Another "Sexy Russian Spy"? Exclusive photos here!

Regular readers of this blog know that I try to keep things classy here.  However, I've seen my esteemed Russia-blogger peers make hay on the Anna Chapman story and will not get scooped again! 

It seems that another young Russian lady has been detained on suspicion of espionage, and this one also seems to have enjoyed posting revealing photos of herself on the internet.  Never mind that she was apparently born in Latvia and is a U.S. citizen, Gawker already has the Facebook photos of our "New Sexy Russian Spy," Anna Fermanova.  But Gawker must not know about Odnoklassniki, which has this photo of the latest innocent-until-proven-guilty victim of spymania - and more!

After the jump are some more photos of Ms. Fermanova that Gawker couldn't show you.  As of now, they appear to be available online only here.  Ah, I knew I would be proud of this blog someday...

It's a well-known fact that alleged spies prefer bottle service.

Camo skirt = military background?

A Bond-worthy getaway vehicle.

License to kill.

They use benches like this for dead-drops, right?

Red Sea?

Military training...

Preparing to visit handlers in the Kremlin?

Showing some secret agent attitude.

Divided by a common language?*

CIMG1630, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
Limba Noastra decorations in Chisinau last year.
This poster says "Our Language - Romanian," whereas I saw other,
similar posters elsewhere in the city that left off the word "Romanian."

On August 31st (yes, I've been busy IRL** and the timeliness of this post has suffered), Moldova celebrated a holiday called Limba Noastra ("Our Language"), which celebrates the Romanian language (notwithstanding the Voronin government's preference for calling the local dialect a separate "Moldovan" language) and country's transition to the use of the Latin alphabet at the end of the Soviet era.

IMG_7689, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
Signage in Floresti, Moldova, Aug. 2008
Moldovans of my in-laws' generation sometimes still accidentally sprinkle in Cyrillic letters...

The holiday occasioned a lot of interesting online commentary. Imedia offered a straight-news report. Morning in Moldova characteristically takes a somewhat strident tone in defense of more robust promotion of Romanian language usage in Moldova, in a post which occasioned a pretty interesting comment. Nicu Popescu posted (in Romanian) an interesting historical survey of Russification efforts which shows that Romanian language usage in Moldova has actually survived much harder times than the past eight years of PCRM rule, and expressed the pragmatic and in my view absolutely correct point of view that people should not get hung up on what to call the language. Louis O'Neill, writing for RFE/RL, discusses the language issue in light of the mini-scandal which erupted after Voronin's apparent outburst (delivered in Russian) in Filat's direction at last Friday's opening session of parliament.

Natalia Morari also covered the language issue in one of her columns for RFE/RL last month (they are being translated into English - from Russian - but unfortunately RFE/RL doesn't seem to have a way to aggregate all the translations of her posts on one page), exploring the situation of the children of Russian-speakers in Chisinau (or, more precisely, the situation faced by Russian-speaking parents of children in Chisinau). And finally, award-winning and sometimes controversial Moldovan blogger Soacra Mica shared her personal experiences with the country's bilingualism.

As for my own experiences in the ten years I've been traveling to Moldova, I can say that I've always felt comfortable using Russian in Chisinau, although I've been glad not to have to in recent years, having picked up Romanian (or Moldovan, whatever) over time. For the most part, I find that people in the Moldovan capital tend to be fairly laid-back about which of the two languages is used in their day-to-day interactions, which is something I have always admired - it means that, if you only know Russian, you don't have to worry that you are creating political offense every time you open your mouth. It's something of a problem, of course, for the many citizens who end up using both languages passably but neither of them correctly, but I am not much moved by arguments based on linguistic purism.

In any event, the penetration of Russian seems to be slowly waning - as far as I know, none of the deputies use it in parliament anymore (though this was the case a few years ago, and it's still common to see political figures give interviews in Russian), and there is now a generation of young adults which has grown up able to avoid using Russian entirely. As the photos posted below show, though, there is plenty of usage of Russian in the public space, especially in Chisinau.

Even when people can't agree to speak the same language, sometimes they can still have a conversation. Last year I had lunch in Chisinau with a politically active Moldovan who spoke Romanian to the waitress taking care of our table. She spoke Russian to him. They had a conversation about the menu, about what would be tasty that day, etc., and each understood the other but did not speak the other's language. Of course such situations have the potential to be a bit tense, but I think there is something positive - or at least not entirely negative - about the mutual acceptance.

Earlier this year, I attended a peaceful gathering with speakers by (then-)opposition politicians on Chisinau's main square, just a few days after the violence of April 7th. Of all the speakers, Andrei Popov, who is now in parliament with the PDM but at the time was working as the director of a think-tank in Chisinau, made the strongest impression on me when he gave some remarks in Russian about how the Communists were cheating all Moldovan citizens - Russian-speakers included - out of a democratic government.

