Between the West and Russia: Moldova’s international brokers in a two-level game

Abstract

Moldova pursues a “dual alignment” strategy between two opposing political, economic and cultural blocs: the European Union (EU) and Russia. Why does Chișinău pursue such a strategy, and how (if) can it be sustained? While geopolitics and identity have their own explanatory power, this article brings in local actors–international brokers–playing in the two-level game. The “international broker” links the domestic and international fields by focusing on strategies deployed by local actors embedded in different interface networks. It is that double position in both the domestic and the international fields that allows elites to broker capital outside one field and turn it into policies and power positions in the other. Moldova’s tightrope act is thus explained by looking into how domestic actors strategically navigate within Russian and/or Western fields and in between the two. Russia-embedded President Dodon together with Western-embedded businessman/politician Plahotniuc and then, shortly, with former prime minister Sandu, made for “collective international brokers”: domestic actors with diverging but complementary external networks collaborating and using their respective (educational, political, business or oligarchic) networks to bolster their position in the domestic political arena.