MARENGO — In the mid-1990s a friendship blossomed in the Highland High School cafeteria over a shared annoyance with mosquitoes.
“You know, that awkward conversation you have when you’re making friends with somebody you’ve never met,” explained Highland alumna Karla Loebick.
Loebick had invited Natalia Catrinescu, a Moldovian exchange student, to sit with her at lunch, and they instantly clicked.
“We became best friends immediately,” Loebick recalled when they met at age 16. “We were pretty much inseparable.”
The pair shuffled between extracurriculars and weekend hangouts together for the remainder of Catrinescu’s exchange year, but that year was only the start to a decades-long friendship. Today the two are thousands of miles apart, Catrinescu in Moldova and Loebick now in Virginia.
They keep in touch regularly — traveling to see each other before the COVID-19 pandemic and almost daily virtual communication since.
But check-ins have become increasingly difficult recently — both in frequency and subject manner.
Natalia Catrinescu, now Natalia Gavrilita, is the prime minister of the Republic of Moldova, which borders Ukraine to the southwest. Gavrilita’s responsibilities have been consequently heightened as the region was thrust into war when Russian troops invaded Ukraine in late February.
Gavrilita has called for the restoration of peace. She signed Moldova’s application to join the European Union in early March, and as head of government works to provide assistance to the thousands of refugees who have crossed from Ukraine to Moldova.
On March 6, Gavrilita met with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken during his official visit to the Republic of Moldova, during which Blinken discussed support for Moldova’s efforts to receive and assist Ukrainian refugees, and U.S. support for Moldova’s democracy, sovereignty and territorial integrity, according to reports from the U.S. embassy in Moldova.
Gavrilita could not be reached directly for this article, although requests for comment were made through Loebick.
In an interview in early April with Deutsche Welle News, Gavrilita said Moldova is the country most affected by the war, aside from the countries in the conflict.
“We’re not talking only about the societal effort to host the refugees but the economic and social consequences of the war on our borders,” Gavrilita said. “Trade has been disrupted. About 15% of our trade was with Ukraine and Russia and Belarus.”
Gavrilita also provided updated figures on the influx of refugees in Moldova, explaining the Moldovan border has been crossed by more than 400,000 Ukrainian refugees, with 100,000 who have decided to stay in the country.
“At a stable population of around 2.7 million, this represents more than 3% of our population, almost 4%,” she said.
History of Moldova
Moldova is a country slightly larger than the state of Maryland. The territory of Moldova has been occupied by numerous groups throughout its history.
In ancient times, the land was the Principality of Moldavia, the medieval precursor of modern-day Moldova, parts of Romania and Russia. The principality was a part of the Ottoman Empire until the 19th Century when the Turkish and Russian wars resulted in the eastern part of the territory, called Bessarabia, transferring to the Russian Empire.
Russian control extended until 1918 when Bessarabian leadership decided to unite with Romania. The union with Romania lasted until 1940, when the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics annexed the territory.
Moldova became an independent republic after the collapse of the USSR in 1991. The United States recognized the independence of Moldova on Dec. 25, 1991, and established an embassy in Chisinau, its capital, the following year.
Moldova adopted its first constitution in 1994, and was admitted to the Council of Europe in 1995, right around the time Gavrilita studied in Ohio.
Gavrilita was part of the first exchange student cohort in the United States from Moldova.
Today, Russia’s main influence on Moldova is Transnistria, the separatist Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic established in the early 1990s located on the border with Ukraine.
Transnistria declared its independence about 30 years ago and Russia has long kept soldiers there, but it remains unrecognized as a nation by any member of the United Nations.
“We currently do not see any specific plans or movements that would lead to the conclusion of an intent to engage the Russian troops stationed in the separatist Transnistria region in the war,” Gavrilita said April 5.
“But, of course, the situation is highly uncertain so under these circumstances … we really need to build up our capacities very quickly.”
Gavrilita: Then and Now
Loebick, who now does higher education consulting for Coastal Cloud, said Gavrilita had a knack for policy, even as a 16-year-old.
“In high school, it was really interesting because the way that we do history classes and world government and things like that, Natalie was so far advanced from where we all were in our learning,” Loebick said.
“She would debate and have these perspectives that were very unique, and I think any of us who knew her knew she was very passionate about those things.”
Following Gavrilita’s time in Ohio, she received a bachelor’s degree from Moldova State University and a master’s in public policy from Harvard Kennedy School.
Before becoming prime minister of Moldova, Gavrilita had other positions within government, such as minister of finance as well as secretary and chief of staff with the Moldovan Ministry of Education.
Outside government, some of her positions have included senior consultant for Oxford Policy Management and managing director of the Global Fund for Innovation, which invests in social innovations to improve opportunities for people in the developing world.
“Did I ever think in a million years that the girl I sat eating pizza with after track practice on the kitchen floor would be the prime minister? Absolutely not,” Loebick said with a laugh.
“But I always knew she was going to do something to make change, and whatever angle she found, I knew she would do well.”