Also earlier this year, I was talking with an Estonian who works in Chisinau about the country's bilingualism. I mentioned that it was an unusual situation of a country that is really bilingual. The conversation took an unexpected turn when my interlocutor agreed and pronounced the situation in Moldova "disgusting," expressing his relief that the Baltic republics had avoided a similar situation and that Moldova would be less confused politically and better off in general if it had somehow moved away from widespread use of Russian being acceptable. It's a not-uncommon point of view that I understand but can't agree with.

CIMG3202, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
Bilingual signage can be seen in all walks of Moldovan life. This is a sign listing prices for having
various prayers said or ceremonies performed at the monastery in Saharna in northeastern Moldova.

IMG_3948, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
A bilingual welcome to one of Chisinau's main athletic venues.

CIMG3335, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
A trilingual and very shady ad seeking "girls with fashion/swimwear body" in Chisinau.

CIMG6510-1, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
Fast food at the Central Market in Chisinau.

CIMG6495-1, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
Parking lot and mechanic services.

CIMG6491-1, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
Bilingualism beyond the grave - this sign advertises custom-made gravestones.

* There are actually two main "linguistic" divides in Moldova (notwithstanding that they persist in large part because of various political forces capitalizing on and exacerbating them, they do seem to be real), only one of which involves a common language: the division between people who self-identify as "Romanian" and the subgroup of people among those who self-identify as "Moldovan" who believe the language they speak should be called "Moldovan." The other linguistic divide in the country, of course, is between Romanian-(or Moldovan-)speakers and Russian-speakers.

** in real life...

Moldovan Independence Day

In my Facebook feed, I saw a witty observation flash by today - "Moldova has always been independent - nothing ever depended on it." Nicu Popescu had a very interesting post today, which I'd translate if I had time, about the Moldovan mentality of dependence (he developed the theme further in this interview).

But I'm going to use the day as an excuse to post some of my photos from last year's celebration of the holiday. A year ago today, I got up well before 9am, quite a feat on a holiday for someone who had just been a student for three years, and made it down to Chisinau's main square to watch the ceremony of flower-laying at the statue of Ştefan cel Mare.

I have no idea how the festivities went down today (actually, with the exception of Lupu's absence, it looks like a familiar scene - Zina shi Vologhea u Shtefana), but I'd imagine there is a more tense atmosphere this year, as tomorrow marks the first meeting of parliament after the July 29th repeat elections. The current government ministers will tender their resignations, and the no-longer-opposition will be able to form a new government (though it lacks the 61 votes required in Parliament to choose a new President).

According to the excellent Morning in Moldova blog, it is absolutely imperative that a speaker of parliament be elected tomorrow. Imedia reports (on their excellent and extremely useful new English-language blog) that the members of the Alliance for European Integration, recently formed from the four opposition parties that made it into parliament on July 29, may not quite be done haggling over who gets the spot. Of greater concern is the fact that the Communist Party this week stated that it will not negotiate with the Alliance as a whole, but would be happy to negotiate with the individual parties that make up the Alliance, suggesting that the horse-trading over who becomes the country's next President (and of course the side deals that may be necessary to arrive at a compromise on that central issue) may just be heating up.

Anyway, I prefer to think back to a happier time - last year, when I was still enveloped in post-bar-exam bliss, and April 7th was just another insignificant date like any other...

IMG_7941-1, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
PM Zinaida Greceanii, President Vladimir Voronin and then-Speaker of Parliament
Marian Lupu, accompanied by the Patriarch - separation of church and state is so
overrated - approach the Stefan statue, preceded by goose-stepping soldiers...

IMG_7965-2, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
...proceed past the assembled press corps...

IMG_7952, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
...and prepare for the flower-laying.

IMG_7979, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
Meanwhile, lesser lights await their turn to lay flowers of their own, and
the bigwigs' chariots stand ready, lined up with military precision.

IMG_8002-1, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
Who will get that license plate next?

IMG_8016, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
Even here, some jackass opinionated individual showed up with one of those pro-unification t-shirts.
A bit like showing up to a 4th of July celebration with a t-shirt claiming the US in George III's name.
Well, not really, but I couldn't think of a better analogy.

IMG_8010, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.

And the band played on...

IMG_8039, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
Celebratory flags outside Chisinau's City Hall.

IMG_8036, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
Beer tents set up in anticipation of a concert planned for that evening.

IMG_8022, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
At the time, I wondered if the arrows on the sign at right symbolized
Moldova's unfortunately non-straightforward road toward Europe.

IMG_8021, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
The holiday was known as Independence Day for years (still is, officially and colloquially).
Therefore, when I saw the signs on the stage on PMAN proclaiming it Republic Day, I
immediately recalled how for many years June 12th in Russia was celebrated as
Independence Day (though not without some bemused wondering about "who did
we become independent from, anyway?") but under Putin became known as the more
bombastic Russia Day. "Further evidence of Putinism in Moldova?" I wondered lazily.

