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 be in office today except that he was arrested in … Continue reading The Curious Case of the Chisinau Mayoral Race

USA + RM = BFF 4EVR!!!

Awww, isn’t that sweet? The American embassy in Moldova hung a little corny sign written in Comic Sans font to say how much they “love” Moldova. In fact, they love Moldova so much that they’re sending in the military: Seventeen generals and admirals and one civilian member of the senior executive service from the Department of Defense are visiting Chisinau from 12 to 16 Feb … Continue reading USA + RM = BFF 4EVR!!!

Protests Continue in Moldova

Every major media outlet, including the BBC and all the major players in other languages, covered the events of yesterday (Sunday) as between 10 and 50 thousand people came out in the bitter cold to call for new elections: Chanting “We Are the People” and “We Want our Country Back” in both Romanian and Russian, protesters in Chisinau braved temperatures of minus 10 degrees Celsius … Continue reading Protests Continue in Moldova