"Information Direct from the Manufacturer": An interview with the guys behind Privesc.Eu

First off, apologies for the long absence from this space - things have been genuinely busy at work, and I just haven't had the time.  Fortunately, something I initiated back in early October, before I got busy, has finally born fruit.

I think I first wrote about Privesc.Eu back in July, on Moldova's second election day of 2009.  At the time, I described it as

a streaming video site called privesc.eu ("I watch," in Romanian), launched during the campaign, which has increased transparency by showing complete video of press conferences and public meetings of, for example, the Electoral Commission... rather than the carefully edited versions which appear on state-run TV.

And that evening, I watched on a laptop in my kitchen as the results came in and Privesc.Eu's live feed and open mic from the Central Electoral Commission picked up random conversations of journalists and election officials, including one where two people were discussing, in Russian, whether the country that had just voted should be called "Moldova" or "Moldavia." 

Anyway, I was familiar with Privesc.Eu founder Mihai Moscovici as one of the first Moldovan bloggers I saw on the interwebs, and more recently from his prolific Facebook updates, and decided to ask if he and his collaborators on this interesting project would mind answering a few questions about what it has been like to launch an online public-access channel in the midst of what has to have been one of the most politically tumultuous years in Moldova's history.

To put this in an American context, these guys have created something that is a cross between CNN, C-SPAN, NPR, and hip-hop (rap music being, in the immortal words of Public Enemy's Chuck D, "CNN for Black people"), all with a level of interactivity that makes full use of all the capabilities Web 2.0 (or is it 3.0 now?).  I don't think they were the first to do it in Moldova (Public TV and JurnalTV were first, I think, by a matter of months), but the team behind Privesc.Eu has done a great job working with hardly any resources other than what they have contributed from their own time and pockets.

Before (or after) you read the interview, please consider contributing some amount, however small (or large!) to support the work of these young Moldovans who are working to improve transparency and people's access to government in their country and for the many labor migrants who might otherwise be out of touch with political developments at home.  You can donate via PayPal (which takes all major credit cards) right here.

What motivated you to start this project?

On the way to democracy, Moldovan media find themselves forced to play the games of diverse political and economic interest groups, thus losing neutrality in presenting information to citizens. As a result, the Moldovan public is confused and is not discerning with respect to media coverage. Lately, international monitoring organizations have often criticized the Moldovan media for lack of objectivity, misleading reporting and one-sided presentations of information.

Since the Internet penetration rate in Moldova grows about 50% every year, online media coverage has long been a challenging journey for existing mainstream media, amateurs and new media projects. Still, there is a need for innovation and intense exploration to create new initiatives and progressively successful projects to satisfy the need of the Moldovan public for access to information online.

Information consumers, particularly youth, are looking to avoid media that only offer one-way information sharing and prefer to become participants in events and play their own role in the decision-making process.

We have started Privesc.Eu because there was a need for an innovative online platform which will give young people opportunities to share their opinions on real-time ongoing events, to instantly react and interact with each other, to ask questions, to be active and get involved in the country's daily life, to share and discuss their know-how, to organize and promote their own events, and, more than that, to share their activism by maintaining that platform.

Privesc.Eu is now an innovative online project, integrated with the latest social media elements and modern real-time data transmission technologies, that focuses on exposure of current events and on providing opportunities for social engagement for the Moldovan online youth community.

Did you start with a detailed business plan and specific goals, or just with a camera and a dream?

We started this project on July 5^th, 2009 in the central park in Chisinau. We had no business plan, but we had a dream, inspiration, and enthusiasm. In a few weeks, we realized that a business plan is necessary for the future of project, and eventually drafted one.

It occurred to me that Privesc.eu's content and goals are sort of like those of the C-SPAN channel in the U.S.  Are you familiar with this channel, and if so, what do you think of the comparison?

One of our team members watched this TV channel while living in the US, but we didn’t know about it until we launched the project. We started Privesc.Eu following the needs of the Moldovan society. As for comparison, we look forward to establishing such a TV channel in Moldova :)

When did you begin broadcasting online, and how did you promote the site when you launched it?  How quickly did you develop an audience, and how large is that audience now?

We started our broadcast on July 5^th, 2009, in the central park in Chisinau. On that day we set up the domain name for the project: www.Privesc.Eu (translated from Romanian as www.Watch.I).

We established two main directions of activity: provide live video streaming from the major events in the country (politics, economy, social, civil society, etc.); and establish user interaction to enable them communicate with each other and with the event organizers.

Since launching www.Privesc.Eu in July 2009, the site has continuously grown in traffic and user participation. In the first four months, the project has already become well-known among Moldovan young people in the country and abroad. Now we have more than 30,000 viewers per month. Every live stream on www.Privesc.Eu is watched and commented in real-time by 200 to 2000 visitors, depending on the event.

In addition, Privesc.Eu has more than 1000 fans on Facebook.

If you could start the project over again, is there anything that you would do differently?

If we would start over again, perhaps we would think more about better promotional methods than we have used so far.

Do the people involved have journalism backgrounds or more IT backgrounds?  (Please feel free to discuss what the various members of the Privesc.eu team do professionally or not, and/or their educational backgrounds, as you prefer)

Privesc.Eu was developed and is maintained by an innovative and creative team of volunteer young professionals: two high-skilled web developers, a professional journalist, a marketing/PR specialist, and an inspired and dedicated project manager.

You and your partners have obviously spent a lot of your own time on this project - how have you found time for this in addition to doing whatever your "day jobs" are?  And how much of your own money have you had to spend on equipment and other expenses (hosting, etc.)?

