Moldova—which nobody ever talks, thinks, or cares about—is actually historically fascinating in the context of the Russia-West conflict. It adopted Orthodox Christianity in the mid-14th century. Because it was on the borders of Byzantium, it had to fight relentlessly with its neighbors to protect its faith, like the Serbs, Bulgarians, Ruthenians and Romanians. This martial history of spilling blood for the faith explains in part why all of these countries are so devoted to it to this day, and are sympathetic to the Russians.
Almost two-century period as part of Russia explain why it remains so pro-Russian to this day: the Moldovans saw the Russians as welcome liberators and Orthodox brothers, not as hostile occupiers. They are happy with their affinity to the Russian language and do not see it as an unwelcome foreign intrusion. Their shared faith with Russia amplifies this, and the ties between the two churches are shared and strong, with the Moldovan faithful venerating Russian saints (Russia has more saints, by very large margin, than any other country) as their own, and benefiting greatly from the treasury of Russian spiritual content, again, in the Russian language. @cbausman
https://arkrussia.substack.com/p/if-russia-takes-odessa-moldova-becomes?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=2161492&post_id=181706911&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=59tai3&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