IMG_8029, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.

Happy 421st birthday!

This year, my wife's hometown of Floreşti celebrated its birthday (last weekend) without us. Incidentally, unless there's a local trend with which I'm unfamiliar (which is not impossible, since I'm not exactly plugged in with the youth subcultures there), someone has pranked Wikipedia by adding a sentence to the entry about Floreşti - "Since 2009 Floreşti has become the most popular producer of Moldova's Hip-Hop and Rap industry."

Be that as it may, a phone call last weekend reminded me of how much fun last year's "City Day" celebrations were, and I decided to share a few of the photos from way back when (the whole photoset is here, including some photos of the two nights of concerts on the main square - on one of which the city was honored with the presence of one Fuego, an artist previously unknown to me who is apparently a Romanian pop star):

CIMG1244, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
Flyer showing the schedule of festivities, alongside information
about payment rules at the local telephone exchange.

IMG_7380, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
Bulletin board with the heading "Floreşti - Past, Present, Future"...

IMG_7425, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
...and several representatives of Floreşti's future.

IMG_7284, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
Celebratory assembly at the local House of Culture, which included speeches by
local luminaries and children reading some genuinely touching poems they had
written about their hometown - as well as an older woman who had witnessed and
survived deportation by the Soviets and read a tear-jerker of a poem about that ordeal.

IMG_7541, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
"Together we will succeed!"

IMG_7575, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
Small child with a toy gun on the main square.

CIMG1416, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
My in-laws' cellar.

"A Soviet Fly in Geopolitical Amber"

[image source]

Strange Maps provides a dandy headline phrase describing Transnistria, as well as an detailed map of the region. I have a similarly fascinating poster-sized map of Moldova with various demographic breakdowns and migration statistics, but unfortunately I have no way to scan in such a big piece of paper.

Here's a recent update on the prospects for conflict resolution (if you can get past the tired phrases like "it could be a museum of the Soviet Union"), and here's a great resource if you are looking for further reading on the subject - three volumes of essays on the conflict which were presented at a conference that I attended in late May.

Here are some photos of Tiraspol, Transnistria's capital, from my most recent trip there on June 18 of this year:

CIMG3392, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
HQ of the local youth organization, Proryv (Breakthrough).


CIMG3391, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
Billboard of Russian President Medvedev and Transnistrian leader
Igor Smirnov - the banner at left reads "Our strength is in unity with Russia!"


CIMG3385, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
Decidedly old-school advertising posters outside of the Officers' Club,
which now rents some of its space to other organizations - unfortunately
I wasn't able to photograph the incredible, museum-like display of portraits
of historical Russian military figures which adorns one of the large rooms inside.


CIMG3381, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
Inside the HQ of the Transnistrian Communist Party (not a huge vote-getter, but - according to the party's leader - a
genuine opposition party, although according to others I spoke with if they threaten the authorities too much then they
might face a mud-slinging campaign based on their earlier contacts with the Moldovan Communist Party)


CIMG3378-1, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.
Recruiting poster for the Felix Dzerzhinsky (!) boarding school for cadets, which prepares 5th- to 9th-graders
for a career in the local police or internal troops - the appeal is to "Duty, Honor, Fatherland" - MacArthuresque!

Миф и Быль

[image source]

A friend who lives in Moscow emailed this to me. The billboard appears to be advertising a book series titled "Myths about Russia," and the myth highlighted by this billboard is the one "about Russian drunkenness, laziness and cruelty." I may have to trot this out the next time I hear someone lazily trying to bat away an argument with some line about "Russophobic stereotypes."

R.I.P., Izmailovo?

Izmailovo, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.

I don't want to believe this is true. I want to believe that while they may have shut down the vast Cherkizovsky market - a bureaucratic cat whose nine lives may have run out - that catered to locals right next door, they won't have the heart to permanently get rid of gingerbread-city stage set of the Izmailovskii Vernissage that reliably lured tourists and expats. Cherkizovsky was an amazing place where, shortly after arriving in Moscow in late 2001, we memorably bought a thick 2 x 3 meter carpet and a 3-liter jar of pickles and then had a hell of a time hauling both items home in one of those oversized "kitaiskie sumki." Some parts of that market were like walking into another country, complete with signage and street food from many time zones east.

It is a shame that Luzhkov and others favoring the reconfiguring of Moscow markets to exclude for'ners have failed to understand that such pockets of other-ness always added to Moscow's richness. And even operating from their xenophobic logic, it makes little sense to shut down the Vernissage, since nearly all of the vendors there were Russian, many of them artists and craftspeople selling their own work.

In any event, although we became more locals than tourists in Moscow, my more personal lament is not for Cherkizovsky but for the kitschy, tourist-oriented "Vernissage" section of the market, the one with paid admission to keep the riffraff out, the one with the mean-looking old drunk and his tragic trained bears just outside the entrance, across the walkway from the Central Asians cranking out cheese samsas using a huge iron vessel. If it's true, this means I will never be able to return to the mother lode of Russian souvenirs and flea-market-style borokhlo, or bric-a-brac.