Five people are involved in this project: Eugeniu Luchianiuc, Vitalie Eşanu, Mihai Moscovici, Radu Chivriga, Oleg Ciubotaru. Each of them is responsible for a specific department: Tehnical Department - Vitalie Eşanu and Oleg Ciubotaru; Promotion and Marketing Department - Mihai Moscovici; Journalism and LIVE Video Streaming Department - Radu Chivriga and Eugeniu Luchianiuc. Every one of us has a primary job, but Privesc.Eu is more than just a hobby, it is a way for changing our society for better. We use our own equipment: laptops, microphones, webcams and 3G mobile internet services. Privesc.Eu is grown on enthusiasm and we don't seek any financial benefits from this project.

Have your expenses been covered by advertising revenue?  Do you have any other sources of funding for the project (private donors, grants)?

On our web-site, we have a page where people can donate money through PayPal or to donate money to cover our mobile internet expenses through top-up terminals. Until now, we have 13 private donors who have donated a total of 400 USD.  Also, we applied for a Soros Foundation grant and are currently waiting for their decision.

Why do you think online broadcasting is important in Moldova?

Privesc.Eu helps Moldovan internet users to have open access to unbiased, democratic, interactive, objective, as-is coverage of important events in Moldova.  It helps citizens to form their own opinions based on pure and as-is information, avoiding journalistic comments and opinions.

Privesc.Eu fills the void of information about the situation and events in Moldova currently experienced by citizens working abroad, as well as by those living in the breakaway Transnistria region.

What do you think Privesc.eu provides viewers that they cannot get from TV or other mainstream media, or from already existing online sources such as YouTube?

Primarily, Privesc.Eu is a source of pure and as-is information about Moldova’s major events for citizens, as well as for international internet users, tourists, business people, potential investors, researchers and other people interested in Moldova.

Do you view your primary audience as being located in Chisinau?  Moldovans overseas?  Rural areas of the country?  Romanians sympathetic to Moldova?

According to Google Analytics, last month we had viewers from 58 countries . Most of them are from Moldova – 27,000, Romania – 1,500, United States - 540, France - 500, Italy - 455. Moldovan viewers came mainly from 5 cities: Chişinău, Rîbniţa, Bender, Tiraspol and Balti.

Many Moldovan websites have Romanian-language and Russian-language versions (and often English-language as well) - is there a reason that Privesc.eu has only a Romanian-language interface?

We don't think this is a problem for Russian-speakers. Any visitor can easily click on the video and watch it as it is. Sometimes we cover events where people speak Russian. Also, there are many comments in Russian language during our live broadcast.

What has been the most memorable or most significant event you were able to broadcast this year (in the opinion of you and/or your partners)?

The day when we had the most traffic and the highest number of viewers so far, was July 29^th, when we presented the results of the elections in Moldova.  On that day we had more than 6,000 live viewers. Also, some Romanian TV channels and national web-sites used our live video stream.

Have you had any difficulties with hackers attacking your site or with people spamming or acting as provocateurs in the comments section?

Yes, we have lots of provocateurs in the comments section, but didn’t have any hacker attacks.

 Do you have any advice for people who might want to start similar projects in countries with semi-closed media systems?  Why do you think it was possible for you to make a project like this happen in Moldova, and do you think it would be possible for people in places with more authoritarian governments, for example in Central Asia (or Transnistria)?

The main problem is with the quality of internet coverage in the country, and it depends also on the country's government. Live video streaming requires a good Internet connection, without it you can only do live blogging from the events. 

 What are your future plans for Privesc.eu?  Do you have any plans to generate original content (roundtable discussions or interviews which would be exclusive to Privesc.eu), or will you continue to focus on providing direct coverage of government-related events without commentary?

We have lots of ideas, but it takes time and resources to develop them all, so we take one idea at a time. We already have a talk show called "Fara cenzura" ("No Censorship") it's a show that seeks to present the facts without editing the video. Follow Privesc.Eu and you’ll see many great things in the coming months.

A Racist Restauranteur - Routine in Russia?

This was a pretty amazing article - appeared a few weeks ago on the afisha.ru website and generated some reaction from the Moscow dining public. So I translated it:

White Russian
Zhenya Kuida, 18 Sept. 2009

"Our patio has been open all summer - it's a pity that no one really wrote about it. But we still did a great job with it - even on weeknights there was a line for it, people were booking tables an hour in advance. I've been scolded for the fact that not enough people know about our patio, but I just didn't have time, we built it all ourselves in a month, practically with our own hands, Arkady didn't even know. I heard he was going to hire another director for this restaurant and was on his way here to talk about that with me, but when he saw our patio he decided to let me keep my job."

Alexei, the director of Novikov's latest restaurant Tatler, is showing me sketches of how the interior is supposed to look. Inside they're doing the work (changing it from the restaurant which currently occupies the space, I Fiori), and for now only the white-curtained summer patio is open.

At the next table over, someone is smoking a hookah. The sketches show wooden tables, an open kitchen, Ralph Lauren furniture and clocks set to London time.

"Tatler is, after all, first and foremost a London magazine, the most important one about celebrities. Arkady really wants to make this restaurant more democratic, American-style, to get people to come here for lunch - big portions, big plates, an eclectic menu. It's true that we have a French chef, so this is difficult for him. At the last tasting Arkady took a long time explaining to him that he needs to have fewer fashionable things, that everything should be simpler. Why don't you order something, try something, everything is delicious, we have a new menu!"

