The morning after, or the dawn of a revolution?

Perevorot?
[image source]

Protesters planned to reassemble in downtown Chisinau at 10am local time today (that is, about an hour ago). The latest news I have is from an email sent around by a friend of ours in Chisinau a few hours ago:

It is 7am in Chisinau and a fresh day is about to start.

A quick update on the night's events:

1. Parliament building is no longer in flames

2. The night in Chisinau's center was peaceful

3. The major local news networks either are not allowed to work by the Communist party or are actually getting some rest until the later in the morning

Thank you for sending me updates and news on Moldova from the international press. I find that the Western press has been very professional at capturing the reality on the ground and the reasons for why the youth are on the streets. As NY times put it - it is a generational clash - the youth (who voted mostly anti-communist, for lack of job opportunities in Moldova or even abroad this year in the context of the global crisis) and the older generation nostalgic after the "stability" offered by the current and former Communist governments.

Some notable articles:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/08/world/europe/08moldova.html?_r=1&hp
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7988893.stm

Some pics and videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDu_-RQdprU
http://unimedia.info/?mod=foto&id=4
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/7988028.stm

One last note for this early morning - this is the FIRST Even large scale protest that turned into violence in Moldova since 1989, when the first large-scale meetings were taking place to support Moldova's independence and union with Romania.

Moldovans on the whole are a very peaceful nation, and would rather sit at the table with you over a home-made glass of wine [...] than take to the streets. [...] The opposition promised to continue the peaceful protests in the main square and have been asking now for families to join in in a sign of solidarity. The lady in the Parliament who was thought dead is actually well. So it seems that in spite of all the damage inflicted on the Parliament and the Presidency, thankfully no one has lost his/her life.

And a further update from 10:50am Chisinau time:

Just got back home in Chisinau. All well. The violence continues to be
localized in the center.

The leaders of the opposition party as well as Voronin and Greceanii
are in talks now. They are all calling for a restoration of calm.

It could be that the protesters go and take over the public TV,
Moldova 1, which all day has been showing images from ballet shows and
other nonsense but nothing about the major protests.

The country on the whole is safe and calm, but there are some protests
in Balti, the second-largest city in Moldova.

There are 3 victims already [presumably injured], one of them being
a 13-year old.

And a message from 10 minutes later:

Unfortunately it's getting worse by the minute. There are injured and
potential deceased already because of the violence on the streets. It
is very worrying indeed as there is innocent blood being shed for no
reason or purpose. No leader of the crowds has emerged yet.

Dumitru Minzarari reposts some of the pictures showing what appears to have been looting of the parliament building (these are making the rounds and provide very good ammo to those who wish to discredit the opposition) and continues to be concerned about the "ugly face" of yesterday's protests:

I have already mentioned earlier that I was somehow upset by some radicalized youth, which mixed their anger for stolen elections with their personal political preferences. The protest is about elections, and not about unification with Romania. There is more than a half of the population that does not share these views. By shouting “united with Romania” they have offended and rebuffed many other young people which are also not happy with the Communist government, and which are Russian-speaking.

One netizen has posted photos from yesterday's protests with the caption, "Oh gosh, rednecks take over =(" - this I found via the md_community page on LiveJournal, which has at least one eyewitness account of the protests and seems to be aggregating anti-protester rumors and commentary. For instance, one poster there is alleging that some of the protesters were paid for their participation (a common allegation about any mass protest in the post-Soviet space) and bused in from rural areas and is soliciting any first-hand accounts of this. I also read there that apparently the Russian government has dispatched a plane with emergency aid to Moldova, not sure if that's true or not - no time this morning to check the Russian news sites to see how this is all playing in Moscow.

According to Unimedia, the Moldovan government has closed the border with Romania, at least to journalists and to Moldovan students attempting to return home.

In other coverage I missed yesterday, Siberian Light had a post covering the situation.

I think that's all for now - I suggest following the situation on Twitter, which is continuing to provide updates and links to other online content (like this).