MOSCOW (Sputnik) — During his election campaign Dodon stressed the need to improve Chisinau's relations with Moscow, especially in the economic sphere, and even suggested that once he becomes president Moldova would hold a referendum on whether the country should withdraw from the 2014 political and trade agreement with the European Union and instead join the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Community. Meeting with the head of Russia’s upper parliament house, Valentina Matviyenko, Dodon said on January 17 that Moldova “signed certain agreements with the EU that hastily came into force in 2014.”

He was referring to the Association Agreement that aims to create closer political ties and remove trade barriers between the EU and Moldova, a small former Soviet republic that borders EU member Romania and Ukraine. Moldova is a parliamentary republic in which the president has largely symbolic tasks, but Dodon’s legitimacy is enhanced because he is the first president in 15 years to be elected through direct voting.
Moldovan President Igor Dodon, during his first state visit to Russia, says Moldova could scrap the 2014 Moldova–European Union Association Agreement after the country's next parliamentary election.