At long last, the worthless AP bureau in Bucharest began paying attention to the protests that have been rocking Chisinau (the capital of the Republic of Moldova) for days:

The protest came amid a standoff between President Nicolae Timofti and the pro-European governing coalition.

Timofti on Thursday nominated Ion Paduraru, the general secretary of his presidential office, to be prime minister — a day after rejecting the coalition’s candidate for the post, Vlad Plahotniuc.

Earlier in the day, thousands had demonstrated in Chisinau against Plahotniuc, a politician with investments in oil, finance, banking and media, claiming he has too much power and influence.

Timofti had called on Parliament to name an alternative candidate by Thursday evening, urging transparency in the way the coalition was formed, but the coalition refused to name another candidate.

This pro-EU “coalition” only came together on Monday (January 11), after getting eight Communist deputies to sign onto the deal. But after their candidate Plahotniuc was rejected by President Timofti, the coalition fell apart, meaning there is no ruling bloc in parliament, which is almost certainly going to trigger a general election, which will likely lead to pro-Russia parties gaining more seats, and leading the next government.

What the media hasn’t really conveyed is the vehemence of these protests. I’m here on the scene in Chisinau and these demonstrations are both boisterous and huge, with the streets in town overflowing with angry protesters of every description. Simply put, the people are fed up with the corruption and brazen thievery of the “pro-EU” bloc, meaning Romania’s hopes of incorporating “little brother” Moldova into the EU are rapidly fading.

As usual, everyone in Romania thinks this is all about them, with journalists whining and stamp their feet (link in Romanian) about how Romania miffed its chances by not getting MORE involved. The Romanian Foreign Ministry told the Moldovan ambassador to Romania yesterday that, in effect, Romania doesn’t care which corrupt thug runs Moldova, as long as he supports joining the EU (link in Romanian), with not a word about how all these pro-EU politicians have alienated the public with their unbridled greed.

Meanwhile, everyone is looking under their bed for evidence of the evil involvement of Russia in all this, but actually all Russia has to do right now is sit back and laugh as the morons that the EU and Romania picked to lead Moldova into the warm embrace of “the West” are busy digging their own political graves with no outside “help” necessary.

As a reminder, the parliamentarians in Moldova have until January 29 to pick an acceptable candidate for Prime Minister to avoid triggering fresh elections. We’ll see what kind of crazy deal they can cobble together before then, but I wouldn’t bet on them succeeding.