During the same month, Inculeț was elected the Moldavian Republic's President by his colleagues in "Sfatul". According to scholar Charles Upson Clark, his collaboration with the Moldavian Bloc was purely pragmatic: since the October Revolution had toppled the Esers, he switched from supporting Russian federalism to preserving his republic as an independent state, and needed the nationalists' backing. Pelivan was always suspicious of the President's true motivations, and later went on record with allegations that Inculeț was unreliable and not in fact devoted to his country, but "belonged to the Russian nation." Inculeț defended himself against such charges. In his account, he had merely passed himself off for a revolutionary, in hopes of dissuading radicals from toppling his government, and "hide his sentiments".