The waiter walking by drops a menu, and Alexei rushes to help him. "I remember well what it's like to be on your feet all day. I myself am not from Moscow, I worked my first few years here as a bartender in a casino and then as a waiter in GQ Bar. I always found it interesting to work at the bar - even when I was a kid, I dreamed of becoming a bartender and making cocktails."

Alexei's phone rings, and he has a long conversation about a car loan. "I want to buy a Volvo, maybe now they'll give me a loan, one of the co-owners [of the restaurant] is a banker, he promised to help, and now I have a decent salary. It was, of course, a big step for me to become a manager. Although I'm really young, I run pretty much everything in the restaurant - I hire the staff myself, I watch the till, I structure people's work. Arkady only looks after the chefs and other little things."

Two beefy Armenians sit down at the table next to us, and Alexei's face darkens.

"Of course this used to be a completely dead restaurant. When I became manager, I cam here and freaked out - the place was full of darkies ["черные"]. It's like that everywhere - as soon as the darkies start to come, that's it, the restaurant dies. Of course I try to fight it - I don't let them in, I tell them that the tables are occupied or reserved, there's no table for you here, but you can't control everything, they still get in. And then normal Russian people come up to you and say, 'What sort of a zoo are you running here?' They also feel uncomfortable when something like that is sitting at the table next to them, they just want to come have dinner at a place with their own people, without these darkies. But what can you do, in these times of crisis things have become very difficult, who comes to restaurants these days? Just the darkies, no one else has any money. Just watch how restaurants go bad before your very eyes, and the same thing happens with clubs. One must strictly maintain the proper ratio - you can let them in sometimes, but not too many, so that they don't ruin the look of the place."

Alexei notices the hookah attendant walking by and calls him over. "By the way, we have excellent hookahs - the best in the city. Try the apple-flavored one, people say they come back to try it again."

Russian world

CIMG6491, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.

On the occasion of Russian-language advocacy organization Russkiy Mir (not this one) opening an office in Tiraspol, I decided to translate this commentary from an Ekho Moskvy blog about the role of Russian in the post-Soviet space:

Every day, there's some new story about the misfortunes of the Russian language in the former Soviet republics. Here are just three recent examples.

Kazakhstan: starting in 2012, all movies will be required to be shown in the state language [Kazakh].

Tajikistan: now all official paperwork, correspondence and education must be conducted in Tajik. All citizens are required to know the state language - Tajik.

And finally, Ukraine: Yulia Tymoshenko has signed government order #1033, which requires all public-school teachers to speak only Ukrainian during work hours - including during breaks. Even in the school cafeteria.

How can all of this be assessed by someone who lives in Russia, speaks Russian and loves their language? Of course, such a person should feel pain, bitterness and disappointment - basically, a whole range of negative feelings. After all, we're talking about the language of Pushkin and Dostoevsky! After all, this is the language which we all used to speak together and in which we all seemed to understand each other wonderfully! The language of peace and friendship!... And so on and so forth.

I love my language. That's what I could say. But I won't. Because I perfectly understand that there's no way to separate a language from politics.  Whether we like it or not, in the newly proclaimed states the Russian language is the most immediate (and daily!) reminder of the former empire.  And attempts to preserve or promote it are judged as attempts to return the former state of relations - between the imperial center and the colonies.

The arguments of the now-independent states say the following:  We have our own language, and this language should have an indisputable priority; anyone who wants to be a citizen of our country should first learn the national language, and all other languages are secondary.  Do you have anything to say against this?  I don't.  Because this is exactly how Russia acts in relation to its own state language.  And Russia is absolutely right!

But why does it deny others the same right?  Just because "we used to be together"?  That's why I won't say "how horrible" about the linguistic innovations of the former republics.

The real question is, what should Russia do about this - fight the situation or make peace with it?  I have an answer, but I doubt you'll like it.  We should make peace with it, I'd say.  Fighting it is not only useless, it's dangerous, because all it does is generate increased aggression and firm opposition to the phrase "Russian language."

So, we need to accept the situation.  And work out a new language policy.  A NEW policy!  One that will be, excuse the pun, free from politics.  People shouldn't be afraid of Russian.  They should love it.  And love and fear do not go together.

Divided by a common language?*

CIMG1630, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
Limba Noastra decorations in Chisinau last year.
This poster says "Our Language - Romanian," whereas I saw other,
similar posters elsewhere in the city that left off the word "Romanian."

On August 31st (yes, I've been busy IRL** and the timeliness of this post has suffered), Moldova celebrated a holiday called Limba Noastra ("Our Language"), which celebrates the Romanian language (notwithstanding the Voronin government's preference for calling the local dialect a separate "Moldovan" language) and country's transition to the use of the Latin alphabet at the end of the Soviet era.

IMG_7689, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
Signage in Floresti, Moldova, Aug. 2008
Moldovans of my in-laws' generation sometimes still accidentally sprinkle in Cyrillic letters...

The holiday occasioned a lot of interesting online commentary. Imedia offered a straight-news report. Morning in Moldova characteristically takes a somewhat strident tone in defense of more robust promotion of Romanian language usage in Moldova, in a post which occasioned a pretty interesting comment. Nicu Popescu posted (in Romanian) an interesting historical survey of Russification efforts which shows that Romanian language usage in Moldova has actually survived much harder times than the past eight years of PCRM rule, and expressed the pragmatic and in my view absolutely correct point of view that people should not get hung up on what to call the language. Louis O'Neill, writing for RFE/RL, discusses the language issue in light of the mini-scandal which erupted after Voronin's apparent outburst (delivered in Russian) in Filat's direction at last Friday's opening session of parliament.

