Well, today was a very sad and tragic day for the people of the Republic of Moldova, as now this country is officially a regime:

A government, especially an authoritarian one.

On paper, RM is a democracy, complete with elections, a parliament, and a head of state. But in reality, a single mob boss controls everything in this country.

And the only reason he’s allowed to stay in power is because Romania and the United States hate democracy.

Come a’ Croppin’

The problems have been building up for a while now.

Way back in 2009, the United States helped foment an uprising against the ruling Communist party.

Along the way, someone broke into the Parliament building and burned the country’s Constitution (written in 1992). That’s pretty much a perfect metaphor for what’s happened since.

Fast forward to 2013, and the Moldovan President, with full support from the Parliament, signed all the necessary papers in order for Moldova to start the path towards membership in the European Union.

At literally the same time, a group of pro-EU politicians conspired in order to rob Moldova of around $1 billion dollars.

This knowledge became public in 2014, and the parliamentary elections saw the pro-EU faction lose their grip on power.

On paper, at least.

In reality, the bank robbing bloc that takes orders from Vladimir Plahotnyuk (Romanian spelling = Plahotniuc), known as “Plaha” (a Russian joke) to folks around here, decided that elections don’t matter.

They then proceeded to act like they were still in the majority, doing whatever they wanted with complete impunity.

Fast forward to the end of 2016, and their ally, President Iurie Leanca (the one who signed the EU papers) came to the end of his term. And the president is elected by popular vote in Moldova.

Plaha and his gang tried literally every dirty trick in the book, but still lost to Igor Dodon.

Bearclaw

Igor Dodon not only has a Russian name, he also speaks Russian better than he does Moldovan. And because he regularly flies to Moscow to seek Vladimir Putin’s advice, he’s always (and I do mean always) described as “pro-Russian.”

But that’s actually highly misleading. The above facts are all true, but Dodon is 100% Moldovan. Take it from me, the guy is a dyed in the wool Moldovan patriot. And in his eyes, a close relationship with Russia is what is best for Moldova.

Please, you can disagree with his strategy, but not his motivations.

Mr. Midnight

Meanwhile, Vlad Plahotnyuk, the gangster who runs this country, a guy who professes his love of all things EU and how great and amazing it would be if Moldova was a member of the EU, is the opposite of a patriot. He would give a blowjob to a street dog if he thought it would increase his grip on power.

Plaha isn’t stupid. He knows quite well that Romania, the United States, and to a lesser (yet VERY important) degree, Sweden, Turkey, Britain, and Norway, pay far better than the Russians do.

And that’s why he had to get his boy Pavel Filip sworn in as prime minister in a secret midnight ceremony.

Therefore, as the situation now stands, we’ve got a secret dictator (Plahotnyuk) running the show, a compliant whipping boy (Filip) to tell any lie necessary in order to keep the money taps flowing, and a docile public that has given up all hope.

We Were On a Break!

Over in Romania, in the year 2007, the prime minister Calin Popescu-Tariceanu, a grand dragon of corruption and dirty tricks (and still inexplicably in power today), had the same problem that Plaha does now.

That is to say, all the mafia bosses, big cheeses, and professional thugs were on board, but the president (Basescu) was resisting. But since the president had been directly elected by the people (as opposed to the PM, who isn’t), it was almost impossible to get rid of him.

What they did then was accuse him of all kinds of serious “crimes” and then suspend him from office. The law then required that a public referendum would be held.

Unfortunately for CPT, the people voted to reinstate the president. Nonetheless, Victor Ponta did the same thing in 2012 and lost again.

The current “Plaha” of Romania, Liviu Dragnea, is legally barred from becoming Prime Minister because he was convicted of election fraud during that 2012 referendum.

It’s Just Ink On Paper

The laws about suspending the president are almost identical here in Moldova.

Yes, the parliament can accuse the president of serious crimes and suspend him from office. But then there’s supposed to be a public referendum.

Plaha knows very well that the people hate him and would likely vote overwhelmingly to re-install the president.

Fortunately for Mr. Plahotnyuk, he can just break the law anytime he wants.

He got his buddies over at the Constitutional Court to invent something called the “temporary suspension.”

The way it “works” is that President Dodon is just suspended for a few hours. Then, he’s right back in office! Therefore, it’s not officially a coup.

See? Now keep paying us that sweet EU money.

The first time they suspended Dodon was back in November when he refused to confirm one of Plaha’s stooges to the post of Defense Minister.

Merry-Go-Round

Once Romania, the USA, and all the other funders of Plahotnyuk’s regime did nothing about the one-hour suspension, Plahotnyuk decided to do it over and over again.

Today, President Dodon got suspended yet again, this time so that the parliament can pass a ridiculous law:

The so-called “media propaganda” law effectively bans the rebroadcasting in Moldova of Russian television programs on news, analysis, politics, and military issues.

In other words, it censors ALL Russian news.

Please tell me how that is democratic in any way, shape, or form.

A Dinosaur in Quicksand

Romania, although it is run by racist saps who are simultaneously brazenly corrupt and hilariously incompetent, really isn’t pulling the strings around here.

No, the sheer irony for Dodon is that Moldova is one of the last countries on the planet that still has a competent staff down at their local American embassy. By “competent,” I mean people with years of experience in diplomacy and international relations.

Normally, the actions of an American embassy flow through from Washington, D.C. and on up to the president. Foreign affairs are normally quite an important part of politics in America, so the embassies and State Department personnel are “frontline soldiers” on the information warfront.

But since Trump got elected, the wheels have started to come off of the cart.

For one thing, ambassadors aren’t getting appointed, and there’s precious little clear direction coming in from Washington. In most embassies, there’s a mix of “pros”, inexperienced newbies, and a lot of unfilled job positions.

Here in Moldova, however, the embassy is almost completely staffed with experienced pros, which means they’re taking the reigns (a bit!) and riding rough on the classic Cold War formula of “any inch that can be gained at Russia’s expense is our number one priority, especially when we can make a financial profit.”

Therefore, the American Embassy in Moldova is a well-oiled machine, cranking out enormous pressure on Moldova to submit to becoming a military client state by blocking all Russian influence.

They’re not waiting for Trump to do anything down at the American Embassy in Chisinau. As long as they don’t get a countermanding order, they’re pretty much running the ship on their own.

So yeah, Moldovans just got their news censored at the behest of a headless American cold war machine that’s cooperating with Romania in order to prop up an illegitimate and blatantly undemocratic regime.

Большое спасибо, ублюдки!