Roundup of English-language media reports

A ditty from the protests (most likely the ones in Chisinau but possibly
from the demonstrations of support in Bucharest) which reads,

"Three women went to vote
Two of them dead and one of them living
How many votes does that make?"

Not an idle question these days in Chisinau, apparently.
[image source]

There is now so much Moldova-related content on the interwebs that it's impossible to keep up. Below is an attempt at a roundup of some of the English-language coverage from Wednesday.

ITAR-TASS ran a story with some alarming remarks from Voronin:

The Moldovan authorities “may resort to force, if unrest is resumed in Chisinau,” President Vladimir Voronin said here on Wednesday. Speaking at a meeting of Moldovan leaders, he stressed that he had warned the opposition of such a possibility.

“There is limit to our patience. Yesterday I was on the verge of giving the order. The authorities have every reason to resort to force in accordance with the law. I warned the opposition that they could be put not to the parliament, but to some other place. They should learn to lose with dignity,” Voronin stressed.

RFE/RL has had a number of articles on this week's events in Chisinau: "Moldovan President Accuses Romania as Protests Continue"; "Moldovan President Vows to Repel 'Coup' After Protests Turn Violent"; and (although I am a bit weary of the "Twitter Revolution" meme) "The Revolution Will Be Tweeted - Moldovan Protesters Exploit Social Networking Sites."

An AP story reporting the status quo as of Wednesday morning.

Reuters reports on the Russian Foreign Ministry's reaction to the events in Chisinau, covers the opposition's reaction to the Central Election Committee's apparent refusal to abide by the agreement reached with Voronin to conduct a recount, and - in a most interesting story that I haven't seen elsewhere - reports that ratings agency Fitch has warned Moldova's sovereign credit rating will be at risk of being downgraded if the unrest persists.

Moldovan news portal Azi.md has some photos from inside the heavily damaged Parliament building and, on their English-language page, an article quoting one of the OSCE election observers as follows:

"Our report was much too warm and friendly towards that vote. The problem is that it was an OSCE report. The OSCE includes the Russ ians. And the Russians' view was quite substantially different from my own, for example."

The BBC has some audio from an interview with the same observer, discussing her "grave misgivings" about the results. This could be an important bit of ammo for the opposition in the rhetorical (hopefully) battles to come - if they can't at least show substantial reason to believe that there was substantial falsification of election results, they will not get traction with many within Moldova or with the Western countries and organizations they may be hoping to rely on for moral support.

The Economist's coverage is headlined "Moldova Burning" but does a good job of stepping back from the flames and focusing on the roles of Russia, Romania and the EU in the turmoil and its possible resolution:

The political upheavals cry out for attention from the EU, which has failed to get to grips with Moldova’s ills. As with Ukraine’s orange revolution five years ago, it may take a heavyweight outsider to get talks going between entrenched but discredited authorities and an enthusiastic but incoherent opposition. If Europe cannot solve Moldova’s problems, it is hard to see much future for the trumpeted “Eastern Partnership” which is meant to reinvigorate EU policies towards the six ex-Soviet countries on its eastern borders.

An op-ed in the Kyiv Post chronicles some of the more unsavory remarks made by certain Moldovan opposition figures in the past but probably paints with too broad a brush in suggesting that the country is "Torn Between the Communists and the Far Right." One of those who comes in for criticism in the piece is Iurie Rosca, whose party didn't make it into parliament this time but who has been outspoken about his suspicion that the situation in Chisinau has unfolded according to Moscow's plans, in part as punishment for Voronin's refusal in 2003 to sign the Kozak Memorandum, a Russia-backed plan for settling the conflict over Transnistria.

Russia Profile has two pieces worth checking out - one discussing the the cleavages in Moldovan society which drove the protesters to feel sufficiently "insulted and humiliated" to take to the streets, and another, which seems to have been written before the protests but provides good background on the campaign, the elections and the Moldovan political scene:

Voronin has openly stated that he would pursue a Den Xiaoping outcome, allowing him to continue to determine the country's trajectory while not holding the highest office. This lent the Communist Party a powerful motive to force through an unchallengeable electoral result, similar to that achieved by United Russia in the 2007 Duma elections in Russia, intended as a future power base for then President Vladimir Putin. [...]

Moldova is not only anomalous in terms of its constitution and its geography (it counts as a Black Sea littoral state although it is landlocked). It is also one of the few countries to be both attempting to reintegrate a secessionist region -- the tiny self-proclaimed Transdnestr republic--while staving off attempts to be absorbed by the neighboring big brother Romania, with which it shares history and language.

Its foreign policy is equally anomalous: in the 1990s, Moldova strove to reunify with Russia within the Russia-Belarus union, until Russia's refusal to play ball caused the same Communist Party to make a smooth shift in 2005, and aim at EU membership and cooperation with NATO instead. Experts see the elections as having paradoxically strengthened the Communists in negotiations with the EU, and thus given new impulses to Moldova’s integration with the union.

Independent political analyst Ion Marandici said that "the Moldovan Communists have declared very often that their goal is to join the European Union. That is why, paradoxically, they will go on with the economic reforms while continuing to infringe on media freedom, freedom of expression and more generally on human rights, in order to combat their political competitors."

The Moldovan government has cranked up its rather creaky English-language online outlet, the website of state-run wire agency Moldpres, so you can read about the opposition's bad acts there. And here's the official text of the Moldovan MFA's statement declaring the Romanian ambassador persona non grata.

And if you're looking for a very long and thorough recap of Tuesday's events laced with commentary, check out "Chronicles of a Post-Electoral Day" on Moldova.org (which also has lots of video clips, even one from a demonstration of support in Dublin, Ireland). The piece suggests that Western representatives in Moldova misread the situation after the elections (although to be fair the protests took many Moldovans by surprise as well):

A few days ago, ahead of the protests, the author of these lines was invited to speak in front of the EU Ambassadors in Moldova – they were told that the liberals might have three options – accept the election results that they believe were long-frauded, attempt a protest scenario as in “orange revolution” in Ukraine or protest and slowly fade away, like in Belarus. A good number of Ambassadors laughed when they’ve heard about Moldovan opposition organising protests like in Ukraine, diplomats basically showing there will be no support for such a scenario. Many of them, probably, are rethinking this scenario now – one thing is clear, they were far behind the events.

The signals of lack of support that the West is now giving to Moldovan liberals are read by the Communists in one simple manner – they feel their impunity to orchestrate any scenario and get away with it. Just like in the times when the West left the Belarus opposition alone.

The liberals are now feeling somehow abandoned, maybe even afraid. They want a rule of law Moldova, they do not want destruction and they wish no connection with it. However, they need to take a final decision and they understand that they are left with no way back. Its “[either] – or”. Its: Europe or Belarus.

Let’s hope that Europe will not be far behind the events at least this time.