Natalia Morari also covered the language issue in one of her columns for RFE/RL last month (they are being translated into English - from Russian - but unfortunately RFE/RL doesn't seem to have a way to aggregate all the translations of her posts on one page), exploring the situation of the children of Russian-speakers in Chisinau (or, more precisely, the situation faced by Russian-speaking parents of children in Chisinau). And finally, award-winning and sometimes controversial Moldovan blogger Soacra Mica shared her personal experiences with the country's bilingualism.

As for my own experiences in the ten years I've been traveling to Moldova, I can say that I've always felt comfortable using Russian in Chisinau, although I've been glad not to have to in recent years, having picked up Romanian (or Moldovan, whatever) over time. For the most part, I find that people in the Moldovan capital tend to be fairly laid-back about which of the two languages is used in their day-to-day interactions, which is something I have always admired - it means that, if you only know Russian, you don't have to worry that you are creating political offense every time you open your mouth. It's something of a problem, of course, for the many citizens who end up using both languages passably but neither of them correctly, but I am not much moved by arguments based on linguistic purism.

In any event, the penetration of Russian seems to be slowly waning - as far as I know, none of the deputies use it in parliament anymore (though this was the case a few years ago, and it's still common to see political figures give interviews in Russian), and there is now a generation of young adults which has grown up able to avoid using Russian entirely. As the photos posted below show, though, there is plenty of usage of Russian in the public space, especially in Chisinau.

Even when people can't agree to speak the same language, sometimes they can still have a conversation. Last year I had lunch in Chisinau with a politically active Moldovan who spoke Romanian to the waitress taking care of our table. She spoke Russian to him. They had a conversation about the menu, about what would be tasty that day, etc., and each understood the other but did not speak the other's language. Of course such situations have the potential to be a bit tense, but I think there is something positive - or at least not entirely negative - about the mutual acceptance.

Earlier this year, I attended a peaceful gathering with speakers by (then-)opposition politicians on Chisinau's main square, just a few days after the violence of April 7th. Of all the speakers, Andrei Popov, who is now in parliament with the PDM but at the time was working as the director of a think-tank in Chisinau, made the strongest impression on me when he gave some remarks in Russian about how the Communists were cheating all Moldovan citizens - Russian-speakers included - out of a democratic government.

Also earlier this year, I was talking with an Estonian who works in Chisinau about the country's bilingualism. I mentioned that it was an unusual situation of a country that is really bilingual. The conversation took an unexpected turn when my interlocutor agreed and pronounced the situation in Moldova "disgusting," expressing his relief that the Baltic republics had avoided a similar situation and that Moldova would be less confused politically and better off in general if it had somehow moved away from widespread use of Russian being acceptable. It's a not-uncommon point of view that I understand but can't agree with.

CIMG3202, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
Bilingual signage can be seen in all walks of Moldovan life. This is a sign listing prices for having
various prayers said or ceremonies performed at the monastery in Saharna in northeastern Moldova.

IMG_3948, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
A bilingual welcome to one of Chisinau's main athletic venues.

CIMG3335, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
A trilingual and very shady ad seeking "girls with fashion/swimwear body" in Chisinau.

CIMG6510-1, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
Fast food at the Central Market in Chisinau.

CIMG6495-1, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
Parking lot and mechanic services.

CIMG6491-1, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
Bilingualism beyond the grave - this sign advertises custom-made gravestones.

* There are actually two main "linguistic" divides in Moldova (notwithstanding that they persist in large part because of various political forces capitalizing on and exacerbating them, they do seem to be real), only one of which involves a common language: the division between people who self-identify as "Romanian" and the subgroup of people among those who self-identify as "Moldovan" who believe the language they speak should be called "Moldovan." The other linguistic divide in the country, of course, is between Romanian-(or Moldovan-)speakers and Russian-speakers.

** in real life...

Moldovan Independence Day

In my Facebook feed, I saw a witty observation flash by today - "Moldova has always been independent - nothing ever depended on it." Nicu Popescu had a very interesting post today, which I'd translate if I had time, about the Moldovan mentality of dependence (he developed the theme further in this interview).

But I'm going to use the day as an excuse to post some of my photos from last year's celebration of the holiday. A year ago today, I got up well before 9am, quite a feat on a holiday for someone who had just been a student for three years, and made it down to Chisinau's main square to watch the ceremony of flower-laying at the statue of Ştefan cel Mare.

I have no idea how the festivities went down today (actually, with the exception of Lupu's absence, it looks like a familiar scene - Zina shi Vologhea u Shtefana), but I'd imagine there is a more tense atmosphere this year, as tomorrow marks the first meeting of parliament after the July 29th repeat elections. The current government ministers will tender their resignations, and the no-longer-opposition will be able to form a new government (though it lacks the 61 votes required in Parliament to choose a new President).

According to the excellent Morning in Moldova blog, it is absolutely imperative that a speaker of parliament be elected tomorrow. Imedia reports (on their excellent and extremely useful new English-language blog) that the members of the Alliance for European Integration, recently formed from the four opposition parties that made it into parliament on July 29, may not quite be done haggling over who gets the spot. Of greater concern is the fact that the Communist Party this week stated that it will not negotiate with the Alliance as a whole, but would be happy to negotiate with the individual parties that make up the Alliance, suggesting that the horse-trading over who becomes the country's next President (and of course the side deals that may be necessary to arrive at a compromise on that central issue) may just be heating up.

