Welcome to Hard Talk on the BBC World Service with me, Stephen Saka.

My guest today had been in his current job, foreign minister of Moldova, for just six months,

when the Russian invasion of Ukraine pitched his small country into a full-blown regional security crisis.

Niku Popescu is a young policy advisor turned senior minister and deputy prime

minister in a pro-Western Moldovan government which is officially neutral, but which sees much to

fear in Vladimir Putin's brand of Russian expansionism. In the early weeks of the war, there was a real fear that a Russian

military sweep through Ukraine could see Moscow push its offensive into Moldova, formerly incorporating

the breakaway territory of Transnistria into Putin's vision of a greater Russia. Now, that hasn't

happened, and for now the Russian military

focus remains in the Donbass, but Moldova's fragility has been thoroughly exposed. On top of

endemic poverty and corruption, the country is now struggling to cope with 100,000 Ukrainian

refugees, the highest per capita inflow in all of Europe.

The country remains utterly dependent on Russian energy supplies, and that means the current

government's desire to apply for EU membership and work with NATO on improving Moldova's

threadbare military could come at a high cost. In a

neighborhood suddenly fraught with danger, how does Moldova best protect itself? Well, Deputy PM and

Foreign Minister Niku Popescu joins me now from Chisinau. Welcome to Hard Talk. It's good talking to you, Stephen.

It's a pleasure to have you on the show.

Now, Mr Deputy Prime Minister, you've had more than 100 days of observing Vladimir Putin's invasion strategy in Ukraine.

Right now, do you fear that Putin represents a threat to Moldova too?

I think this war is making every single person living on the European continent

and not only feel the insecurity generated by this war,

...