It seems Moscow is no longer the consumer-oriented paradise of the boom years. Where will I now be able to go to buy vintage cuff links, pre-revolutionary books, fine carpets from the Caucasus, pirated DVDs, fake pashmina shawls, embroidered linen tablecloths, hand-carved chess sets, ratty (and not-so-ratty) fur hats, Soviet-era tourist maps, finely painted wooden eggs, and Chicago Cubs nesting dolls? Where will I now find the many missed opportunities of those past weekends spent at Izmailovo? I remember one in particular, an exhaustive collection of mint-condition Soviet-era bottle labels that filled five or six large albums. I couldn't bring myself even to haggle with the guy when he identified his starting price of 20,000 rubles, but now I wish I had bargained him down to 12 or so and walked away with a piece of graphic design history.

The photo above is from a happier, simpler moment - the day after Christmas, 2004, waiting to be warmed by some usually-good-but-never-great Izmailovo shashlyk. If it's true that the place is gone for good, I guess all I can say is, "Thanks for the memories."

Izmailovsky Market Closed
22 July 2009
The Moscow Times

Moscow authorities on Tuesday closed Izmailovsky Market, a magnet for tourists seeking deals on souvenirs, in a crackdown linked to the closure of nearby Cherkizovsky Market.

The prefect for Moscow’s Eastern Administrative District, where the markets are located, ordered the closure after authorities confiscated 5,843 truckloads of merchandise from Izmailovsky between July 11 and 20 and detained 25 people, including 14 Vietnamese citizens who will be deported, police spokeswoman Zhanna Ozhimina told Interfax.

Ozhimina said more than 150 police officers have been deployed to Izmailovsky to maintain public order as the remaining merchandise is removed.

Izmailovsky, which covers 10 hectares between the towering Izmailovo hotel complex and Izmailovsky Park, has been the place to shop for souvenirs since the 1990s. Its hundreds of stands also offered trinkets, Soviet kitsch, clothing and shashlik.

The market has been the site of two fires in the past four years, including one in March 2005 that killed a woman.

Authorities closed Cherkizovsky Market, located on Izmailovsky’s border, late last month during a smuggling investigation sparked by the seizure of $2 billion in Chinese goods last fall. More than 100 Chinese and Vietnamese traders from Cherkizovsky have been deported this month.

Update July 24: It looks like I may have broken out the black mourning clothes for naught - Rubashov has helpfully commented, adding this news from yesterday's MT:

However, the famous Vernisage, where tourists have shopped for souvenirs since the 1990s, remained open Wednesday. Interfax reported Tuesday that the souvenir market, located in the middle of Izmailovsky, had been closed together with the rest of the market.

Stay tuned, I guess...

Update July 28: A very interesting NYT story on what might be behind the closing of Cherkizovsky:

The trouble in this case was that the market’s owner, Telman Ismailov, who had made billions of dollars as Cherkizovsky evolved from a mere flea market into an industrial-scale distribution hub for Chinese imports during the oil boom, had violated unwritten codes of business conduct that put him at odds with Mr. Putin, according to analysts and Russian news reports.

The market was closed with a flurry of citations of fire code and health violations not unlike the use of environmental allegations to force Royal Dutch Shell to sell a portion of its investment in a Siberian oil field two years ago, or the shutdown of the Yukos oil company with tax claims before that. [...]

“Of course, if you applied the official hygiene, fire and labor codes, it was not done the way it was written,” Arseny Popov, an authority on the Chinese diaspora in Russia with the Russian Academy of Sciences, said of the market’s operations. “But nothing was happening there that wasn’t happening for the past 15 years.”

What was new was Mr. Ismailov’s $1.4 billion investment, using proceeds from the market, into a glittering, five-star resort thousands of miles away in a seemingly unrelated world of luxury on the Turkish seaside. It was called Mardan Palace, after Mr. Ismailov’s father, with 560 rooms, 10 restaurants, 17 bars and a lake-size swimming pool.

Mr. Ismailov, an immigrant from Azerbaijan who survived the sharp-elbowed world of street capitalism in the early 1990s to create the Cherkizovsky empire, threw a lavish series of opening parties in May. Mariah Carey was hired to perform a set and sing “Dreamlover” for Mr. Ismailov and his guests. Monica Bellucci, Sharon Stone and Paris Hilton also attended, the resort’s publicist said. The mayor of Moscow, Yuri M. Luzhkov, cut the ribbon.

It is unclear what about the lavish resort may have set off the regulatory onslaught. The ostentation in time of economic crisis, the investment abroad of profits made in Russia and a move to undermine Mr. Luzhkov, a one-time rival of Mr. Putin’s, have all been suggested in the Russian press. Mr. Ismailov declined to be interviewed about his market’s closing.