Anyway, I prefer to think back to a happier time - last year, when I was still enveloped in post-bar-exam bliss, and April 7th was just another insignificant date like any other...

IMG_7941-1, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
PM Zinaida Greceanii, President Vladimir Voronin and then-Speaker of Parliament
Marian Lupu, accompanied by the Patriarch - separation of church and state is so
overrated - approach the Stefan statue, preceded by goose-stepping soldiers...

IMG_7965-2, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
...proceed past the assembled press corps...

IMG_7952, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
...and prepare for the flower-laying.

IMG_7979, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
Meanwhile, lesser lights await their turn to lay flowers of their own, and
the bigwigs' chariots stand ready, lined up with military precision.

IMG_8002-1, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
Who will get that license plate next?

IMG_8016, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
Even here, some jackass opinionated individual showed up with one of those pro-unification t-shirts.
A bit like showing up to a 4th of July celebration with a t-shirt claiming the US in George III's name.
Well, not really, but I couldn't think of a better analogy.

IMG_8010, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.

And the band played on...

IMG_8039, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
Celebratory flags outside Chisinau's City Hall.

IMG_8036, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
Beer tents set up in anticipation of a concert planned for that evening.

IMG_8022, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
At the time, I wondered if the arrows on the sign at right symbolized
Moldova's unfortunately non-straightforward road toward Europe.

IMG_8021, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
The holiday was known as Independence Day for years (still is, officially and colloquially).
Therefore, when I saw the signs on the stage on PMAN proclaiming it Republic Day, I
immediately recalled how for many years June 12th in Russia was celebrated as
Independence Day (though not without some bemused wondering about "who did
we become independent from, anyway?") but under Putin became known as the more
bombastic Russia Day. "Further evidence of Putinism in Moldova?" I wondered lazily.

IMG_8029, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.

Happy 421st birthday!

This year, my wife's hometown of Floreşti celebrated its birthday (last weekend) without us. Incidentally, unless there's a local trend with which I'm unfamiliar (which is not impossible, since I'm not exactly plugged in with the youth subcultures there), someone has pranked Wikipedia by adding a sentence to the entry about Floreşti - "Since 2009 Floreşti has become the most popular producer of Moldova's Hip-Hop and Rap industry."

Be that as it may, a phone call last weekend reminded me of how much fun last year's "City Day" celebrations were, and I decided to share a few of the photos from way back when (the whole photoset is here, including some photos of the two nights of concerts on the main square - on one of which the city was honored with the presence of one Fuego, an artist previously unknown to me who is apparently a Romanian pop star):

CIMG1244, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
Flyer showing the schedule of festivities, alongside information
about payment rules at the local telephone exchange.

IMG_7380, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
Bulletin board with the heading "Floreşti - Past, Present, Future"...

IMG_7425, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
...and several representatives of Floreşti's future.

IMG_7284, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
Celebratory assembly at the local House of Culture, which included speeches by
local luminaries and children reading some genuinely touching poems they had
written about their hometown - as well as an older woman who had witnessed and
survived deportation by the Soviets and read a tear-jerker of a poem about that ordeal.

IMG_7541, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
"Together we will succeed!"

IMG_7575, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
Small child with a toy gun on the main square.

CIMG1416, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
My in-laws' cellar.

18 years ago...

[image source - a personal memoir from someone who was there]

[image source - a great series of photos from 1991]

Last week, Snob.ru asked its community of readers and "global Russians" whether they remember August 21, 1991, the date when the GKChP and bit the dust - and with it, any chance that the USSR could be preserved. For those unfamiliar with the acronym, it stood for "State Committee on the State of Emergency," the group of people behind the attempted putsch which - much too late - aimed to derail Gorbachev's reform (or liberation, or running into the ground, if you prefer) of the Soviet Union.

[image source]
Boris Yeltsin at the barricades with his bodyguard Aleksandr Korzhakov,
whose apparent role in ruling the country (at least according to his tell-all
memoir) made him infamous during the '90s as a symbol of poor governance

The comments are pretty emotional and talk about the various stages of people's feelings about Russia's post-Soviet experiment:

Naive but wonderful feelings of unity - "A couple of times during the night [of 20-21 Aug.] I had a completely incredible feeling, as trite as it sounds, but a feeling of unity with my people [с моим народом], with all of the people [со всеми людьми] who had gathered there for whatever reason. It was a physical feeling of brotherhood, which I have never felt since. By 1993 it became clear that in 1991 we had been total idiots. What remained was an unpleasant aftertaste and those feelings, and it's not clear what to do with them. They have been lost for nothing. And it's a pity."

Later disappointment - "Everyone had incredible - and naive, as it later turned out - hopes...... Who could have known then that the nomenklatura (in epaulets and otherwise) would - having repainted itself - steadily come crawling back, once again grabbing up everything for itself, although now in the role of 'state capitalists'."

Dashed hopes - "Those were days when the hope appeared that there would be real democracy in [our] country. However, that hope rather quickly died a quiet death....I remember that since then I have never seen so many normal, human faces in one place. The first sign that nothing would really change was when they allowed the Communist Party to continue. First they banned it, and then they authorized it on the sly - that little fact left a feeling of extreme disgust. And didn't leave any hope for a better future."

Postcard of SVO as it looked in the late-Soviet era.

