Tiraspol, 17 May. /Novosti Pridnestrovya/. There are people in Moldova who are terribly disgruntled by the SunStroke Project group, even despite their third place at the recent Eurovision Song Contest. And it is all because the guys speak Russian, writes Dmitry Kobzar, a commentator for Moldova's Komsomolskaya Pravda daily.
SunStroke Project, who represented Moldova at Eurovision 2017, took third place. It is the best result that Moldova has achieved throughout the history of its participation in the contest. After the performance, the musicians made a video to share their emotions. «Dreams come true!» the guys vividly exclaimed, but the Russian language they spoke outraged part of Moldovan society, Moldovan journalist Elena Robu expressed her chauvinistic «pah», posting a text in her blog titled «I can't be proud of SunStroke Project's performance at Eurovision». Below is the translation of a fragment of this text.
«I'm not proud of these achievements. This is a peculiar feeling when you cannot be glad for the musicians who do not represent you. 'Multumesk!' said from the Eurovision stage in Romanian was good, but what followed makes one feel stiff rather than rejoice in full at Moldova's achievements. The SunStroke Project guys spoke only Russian. And it doesn't matter now that they come from the Pridnestrovian region, but it would be nice if they spoke the language of the country they represent," wrote Robu.
Many columns and posts have already been written in media outlets and on social networks — over several dozens, Dmitry Kobzar comments on her words.
«This terribly astonishes me as I can't understand how the language the musicians speak is related to their performance. The guys, let me remind you, sang a song in English. Does it also insult the titular nation?» he asks.
Our answer is: «No way, our dear colleague.” It is not the English language but Russian that makes some members of Moldovan society grimace, with their souls wallowing in obscurant nationalism. This has been happening for several decades now. Many still remember the slogan of Moldovan intelligentsia of the late 1980s: «Suitcase — railway station — Russia!», «Russians across the Dniester, Jews in the Dniester».
The language problem, the root cause of the Moldo-Pridnestrovian conflict, has not disappeared. Let's recall a recent case in the OSCE mission when Moldovan journalists showed disrespect for Pridnestrovians, making Moldova's negotiator Gheorghe Balan answer in Romanian a question asked in Russian.
Outright hostility to the Russian language some part of Moldovan society is diagnosed with reaffirms that the seeds of conflict continue to sprout thick thorny bushes through which it is impossible to make way even with the sharpest machete forged in the crater of public diplomacy.
What common Moldo-Pridnestrovian state can we talk about now when a large part of Moldovan society continues writhing in anti-Russian hysterics? Many Moldovan citizens do not seem to want to learn the lessons of history, preferring a defective idea of the world based on intolerance against all Russian to civilised development. It is obvious that Pridnestrovians would rather keep away from such public.
Nikolay Syrbu.