But within a week of the Mardan Palace party, the case had reached the ultimate arbiter of the business affairs and lifestyle of the Russian rich: Mr. Putin.

The prime minister broached the matter at a cabinet meeting June 1, leaving little doubt what he had in mind. “The fight is on, but results are few,” Mr Putin said, referring to smuggled goods at the market, according to news reports. “The results in such cases are prison terms. Where are the prison terms?”

Meanwhile, the people likely to suffer the most serious privation as a result of the shutdown of Cherkizovsky are the tens of thousands of migrant laborers who called the place both work and home. The NYT continues:

Mostly, the laborers can do nothing. Bakhodur M. Mirzoyev, a Tajik, squatted outside the market on a recent afternoon. He has been living in Kazan Train Station. “Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, open our containers,” he said. “We want to work.”

Asked why the market closed, Mr. Mirzoyev shrugged. The owner, he said, had built a hotel in Turkey. Now he was left with nothing but “three hungry children in Dushanbe.”

An opinion piece by Alexei Pankin in the MT weighs the "versii" and draws a slightly different, no less interesting, conclusion.

Photos from Chisinau

Construction workers repairing the Presidential Palace on April 12 discard a damaged pane of glass

I have uploaded some of my photos from Chisinau to this set on Flickr. The set includes a number of photos from the opposition rally last Sunday the 12th and also some of the damage done to government buildings downtown. Nothing too special, but it's Chisinau the way I saw it on this trip.

I'm still trying to come up with a narrative on which to hang all of my interview notes, so if anyone's actually waiting with bated breath for that, I'm afraid you may have to wait another day. In the meantime, below is an absolute slew of articles sent around by the Moldova Foundation today - yes, I'm too lazy to do the clipping for you, dear readers, since it's already been done, albeit rather selectively. Click on the words "Read More..." below to, well, read more.

One thing I would note regarding a couple of the articles below that mention Natalia Morari and suggest she's either in some kind of detention or (quoting her) on the run, underground in Moldova (actually, on my last full day in Chisinau I heard a rumor she was hiding in Transdniestria!) - it's strange that neither of those articles points out that on her blog, her husband has posted a message stating that she is fine and at home in Chisinau under house arrest and is incommunicado due to being under some sort of gag order. Obviously it's not the gospel truth just because it's on her blog, but you'd think one of the journos would have looked it up and at least mentioned the contradiction between what Ms. Morari is saying to the Telegraph and what her husband is saying on LJ.

Oh, and one more article that's worth reading but didn't make the selection below is this NYT piece, which does as good a job as the newspaper article format allows of examining the thorny question of Moldovan national identity in light of last week's events.


LIBERALS, LIBERAL DEMOCRATS AND OUR MOLDOVA REFUSE TO PARTICIPATE IN VOTE RE-COUNTING
Infotag (Moldova)
April 15, 2009

The three main opposition forces that have won seats in the next Parliament of Moldova – the Liberal Party, the Liberal Democratic Party and the Moldova Noastra Alliance – have announced they will not have a finger in re-counting the ballots cast at the April 5 parliamentary elections in this republic.

MNA leader Serafim Urechean stated at a news conference in Infotag today that the vote re-counting, scheduled by the Central Election Commission for April 15 to last only one day, is “but a farce organized by the Communist Party… The Communists are undertaking an attempt to legitimize the April 5 voting returns that were rigged. We are checking voter registers, but shall not participate in the Wednesday’s ballot re-counting, the more so that nobody can say what has happened to the sacks with ballot-papers since the election day”.

Urechean expressed regret that the vote re-count will suspend the voter-register check work being carried out by the said opposition parties.

“We would like to draw your attention to one thing: the vote recount, initiated by the Communist Party, will be carried out by [over 20 thousand] members of electoral commissions all over the republic – certainly for the public means. And the opposition parties are examining voter registers all by themselves and on party money”, said Serafim Urechean.

Liberal Party Chairman Mihai Ghimpu voiced apprehension that new violations may be committed during the vote recounting tomorrow.

“We know that sacks with ballot-papers are stored somewhere in the Central Election Commission. We are not ruling out that a ballot substitution may be organized. As you all know, the Communists are now in a desperate quest for one parliamentary mandate, which they are, so far, missing for electing a new president independently”, said Mihai Ghimpu.

As Infotag has already reported, the re-counting idea was put forward by the Communist Party Chairman, President of Moldova Vladimir Voronin, and the Constitutional Court and the Central Election Commission have approved of such recount.

…DO NOT RECOGNIZE ELECTION OUTCOME, AND CALL FOR RERUN

Chisinau. The above-mentioned three main opposition parties will demand that the outcome of the April 5 parliamentary election be declared null and void, and will call for a new election, LDPM leader Vlad Filat stated at the news conference he held jointly with the leaders of the Liberal Party and the MNA.