And one of Snob's readers had an interesting story which I've translated:

It was one of the most powerful impressions of my life!... At the time, I was working as a line customs inspector at Sheremetyevo-2. In those days, all of the flights with people leaving to live in Israel departed early in the morning (around 5am), so that arriving foreigners would not be discomfited by this picture of thousands of people emigrating. Naturally, all of the people leaving would show up at the airport the night before, and all night the departure halls were noisy, people would hold farewell parties for their departing friends and relatives; some laughed, some cried...

On the night of August 21, the departure halls were DEAD QUIET! And thousands of absolutely white faces, raised up to the monitors which had been set up in the airport, on which a single question was frozen - WILL THEY LET US OUT OR NOT? It was a frightening picture, burned into my memory...

The GKChP plotters and their not-so-bad fates (not counting Boris Pugo, who shot himself), 15 years later, as reported by AiF in 2006:

[image source]

More: Reports on the GKChP anniversary from 2004 and 2006.
Paul Goble's impressions of Russians' historical memory of August '91.

"A Soviet Fly in Geopolitical Amber"

[image source]

Strange Maps provides a dandy headline phrase describing Transnistria, as well as an detailed map of the region. I have a similarly fascinating poster-sized map of Moldova with various demographic breakdowns and migration statistics, but unfortunately I have no way to scan in such a big piece of paper.

Here's a recent update on the prospects for conflict resolution (if you can get past the tired phrases like "it could be a museum of the Soviet Union"), and here's a great resource if you are looking for further reading on the subject - three volumes of essays on the conflict which were presented at a conference that I attended in late May.

Here are some photos of Tiraspol, Transnistria's capital, from my most recent trip there on June 18 of this year:

CIMG3392, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
HQ of the local youth organization, Proryv (Breakthrough).


CIMG3391, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
Billboard of Russian President Medvedev and Transnistrian leader
Igor Smirnov - the banner at left reads "Our strength is in unity with Russia!"


CIMG3385, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
Decidedly old-school advertising posters outside of the Officers' Club,
which now rents some of its space to other organizations - unfortunately
I wasn't able to photograph the incredible, museum-like display of portraits
of historical Russian military figures which adorns one of the large rooms inside.


CIMG3381, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
Inside the HQ of the Transnistrian Communist Party (not a huge vote-getter, but - according to the party's leader - a
genuine opposition party, although according to others I spoke with if they threaten the authorities too much then they
might face a mud-slinging campaign based on their earlier contacts with the Moldovan Communist Party)


CIMG3378-1, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
Recruiting poster for the Felix Dzerzhinsky (!) boarding school for cadets, which prepares 5th- to 9th-graders
for a career in the local police or internal troops - the appeal is to "Duty, Honor, Fatherland" - MacArthuresque!

The Caucasus in 1842

Caucasus1842, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.

This is the latest in an ongoing series of Caucasus maps (note that some other maps will probably also be caught by the "Maps" label, but most are from this endlessly interesting part of the world).

Navel-gazing

This is the latest post in a highly infrequent series wherein I examine the contents of my server logs (yes, I know there are more important things I should be writing about...).

This time I will be brief and will simply say the following to the individual in Texas insistently searching for "ingredients in russian crepes teremok": what makes up the food of the gods is to be gratefully enjoyed but not to be known by us mere mortals. Please, do you really need to know? Isn't it likely that knowing would take away from the delight we experience while savoring a Teremok blin?

If you're worried about the nutritional value of the ingredients (and having perused the details, it's possible you should be - the mighty Ilya Muromets blin is over 1,000 calories!), check out this helpful chart. If you're trying to reverse-engineer Teremok blini and open up a stand in Texas (I confess I've had visions of exporting the blin-stand business model to the US), I suggest you propose a franchising arrangement - you can get in touch with the Teremok team through their customer forum. And you can read here about one of the visionary individuals who we all have to thank for the heavenly blini. Happily, I can confirm that Teremok appears to be going strong in spite of the crisis - I had the chance to enjoy one of my favorite outlets with friends (and, to be honest, a couple more times on my own) on recent trips to Moscow, and the place was packed.

Moldovan election observation - in London (2)

Four years ago, I posted an account of Moldovans voting in Moscow; earlier this year, this space saw a rundown of the voting at the Moldovan Embassy in London on April 5th. As I watch the privesc.eu videostream from Moldovan Central Electoral Commission headquarters and marvel at the things they permit themselves to discuss when they think the mics are off (e.g., should the country properly be called "Moldova" or "Moldavia"), here are a few pics of Moldovans turning out to vote in London today:

For some reason, a cop car showed up and an officer went inside to discuss things
(presumably crowd control) with Embassy officials. This was around 8pm or so.

Apparently some people turned out with protest-type signs. And one of the
observers told me that an English-speaker had shown up and made a scene,
shouting about "don't let [an unspecified] THEM tell you what to do!"


Some comic relief - a sign designating the London consulate as "Voting Precinct #313,"
with the word "Voting" misspelled ("Voatare" as opposed to the correct "Votare").

The happy result - a "Voted" stamp in the passport identical to the one Lorina
got in Moscow in 2005, with an extra stamp indicating the date of these elections.

Moldova's repeat elections - the "Battle of the documentaries" and the online campaign

"Бес-при-дел", originally uploaded by lyndonk2 - Chisinau, May 25, 2009.
The word scrawled on the concrete, which should actually be
spelled "беспредел," means "lawlessness" or "chaos" in Russian

An earlier post of mine provided a few places to go for good analysis and updates on today's elections in Moldova. Additional sites to check are ADEPT's website, alegeri.md (also in English and Russian) and the website of the Moldovan Central Election Commission (showing a fairly high turnout as of 3:45pm local time). Before I head out to the Moldovan Embassy way out in Chiswick to provide moral support to my better half as she votes, I thought I would take a trip down memory lane through the campaign that was, to provide some basic background for those who have not been following it - while trying not to get too bogged down in the minutiae - as well as add a bit of detail about how the campaign has spilled over into the interwebs. I saw the lead-up to the repeat election campaign, as I was in Moldova from late May through June 21, but I had to follow the past five weeks online.

