It’s another day of bitterly cold temperatures and another day of protests here in Chisinau, the capital of Moldova. Unfortunately for me, I was swamped with work and unable to go see the protests firsthand but my wife was in the area and reported that the protests were more strident than ever.

For some bizarre reason, the foreign press keeps on misspelling names, such as this otherwise good report from the AFP:

Around 10,000 people staged a mass protest in the Moldovan capital Chisinau on Thursday as tensions in the pro-Western nation flared following the secret midnight swearing-in of a new government.
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Opposition protesters marched along the capital’s main avenues in sub-zero temperatures and rallied in front of the parliament building, which was blocked off by a police cordon six rows deep.

Protests have been ongoing daily since September and I’ve seen these rows of police in front of the Parliament and other key buildings many times. It’s quite the indication of what kind of “democratic” government Moldova has that it continually requires an army of cops to protect it, to say nothing of just how in the hell such a poor country has such a huge budget to continuously deploy so many cops, even on the “quiet” days.

Meanwhile here’s the misspelling:

Some protest leaders met with parliament speaker Andrian Candu who said afterwards that “there are too few reasons to hold snap elections”, and urged giving the new government a chance to work.

Aside from the fact that his name is Adrian, this is bullshit on the highest order. Too few reasons? Let’s review the brief history of Moldovan politics.

2013 – a comfortably large bloc of “pro-EU” parliamentarians support President Timofti’s signing of the Association Agreement to put Moldova on the path towards EU Membership. Meanwhile allegations of corruption from the leaders of the pro-EU bloc start to come out.

November 2014 – General elections are held, resulting in huge gains for political parties opposed to EU membership despite all kinds of vote rigging and illegal shit done by the pro-EU government. I wrote an entire post about the elections at the time. Only after extensive negotiations with the Communist Party was the pro-EU coalition able to obtain a narrow majority and form a government (which, for the record, was bitterly opposed by Romanian President Klaus).

2015 – People were already sick of the corruption and incompetence of the “pro-EU” bloc but anger boiled over when it was discovered that pro-EU oligarchs had stolen over a billion dollars of the people’s money. The PM is thrown into jail and by October 2015 (i.e. less than a year!) the new pro-EU PM’s government is brought down by a vote of no confidence.

2016 – Time is running out for the tattered remains of the pro-EU bloc to form a new government or new elections will be held. After two failed nominations for PM, the third choice (Pavel Filip) is sworn in on Tuesday in a quasi-secret ceremony held at midnight in a building guarded by police six rows deep.

As if the “pro-EU” bloc haven’t done enough to piss off people, I see they also blocked Russian journalists from coming to Chisinau this week to cover the protests. Uh, this isn’t Ukraine, where all Russian channels are banned from the airwaves. I get Russian news on my TV at home, and so do millions of Moldovans. Blocking a few journalists just leads to more hostile coverage on Russian TV, not less. And news channels can still run stories by buying footage from other channels and conducting interviews over the phone/Skype. Sheesh!

The stupidity of the pro-EU bloc is simply staggering. More proof comes from an interview given yesterday in Bucharest by RM Ambassador to Romania Mihai Gribicea.

My translation:

Russia isn’t absent in Moldova. It’s almost comical to hear what some TV presenters and political analysts are saying, that Russia is so busy now with Ukraine and Syria that it has no time for Moldova. First of all, I think Russia can handle more than one case at a time.

Uh, what? Christ, what a Romanian way of thinking, that only one “case” can be handled by a government at one time. The United States government already issued a statement on RM crisis while also simultaneously speaking (in other forums) about the situation in Tunisia, Syria, Yemen, Burkina Faso and domestic issues like gun violence and the price of oil.

Yes, countries (including Russia) can handle more than one “case” at a time, so of course they’re monitoring the situation in Moldova. In fact, the Russian Embassy issued a statement calling on all sides to remain calm and respect the law. Doh!

Back to dumbass Gribicea, talking about the new Pavel Filip government in Chisinau:

It’s true that the new government isn’t very homogenous. There are some members who are associated with Mr. Plathotniuc’s party but they’re still very committed to the pro-European path. I believe that what the people expect from this government, besides higher salaries, is a real effort to stem corruption. Oh, and that the fight against corruption should not be selective.

Moron. Plahotniuc is the most hated man in Moldova. But Gribicea’s interview isn’t as bad as this interview (in Romanian) from DW (German state media) with Siegfred Muresan entitled “From Model Student to Problem Child”. Jeesh, what an insult!

Let’s see what Siegfried Muresan, a MEP from Romania, has to say about his “little brown brothers” in RM (my translation):

As was expected, the dissolution of the pro-European government [in RM] in October led to a loss of faith in Moldova for the idea of the Union. At the time, I predicted that this situation would lead to political and economic instability.

Yeah, a real genius, predicting that instability might result after a government is brought down for wide-scale acts of corruption. Give this man a medal!

And, my word, this is the second time that officials in Germany have been talking about the “Union”, referring to the political union of RM and Moldova. It isn’t going to happen, folks, not now and not ever. There would be a hell of a lot more than just protests in front of the Parliament if any politician in RM seriously proposed political union with Romania.

Back to the Prophet Muresan:

I must mention here that Moldova is dependent on financial help from the international community. The IMF is ready to help Chisinau, but the IMF needs to have a stable partner to work with, a legitimate government.

Hmm… I’ve heard a drumbeat of messages all throughout this week, constantly mentioning that Moldova needs the IMF. I sure wonder where it’s coming from. But it seems to me that what Moldova needs first is a government not composed of oligarchs stealing billions from the people.

Meanwhile, back in on the ground where reality reigns, the protesters are having the last laugh (in Romanian). Yesterday they brought funeral wreaths to the front of the Parliament to commemorate the “death” of oligarchs running this country into the ground.

And Igor Dodon, the leader of the pro-Russia Socialist Party, who has been unimpeded in giving telephone interviews with the Russian media (even if he can’t do on-camera face-to-face interviews), outlined exactly how this exercise in stupidity is going to end (my translation):

The government had until January 29th to form a government. Guess what? On January 30th we will dissolve the parliament, triggering general elections.

Game, set, and match.