"The opposition parties have gathered enough evidence that the election outcome was rigged," Filat said. "While checking electoral rolls we have found out that people who died many years ago participated in the election. Minors and people who have been working abroad for many years have also been included in election lists and subsequently cast their ballots”.

"He said that the opposition would in the near future present a joint report on the results of checking election lists.

"We will present the mechanism of falsification of election results and will show that some 400,000 additional people were included in election lists, and that 'dead souls', as well as minors and those who have gone abroad cast their ballots in the recent election," Filat said.

At the same time, the Liberal Party, the LDPM and the MNA expressed deep concern about the fate of young people arrested in the wake of the 6-7 protest rallies in Chisinau. The three parties asked for their unconditional release and pledged to bring evidence showing the real provocateurs behind the 7 April mass riots. The Liberal Party, the LDPM and the MNA also demanded access to the Teleradio-Moldova company but so far they have received no answer.

At the April 5 , the parties won together 41 out of 101 parliamentary seats. The other 60 seats were won by the ruling Communist Party.

* * *

DEMONSTRATIONS PROMPT MOLDOVAN RECOUNT
By Thomas Escritt, Financial Times (UK)
April 12 2009

Moldova’s Constitutional Court on Sunday agreed to stage a recount of last week’s election after thousands of people took to the streets to protest against alleged police brutality.

President Vladimir Voronin asked the court to consider a recount on the grounds that it could re-establish calm after the ransacking of Moldova’s parliament last week following claims that parliamentary elections were rigged in favour of the Communists.

Some 5,000 protesters gathered in Chisinau’s main square on Sunday, summoned by the strains of pop music that all but drowned out a choir singing to the Palm Sunday procession in front of the capital’s Orthodox cathedral.

Iurie Leanca, a former minister from the Liberal Democrat party, one of three opposition parties that contests the results of last Sunday’s elections, said: “The aim is to focus on the civil rights violations. Young people have been beaten in police stations ... Some parents still can’t find out where their children are.”

It emerged on Sunday that one protester had died in police custody. The interior ministry denied opposition claims that the man had been beaten and blamed the death on gas used for crowd control.

“The more they beat us, the stronger we become,” said Vlad Filat, Liberal Democrat chairman. “The more they violate our human rights, the stronger is our will to fight.”

The government says 252 people have been taken into custody since Tuesday, and 121 have been placed under house arrest. Charges have been filed against 286, while 17 minors were cautioned.

Ala Meleca, interior ministry spokesman, said claims of police brutality had not been investigated, since none had taken place.

A senior official in the prime minister’s office attacked the European Union’s “passivity” in the face of last week’s rioting.

“If Moldova turns into Belarus, it will be the EU’s fault,” the official told the Financial Times, drawing a parallel with the authoritarian former Soviet state that enjoys close relations with Moscow. The official also criticised the conciliatory tone of Javier Solana, the EU’s foreign policy chief, who last week labelled the storming of parliament “unacceptable” while stressing the importance of the right to peaceful protest.

Foreign observers signed off on the elections, in which the ruling Communist party won 49 per cent of the vote, but the opposition claims biased media coverage, ballot stuffing and travel restrictions skewed the outcome.

Peaceful protests turned violent last Tuesday, culminating in the storming of the parliament and presidency buildings in central Chisinau.

Communist party officials accuse the opposition of fomenting unrest with the aid of neighbouring country Romania.

Additional reporting by agencies in Chisinau

* * *

MOLDOVA STARTS RECOUNT AS OSCE SEES ABUSES
The Associated Press (US)
16 April 2009

Moldovan authorities began a recount Wednesday of votes cast in the country's disputed April 5 parliamentary elections, an official said.

Iurie Ciocan, a spokesman for the Central Election Committee, said results would be announced Friday. Initial results showed the Communist Party with about 50 percent of the vote.

In Vienna, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said it had verified some claims that authorities abused demonstrators who protested the election results. The organization requested access to detention facilities and a meeting with a prosecutor.

Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek will also visit Chisinau on April 22 to assess the situation, the Moldovan president's office said Wednesday. The Czech Republic currently holds the rotating presidency of the European Union.

Also Wednesday, the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office said it would extradite two Moldovans suspected of organizing anti-government protests last week.

Gabriel Stati and Aurel Marinescu are being held in Odessa, where they were detained Thursday, said Yuriy Boichenko, a spokesman for the prosecutor's office. He said the two men might be handed over Thursday. Stati is the son of Anatol Stati, one of Moldova's richest men, whose investments in oil have contributed to his estimated wealth of $2.63 billion.

Chisinau's mayor Dorin Chirtoaca claimed Wednesday that a second person had died from beatings that he suffered in detention after the April 7 protests. Moldovan prosecutors said they would investigate the death of Ion Tibuleac, 22, who was buried Saturday.

* * *

U.N. CALLS FOR RESTRAINT, PEACEFUL DISSENT
UPI (USA)
April 14, 2009


The United Nations has called on security authorities in Moldova to show restraint following an outbreak of violence in recent protests.