Sadly, only today did I re-discover Morning in Moldova, a wonderful (and unusual) English-language blog about Moldova, which I had seen briefly in the frenzy of link-hopping I engaged in while trying to keep up with the events that followed the April elections. The coverage at MiM is worth reading; I especially liked this attempt to map out Moldova's political scene.

The repeat elections, of course, were made necessary by the inability of the parliament chosen in the April 5 elections to choose a president to succeed Vladimir Voronin, who is term-limited out and has become a creaky dinosaur holding his country - and perhaps even his own party - back. Voronin managed the nifty trick of being both acting president and speaker of parliament (a post he will try to retain - a la Putin, or to use Voronin's own analogy, Deng Xiaoping - depending on how well his Communist Party, the PCRM, does today). The major reason there was no compromise in parliament was extreme societal polarization and outrage - and somewhat unexpected unity - on the part of the three opposition parties who made it into the legislature in the wake of demonstrations on April 7th which turned violent.

Who is ultimately to blame for the violence remains something of a mystery, although looking at qui prodest it should be noted that the burning of parliament and the presidential building arguably played into the hands of ruling Communists, at least in the short term, allowing them to characterize the opposition as would-be putschists who had attempted to overthrow the government. (An interesting timeline of foreign reactions to the post-election violence can be found here.) April 7th turned out to be the birthdate of a lot of myths - both in Moldova and among journalists and social media evangelists who were quick to seize on the overblown notion that the unrest in Chisinau could be characterized as a "Twitter Revolution" (this post puts a similar meme in its place in the context of Iran).

In Moldova, much of the June-July campaign centered around narratives of the events of April 7th, and the key difference between the campaign that ended on April 5th and campaign one ending today turned out to be the defection from the PCRM of Marian Lupu, the former parliamentary speaker whose name had been on the lips of many Western Moldova-watchers in March and early April as the best possible option to succeed Voronin. Lupu's role is yet to be determined - some from the opposition think he is part of a Communist plot to draw centrist votes (one of Lupu's campaign slogans has been "The political war must be stopped") and that upon making it into parliament, assuming his party and the Communists have enough votes to elect the president, he will make a deal with the PCRM and the three opposition parties who made it in in April will remain marginalized (in fact, one of them, Serafim Urechean's AMN, may not make it into parliament at all this time around).

Trash your TV, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
Chisinau, June 7, 2009

A major first salvo in the information battle which characterized Moldova's second election campaign was kicked off when the government aired a "documentary" titled "Attack on Moldova" (Atac Asupra Moldovei) on NIT. In the best traditions of Russian propaganda films of recent years, this one-sided narrative featured alleged recordings of phone conversations and hinted at shadowy threats from abroad as well as fingering internal enemies - namely, the leaders of the opposition parties as well as jailed (and later released) businessman Gabriel Stati. This masterpiece can be viewed on YouTube (naturally) here. It led to at least one opposition party leader threatening legal action. Moldovan analyst Oleg Cristal projected in June that the film would be the "quintessence of this campaign," and he wasn't far off the mark. As Cristal wrote in late June:

I understand that this film is currently being shown all over the country, and it aims to provoke a reaction that is both emotional (blood, fire, screaming, shooting, chanting, etc.) and sentimental (fear, personal and group security, hatred, patriotism, love of country, etc.): "we are being attacked by external enemies (Romania and transnational crime groups) and internal enemies (the liberal opposition)."... "Attack on Moldova" rallies society around a common threat: "We must defend our Fatherland," urges Voronin.

"Attack on Moldova" kicked off what one interesting commentary referred to as the "Battle of the documentaries." The opposition decided to present its own versions of the events of April 7th and get its message out by screening its own "documentaries," both on YouTube and in some cases by screening them in the country's smaller towns where many voters do not have access to internet (or fast enough internet) to enable them to watch these online, or would not be inclined to do so. The main examples of these films were "Black Box," "Whither Moldova?", "Who Loves Moldova?", and the party-sponsored "The Truth About April 7th" (PL), "Green Eyes" (PLDM - whose party color is green) and "In Defense of Moldova" (AMN - see JurnalTV's report on this film, with highlights, here). Later in the campaign, Romania's TVR1 aired yet another "documentary" (I use the scare quotes throughout because, while some of these films may be relatively more or less objective, none of them is really a documentary), "The Trap," about the events of April 7th (some discussion of the film is here). This untitled opposition film may also be of interest.

One could hardly call the "Battle of the documentaries" a battle of equals - the ruling party by all accounts made full use of its "administrative resource," including its ability to broadcast and rebroadcast its propaganda films on nationwide television. The national news programs are also used to cast opposition politicians in the worst possible light. While I was in Chisinau, I saw several days of intense coverage of the city's stray-dog problem, all of it concluding that the city's mayor, liberal Dorin Chirtoaca, was at fault. I knew I was going native when I out-conspiracy-theoried even my post-Soviet friends and theorized that the PCRM had perhaps imported stray dogs from the rest of the country to give their mud-slinging increased credibility. Then the nightly news started to highlight alleged rat infestation in Chisinau, alleging that "the 'most European mayor in the city's history' has brought Chisinau to the verge of an epidemic."

