This morning, I woke up to see a very interesting Tweet come across my feed: 何でキリル文字？？？ソヴィエト時代に戻ったみたい！裏見たらTiraspolПриднестровьеPridnestrovieつまり沿ドニエストル共和国と日本語で紹介されてる、ロシアしか認めてない未承認国家の名前が！（≧∇≦） pic.twitter.com/5HIUGlo441 — 小林貴虎 (@eternalhigh) July 9, 2018 As you can see, it’s from someone in Japan, in this case, a man named Takatra Kobayashi who is a city councilor in a city named Tsu in Mie Prefecture. Somehow, he…
The Chisinau Mayoral Election, Part 2
Advisory warning: What follows is an extremely tedious and detailed analysis of the recent mayoral elections in Chisinau, the conclusion of which is that I stand by my initial findings. This past week, the European Union decided to freeze a 100 million euro aid package to Moldova specifically because of the Chisinau mayoral race: Disbursements…
The Curious Case of the Chisinau Mayoral Race
On May 20, 2018, voters in Chisinau headed to the polls for the first round of what was a very low-key and boring election. Since 2007, Chisinau has been run like a personal fiefdom by Dorin Chirtoaca, a close personal friend of former Romanian President Traian Basescu. Chirtoaca was re-elected in 2015 and should still…
