The Curious Case of the Half Ambassador

Word count: 421 What happens when the United States appoints a new ambassador to a friendly, allied country? There’s a little ceremony and then a press release goes out. Right? Well that’s sort of what happened today. The United States now has a new ambassador to Moldova and here he is, saying hello to the people of RM in both Romanian and Russian with professional … Continue reading The Curious Case of the Half Ambassador

Klaus Kanzels on Kishinev

Word Count: 1765 Hey kids, does anybody remember those Moldovan parliamentary elections that were held on November 30, 2014? Whatever happened to that? Not much, to be honest. The voting took place, with an astonishingly high number of irregularities, but because the net result was favorable to the United States and the EU, it was deemed to be “good enough”. What’s happened since then is … Continue reading Klaus Kanzels on Kishinev

Loony Gas

Word Count: 1655 Lately, I’ve been up to my eyeballs dealing with personal problems, but even so I managed to note that Victoria Nuland, Romania’s frenemy, made a brief stop in Bucharest on Wednesday (Jan 14) for private meetings with PM Victor Ponta and newly-elected President Herr Klaus, as well as the usual coterie of interlocutors. All that was normal, and to be expected, as … Continue reading Loony Gas

Moldovan Christmas, Part 2

Word Count: 981 As I promised in my post The Land of Perfect Christmas, I would report back to you about the festivities here on Orthodox Christmas, January 7. I was actually surprised by just how low-key the entire thing was, even though about 99% of Moldovans celebrate Orthodox Christmas in one way or another. Mostly it just seemed like a day off from work … Continue reading Moldovan Christmas, Part 2