I have been meaning to post several interesting links to sites about Moldova ever since my sister emailed me a New York Post article written by a couple of American consultants working on the campaign (more on that below). Now that the election is a week away, it seems like an opportune moment. I have not been following the stories behind the campaign very closely, though, so I don't really have any commentary of my own to add - just sources of information and interesting sites I've happened upon.
Perhaps I was inspired to do this today because I happened upon an entertaining site,
Virgin Voter, a Soros-funded site apparently intended to sexualize the idea of elections in order to, um, stimulate turnout among younger voters.
So, without further ado, an eclectic guide to the Moldovan internet:
Website of the Moldovan Democratic Party (PDM) - note the rose logo, an apparent attempt to draw a parallel with Georgia's "Rose Revolution." I can't get the link promising an English-language version to work.
Website of the Moldovan Communist Party (PKRM), the party of President Voronin. No roses here.
Political headlines and articles (in English!) from Moldova Azi (Moldova Today) - "Your Country on the Internet."
A more general news site/portal - Moldova Cyber Community - also in English.
A full list of Moldovan political parties in English, with links to their websites and information on each party.
Another website "all about the parliamentary elections in Moldova."
Human Rights Watch's Moldova page (I confess that I took the title for this post from a long-ago published HRW pamphlet that I was able to order through Amazon but which you can also order on the HRW website).
The article that got me started on this idea:
Putin's Big Blunder, co-authored by Dick Morris, New York Post, Dec 22, 2004
We are picking up the seismic shock from the streets of Kiev in the little nation of Moldova, where we are helping the pro-democracy forces.
This tiny nation, formerly the Soviet Socialist Republic of Moldova, was once a province of Romania but was given to Moscow in the Hitler-Stalin Pact of 1939. Nominally independent since the Soviet Union broke up in '91, Moldova has actually been headed by a communist government that would like to go back under Russian hegemony.
Until November, the communists held a comfortable lead in the coming election. A national poll by the International Republican Institute (an international pro-democracy foundation funded by the U.S. Republican Party) found that voters saw Russia as more of a partner than a threat by the lopsided margin of 68 percent to 25 percent.
But now — in the aftermath of the Ukrainian mess — Moldovans are not so sure: They rate Russia favorably as a partner by only 52-38. Now, the polls show that Moldovans want closer relations with the European Union and the United States more than they want to be tied to Moscow.
This increasing feeling of freedom in the former Soviet empire has roiled Putin and his Kremlin cronies. They're relatively mellow in their international comments — but for Russian consumption, they are breathing fire. [...]
Dick Morris and Eileen McGann are political consultants for Viktor Yushchenko in Ukraine and for the pro-democracy forces in Moldova.
If Dick Morris is on the side of Moldovan democracy then there is a lot we should be concerned about. At least he will find inexpensive call girls there. In general, it is amazing that the situation in Moldova doesn't get more coverage in the US/Western press, although it never has. This was (back in December) the biggest mention I had seen in some time, and it was in the NY Post?!
One correction to the characterization in this story - Moldova has not been ruled since 1991 by forces friendly to Moscow (this is implied although not directly stated). There was a very anti-Moscow government until 1996 or 1997, as I recall. And, as demonstrated by Yushchenko's overtures to Moscow after his victory, everyone in the region recognizes (or should recognize) that they have to work in partnership with Russia, if for no other reason than because of the natural gas supply issue.
To end this post on a humorous note, I'd like to share the Three Moldovans website - a humorous site set up by a winery, with some examples of classic stereotypes of Moldovans and a great (if you can get it to work) winery-themed flash game.
2 comments:
With respect, I suspect (although can't prove) that the rose logo of the pdm isn't an allusion to Georgia so much as a common symbol used by Social-Democratic parties across Europe. Such parties range from ex-communist parties (as in Czech Republic) to the British Labour Party.
I could possibly be wrong, but that's my take on the rose...
You seem to know more about this than I do, so you're probably right. I do think, though, that both the "rose" imagery from Georgia and the "orange" imagery from Ukraine resonate with opposition movements in Moldova and other former Soviet states.
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