U.N. officials in Moldova echoed a call Monday from U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for police to maintain order but show restraint from taking actions that might provoke more violence.

Following Moldova's parliamentary elections on April 5, young protesters took to the streets of the country's capital, Chisinau. The protests turned violent and prompted a call from the United Nations for protesters to dissent peacefully, the United Nations reported.

Ban called on leaders in Moldova to resolve differences through constructive dialogue in order to avoid ongoing unrest.

"Citizens must exercise their rights in a peaceful manner, and for their part, authorities must exercise restraint in policing demonstrations and guarantee fundamental human rights, including the right to physical and psychological integrity and the right to freedom of opinion, expression, association and assembly," the U.N. news release said.

* * *

MOLDOVA DETAINEES ABUSED, SAYS UN OFFICIAL
By Thomas Escritt, Financial Times (UK)
April 14 2009

Hundreds of young people detained after anti-government protests in Moldova have been subjected to "cruel, inhuman or degrading" treatment and denied access to legal advice, a United Nations official says.

Detainees described being beaten with clubs, water bottles, fists and feet, according to a confidential report that includes evidence provided by the UN human rights adviser in the country and seen by the Financial times.

The report says there is abundant evidence prisoners were being held in inhumane conditions with 25 to 28 individuals in 8m-square cells, denied food and given only limited access to water and basic sanitary facilities.

Hundreds of young people in Chisinau were arrested last week after protests against the outcome of elections 10 days ago turned violent when a group of protesters stormed the parliament and presidency buildings, setting the former ablaze. The protesters claim the Communist party, which won 49 per cent of the vote, stole the election.

The government declined to comment on the report, but referred to an earlier statement by the interior ministry that there would be no investigation into police brutality since no such cases had taken place.

Edwin Berry, the UN human rights adviser, said he had not written the report but confirmed it was based on evidence he gathered during a prison visit made on Saturday. "I did see evidence of acts of cruel and unusual punishment," he said.

The report is based on a visit to a single detention centre. A delegation consisting of Mr Berry and representatives of the country's National Preventative Mechanism on Torture, an officially sanctioned group of human rights organisations, was denied access to two other jails, in spite of legislation that allows them to conduct unannounced visits to any detention centre.

The report says detainees were "brought before a judge in blocks of six" and "collectively charged . . . [by means of] a template document. At no time did [the] detainees have access to a legal council".

Moldova's Constitutional Court on Sunday agreed to stage a recount of last week's election after thousands of people took to the streets to protest against alleged police brutality and mass arrests.

The recount takes place on Wednesday.

The communists, who are popular with older people and the many Slavic-speakers marooned in the former Soviet Republic after the collapse of the Soviet Union, have presided over eight years of strong growth in Moldova, a country of 4.4m sandwiched between Romania and Ukraine.

The communist president, Vladimir Voronin, has said last week's violence formed part of a Romanian-backed attempted "coup" and he has questioned the loyalty of the many Moldovans who hold dual Romanian citizenship.

* * *

MOLDOVA EXPELLING AMERICAN HEAD OF NDI OFFICE
Interfax (Russia)
Apr 15, 2009

A Chisinau court ordered on Wednesday that American Alex Grigorjevs, resident director of the Moldovan office of the U.S. National Democratic Institute, be expelled
from Moldova, his lawyer Costal Tense said.

On Tuesday, two Moldovan policemen arrested Grigorjevs at his office in central Chisinau and took him to court, Tanase told Interfax.

"After a personal identification procedure, he was handed a summons to court for Wednesday. On Wednesday, the court ruled that Alex Grigorjevs must leave Moldovan territory as he has been in the country without permission," Tanase said.

The lawyer confirmed that Grigorjevs' permit for residence in Moldova expired in September 2008.

"However, in August he asked for his residence permit to be extended. The authorities did not respond. He advised the Moldovan foreign minister, Andrei Stratan, about this, and Stratan confirmed that everything would be all right," Tanase said.

The lawyer said he would appeal the ruling.

Grigorjevs has been posted on Moldova since the NDI's Moldovan office opened in 2004.


* * *

EU ACCUSED OF TURNING BLIND EYE OVER MOLDOVA
By Thomas Escritt, Financial Times (UK)
April 15 2009

Vlad Filat, leader of one of three parties that are challenging the results of Moldova’s parliamentary elections has accused the European Union of turning a blind eye to mounting evidence of human rights abuses in the country.

Concern is growing for Natalia Morari, the Russian journalist who organised last Tuesday’s protest using social networking sites and SMS texts. Ms Morar, who has been in hiding, was reported arrested on Tuesday. “I’m in a holding cell going to court in 45 minutes,” she told the Financial Times by text message. Her whereabouts are not now known.

Mr Filat, leader of the opposition Liberal Democrat party, said the European Union’s response to mass arrests of opposition protesters in the wake of the elections had been inadequate.

