moldova. breaches of international law like that are a major problem, and what we have to do, without being able to predict how things will evolve is to prepare for the full spectrum of contingencies, and this