On May 16, 2019, Eleonora Cherkavsky (Ro: Cercavschi), the principal of the “Romanian” school in Grigoriopol, Pridnestrovie, posted a nasty anti-Semitic rant on Facebook.

She was writing in Russian about the inauguration of Ukraine’s new president Zelinsky, who is Jewish, as well as a newly appointed regional governor who is also Jewish, and said something along the lines of “Lookee there! The fucking kikes are now in power in Ukraine!”

The comment was later scrubbed.

The Blood of Patriots

Cherkavsky isn’t just the principal of one of the six “Romanian” schools in Pridnestrovie. She is also a member of the (Republic of Moldova) ACUM political party and ran as their candidate in Moldova’s February 24 parliamentary elections.

ACUM’s leadership are all dual citizens of Romania, which is why they were legally able to campaign for the (Romanian) political party PNL in Romania’s May 26, 2019, European Parliamentary elections.

Both PNL and ACUM are staunchly patriotic Romanian parties who believe that both Pridnestrovie and the Republic of Moldova (and other territories) should be annexed (“reunited”) to Romania.

Cherkavsky and both political parties consistently refer to Pridnestrovie (where Cherkavsky lives, remember) as “Transnistria” instead of the correct Romanian name, Nistrenia.

The Marshal’s Long Shadow

The word “Transnistria” is a made-up name coined by the fascist Romanian dictator Ion Antonescu that refers to what is now the Republic of Moldova, Pridnestrovie, and parts of Ukraine.

For some 900 days during World War 2, Romanian fascists terrorized the area, murdering at least 350,000 Jews (as part of the wider Holocaust).

I’ve written extensively about this awful period of history, and it is very ugly indeed.

Which makes me have to ask.

What’s the difference between a “real” Nazi and a Romanian spewing anti-Semitic stuff in public and consistently using the Holocaust name for the place where she lives?

Take Two

I first saw this story appear in Ukrainian media, but it was also picked up later by Romanian media, but there’s nothing in English.

On May 26, 2019, an anonymous Romanian kid uploaded a very amateur video on YouTube in which he fantasized about Romania invading Ukraine in the year 2022 in order to militarily occupy and annex Bucovina.

Supposedly, this video was to buttress an idea that he is working on for a novel.

Which, ugh.

Despite this being just one of the millions of YouTube videos from a “nobody” that are posted every day, the Ukrainian government responded to this particular one by going into high alert, convening an emergency meeting with cabinet ministers and the military.

My translation of a Romanian journalist’s analysis of the fallout from the video:

On July 21, 2019, Ukraine will hold parliamentary elections. Many nationalist (fascist) parties will use this incident in order to frame Romania as an “enemy” of Ukraine in order to gain votes.

The man who convened the emergency meeting was Anatolii Matios, born and raised in Cernauti, the very same province that the YouTube kid wants Romania to invade.

Matios is the chief military prosecutor in Ukraine and a vicious anti-Semite.

Meanwhile…

On June 3, 2019, Pridnestrovie held a “Europe Days” festival in the capital, Tiraspol.

On hand were several European Union dignitaries from countries like Germany, Britain, and France.

Here’s a photo:

The man in the middle (not holding a flag) is the Foreign Minister of Pridnestrovie, Vitaly Ignatiev.

If you look to the right-hand side of the picture, you’ll see a man holding a Romanian flag.