Progressive Moldovans have found ways to compete with or combat the government's domination of broadcast TV, but most of these are internet-based and therefore problematic in terms of reaching rural voters. Nevertheless, it is worth mentioning the nascent online TV channel JurnalTV, as well as a streaming video site called privesc.eu ("I watch," in Romanian), launched during the campaign, which has increased transparency by showing complete video of press conferences and public meetings of, for example, the Electoral Commission (and is currently streaming Moldova's main opposition-oriented TV station, ProTV), rather than the carefully edited versions which appear on state-run TV.

Another way of using the internet to deal with biased broadcast media is to take on the most egregious excesses directly - by publishing monitoring reports highlighting the bias of state-run news programs or by showing side by side how careful editing is used by the state-run programs to distort the messages of opposition politicians or foreign critics. In general - not surprisingly - the authorities have found it harder to control online media (though not for lack of trying) than conventional media, but this is cold comfort to the opposition given the internet's relatively limited reach in Moldova.

Fighting Fist, originally uploaded by lyndonk2 - Chisinau, June 16, 2009.
You might assume the writing says "Fight with Communism," but in fact it says "Fight with Romanism"

YouTube provides a wealth of clips for those interested in how the campaign unfolded. While the major parties had video clips available on their websites, they all also had their video materials aggregated on YouTube:

PCRM
Partidul Liberal (PL)
Dorin Chirtoaca (separate from PL)
AMN (under the username scottgeorges for some reason)
Lupu (showing inter alia what seem to be dozens of clips of his meetings with voters in various cities throughout Moldova)

PLDM couldn't get their party's acronym as a username because it had already been nailed down by a YouTube channel called "Peace! Love! Deathmetal!" I couldn't find a one-stop source for their ads, but luckily the good people at ADEPT have set up a YouTube channel with campaign ads from all parties.

Online and traditional media which support the authorities also have made use of YouTube channels:

Moldnews, an online news portal which resembles Russian-funded efforts in Georgia
TV channel NIT

As have opposition-minded individuals and media:

Change Moldova
Unimedia
JurnalTV

For a somewhat more light-hearted YouTube clip, check out this animated spoof showing Voronin and several others (Greceanii, Turcan, Lupu, Rosca) conspiring to burn down the parliament. In general, the atmosphere of "permanent campaign" seemed to lead to fatigue and some silliness. A well-respected group of young, opposition-minded (though some used to work in the current gov't) economists called Clubul Idea started a something of a parody of the elections on its website - people create their own parties and then have the chance to vote for them.

Lupu, Chirtoaca and PLDM's Vlad Filat are on Facebook (note that Lupu is the only one of those three who has not tricked out his profile with a customized URL); Urechean is not, which makes sense given his target demo. They have been using the internet fairly extensively in general and their Facebook feeds in particular, as has Voronin adviser / PCRM parliamentarian / "grey cardinal" Mark Tkachuk, whose feed has reliably contained some of the black PR that is being pumped out by the PCRM campaign. Tkachuk (also spelled Tcaciuc) went all VVP with an "online news conference" on news portal Omega. Omega's unintentionally funny (to those familiar with Anglosphere netspeak) URL, OMG.md, stands for "Objective Media Group." They seem to be taking a page from Fox News' self-proclaimed "Fair & Balanced" stance, as this is an overtly pro-PCRM site.

Lupu joined Facebook fairly late in the game and received some scorn early on for making the noobie mistake of posting many, many videos as individual status updates, thus flooding the home pages of his "friends" and leading some people to exclude his feed from their home page. Sorry, I said I wouldn't get bogged down in the minutiae... To Lupu's credit, he did hold a meeting with Moldovan bloggers, video of which of course made its way online (PL leader Mihai Ghimpu also had a well-documented "off-line" meeting with Moldovan bloggers, as did Urechean). Lupu also, tellingly, has a standalone website (i.e., not one associated with the party he is using as a vehicle for his campaign, PDM) and has put a bunch of photos up on Flickr, including (somewhat oddly) items apparently intended to show that he is an international playa, e.g. an invitation from the French President to attend Bastille Day celebrations.

Tricolor, originally uploaded by lyndonk2 - Chisinau, May 27, 2009.
Of course the pro-Romanian camp has its own cans of spray paint...

Another intriguing online innovation was the chance for voters in Chisinau to check their status on the election rolls online. Those lists which were the focal point of the fraud allegations which followed the April 5th balloting. Not sure how much it helped - Filat claimed (to the press and in a Facebook status update, naturally) to have found two extra people registered in his apartment when he went to vote this morning.

And what of the reverberations from the "Twitter Revolution"? Well, a few days before July 29th, I saw reports (initially on the Facebook feed of prolific Moldovan blogger and Twitterer extraordinaire Mihai Moscovici, later picked up by Unimedia) that fake Twitter accounts - nothing new, and apparently even non-celebrities are at risk - purporting to belong to Vlad Filat and Dorin Chirtoaca were calling for supporters to come protest on July 30th.

I can't think of an appropriate conclusion to this post and already have one foot out the door. I may come back later this evening with some more links and perhaps a report on whatever the scene is at the Moldovan Embassy in London. While I am not overly optimistic about what may follow this evening's vote-counting (which, as we all know, is much more important than the actual voting), permit me to conclude with a more uplifting - and probably apolitical - bit of street art:

Be United, originally uploaded by lyndonk2 - Chisinau, June 17, 2009