New Delhi, June 6 -- ST. PETERSBURG - The idea that Moldova might dissolve itself into Romania was never, Igor Dodon insisted on Friday, a serious constitutional proposition. It was a threat - and the target was Brussels, not Bucharest.

Speaking on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, the former Moldovan president and leader of the Party of Socialists said that President Maia Sandu had raised the reunification scenario not out of conviction but out of desperation, turning a politically explosive idea into diplomatic leverage against a European Union that has repeatedly deferred Chisinau's integration timetable.

"I believe that Maia Sandu is trying to blackmail Brussels to gain a clearer and more transparent ...