Russian MP Konstantin Zatulin said Moldovans deserve to disappear (TASS statement)
Executive summary
Russian MP Konstantin Zatulin has repeatedly made hostile public comments about Moldova and Moldovans in 2025, accusing Moldova’s leadership of betraying the country and warning of dire outcomes; multiple outlets quote him calling Moldova’s elections “dirty” and claiming Moldova could be absorbed or “merge” with Romania [1] [2]. A Moldovan outlet directly reports a TASS interview in which Zatulin allegedly said “Russia will wipe Moldovans off the face of the earth” and that Moldovans “deserve to disappear,” a claim the Cotidianul summary attributes to a TASS interview [3]. Available sources do not mention a verbatim TASS headline with those exact words beyond the Cotidianul claim (not found in current reporting).
1. What Zatulin has publicly said about Moldova — a pattern of delegitimisation
Zatulin, first deputy chair of the State Duma committee on CIS affairs, has openly attacked Moldova’s political direction in multiple interviews and briefs: he described the recent parliamentary vote as “dirty and dishonest” and warned that the country is moving toward loss of independence or “merger” with Romania [1] [2]. He frames Moldova’s pro-European leadership as “surrendering their country to the mercy of the European Union” and criticises President Maia Sandu by name in TASS interviews [4] [5].
2. The most inflammatory claim: sources and limits
A Cotidianul report quotes Zatulin as telling the Kremlin news agency that “Moldovans, like Ukrainians, deserve to disappear as a nation” and that “Russia will wipe Moldovans off the face of the earth” [3]. That claim, if accurate, would be a direct incitement against a national group. However, among the provided search results, the explicit phraseology appears in Cotidianul’s reporting and in secondary summaries; the TASS items and other direct transcripts in this set document hostile rhetoric and warnings but do not reproduce that exact threatening sentence elsewhere in these search results [1] [4] [2]. Therefore the strongest allegation rests on Cotidianul’s version of a TASS interview rather than multiple corroborating primary transcripts in the current collection [3].
3. Context: longstanding themes in Zatulin’s rhetoric
Zatulin’s record shows a consistent theme of questioning the legitimacy of neighbouring states’ orientations and minorities’ status: he has previously suggested cities like Odessa are “alien” to Ukraine and urged special treatment or repatriation policies for Russian compatriots abroad [6] [7]. He has long publicly argued that unresolved issues such as Transnistria’s status threaten Moldova’s survival and should be resolved in ways favourable to Russian-aligned populations [8] [9].
4. How media outlets amplify and translate rhetoric
Most of the reporting about Zatulin in the provided set comes via TASS and a network of outlets that reprint TASS or Pravda-style summaries; some stories are framed as commentary or opinion pieces rather than verbatim quotes [10] [11]. Regional outlets like Cotidianul and PolitNavigator publish sharper paraphrases and summaries that may intensify wording for readers. This ecosystem raises the risk that particularly inflammatory phrasing circulates through secondary restatement rather than through multiple independent primary transcripts [3] [1].
5. Why the distinction matters: legal and diplomatic stakes
If a state official explicitly calls for a nation’s eradication, that is a grave international legal and diplomatic matter. The available reporting in this package documents demeaning, delegitimising, and threatening rhetoric by Zatulin toward Moldova and Moldovans, but corroboration of the most extreme phrasing rests on a smaller set of sources [3] [1]. Governments and journalists distinguish between harsh political invective and explicit calls for violence; the current material shows the former clearly and the latter primarily through Cotidianul’s account [3].
6. Competing viewpoints and likely motivations
Russian state-aligned media and officials treat Moldova’s westward turn as a geopolitical loss and frame criticism as defence of compatriots and traditional values [4] [9]. Moldovan and Western outlets characterise such statements as interference and intimidation; Cotidianul’s publication reflects Chisinau’s alarm and calls for diplomatic response [3]. Observers should note the implicit agenda: portraying Moldova as illegitimate or doomed supports narratives justifying stronger Russian influence or intervention [2] [8].
7. Takeaway for readers and reporters
Zatulin’s rhetoric toward Moldova is consistently hostile and undermining; the most incendiary attribution — that he said Moldovans “deserve to disappear” — is reported by Cotidianul citing TASS but is not reproduced verbatim across the wider set of primary items here, so confirmation from the original TASS transcript or video would be decisive [3] [1]. Reporters and officials should seek the original TASS text or audio before treating the extreme wording as independently verified; meanwhile the pattern of delegitimisation and pressure is established in multiple sources [1] [4].