“We understand that there are geopolitical realities and that they have to engage with Voronin [Moldova’s Communist president], but the serious human rights abuses we have seen over the past 10 days are more urgent,” he told the Financial Times in an interview.

The accusation came ahead of the electoral commission’s announcement on Wednesday evening of the results of a vote recount which opposition parties dismiss as a tactical feint by the Communists.

The opposition says electoral rolls were padded out with the names of the dead and people who left Moldova long ago. Attempts to vet the electoral rolls were halted by a court decision on Tuesday evening.

Moldova’s ruling Communist party won 49 per cent of the vote on April 5 in an election opposition parties say was stolen.

Peaceful student protests that began on Tuesday rapidly descended into violence when an apparently small and unrelated group stormed the parliament and presidency buildings, setting the former ablaze. The government admits some 300 protesters have since been arrested, but the opposition claims more than 1,000 are in jail.

Mr Filat said concern about driving Moldova’s government closer to Russia was overshadowing concern for the detainees, many of whom have been beaten, according to a UN report.

“There are politicians who are concerned about values and rights and politicians who care about strategy and geopolitics in Brussels. But how can US and EU politicians talk about geopolitics when their policies are based on very different values,” Mr Filat said.

Statements from Brussels so far have condemned last Tuesday’s violence. “The important thing is to get the political process back on track,” an EU official in Chisinau told the Financial Times.

Moldova is divided between speakers of Moldovan, a variant of Romanian, and Slavic-speakers, many of whom were marooned in the former Soviet republic of 4.4m after the fall of the Soviet Union.

Mr Voronin, a former Soviet general, maintained good relations with Moscow until a split over the future of the breakaway province of Transdnistria in 2005. The opposition parties, which are supported by Moldovan speakers, say the Communists’ commitment to European integration is only rhetorical.

* * *

ROMANIA TO TAKE SITUATION IN R. MOLDOVA TO ECHR, EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT
Financiarul (Romania)
April 16, 2009

Romania will address the ECHR with respect to limiting the right to the free movement of the Romanian citizens in the Republic of Moldova and it will also call on the European Parliament for an inquiry, President Traian Basescu told the public television TVR late on Tuesday.

'You can be sure there was no joke in the speech I delivered (to the Parliament - editor's note) when I said we'll notify the international courts. The restriction of the right to the free movement of the Romanian citizens, the violation of the agreement between the EU and Moldova will be one of the topics we'll put forward to the ECHR.

The Romanian citizens were deprived of a right they had, the Romanian citizens were searched, the Romanian journalists were deprived of the right to do their job', Basescu stressed.

He said Romania will notify the ECHR with respect to the Moldovan authorities' attitude towards the Romanian journalists, since 'what happened to the Romanian journalists in the Republic of Moldova - they were arrested, detained, searched, some were denied entry to the Republic of Moldova - are things we are going to present the ECHR'.

The president also said Romania was likely to ask for an inquiry by the European Parliament. 'Maybe it is too early and not too political to speak of the second move we plan to make. We want a European inquiry by the European Parliament, where the foreign policy commission or the plenary sitting can make such a decision. We are trying to carry out both alternatives and I hope tomorrow I'll manage to hold the exploratory talks', he added.

Basescu pointed out the main goal of Romania is that the abuse be found against the Romanian citizens or those who have double citizenship; the issue in Chisinau is to certify the seats of the parliamentarians who have double citizenship - Romanian and Moldovan, he underscored.

'This is another reason why we'll go to the ECHR. The Romanian citizenship is not a second rate citizenship. It is European citizenship. The citizens who have such citizenship should not be discriminated', he said.

Basescu added there is not yet a full evaluation of what is going on in the neighbouring country.'
At that meeting to which I invited the foreign minister and the prime minister, the day after the Chisinau events, one of the things we established as being a priority was that we be informed about how many citizens who have Romanian citizenship are there in the jails of the Interior Ministry in Chisinau. Not even today have we got an answer from the Chisinau authorities', Basescu said.

The president stressed that Romania's attitude towards the Republic of Moldova was temperate in the past as well, when two clerics and two diplomats had been expelled.

'There are attitudes and actions of the Chisinau Government to which we did not respond. It takes the acceptance of both sides to build a curtain. Can you image how things would have got complicated if we had matched our answer and had expelled the Moldovan ambassador, if we had introduced a visa tax for the Moldovan citizens seeking to come to Romania', Basescu said.

* * *

ROMANIA SLAMS VORONIN ATTEMPT TO RAISE ‘IRON CURTAIN’
By Mihai Barbu, Nine o'Clock (Romania)
April 15, 2009

Romania will not give R. of Moldova President Vladimir Voronin the opportunity to raise an iron curtain over Prut River, President Traian Basescu said on Monday evening after a meeting at Cotroceni Palace with education trade unionists.

“He himself can decide or try to raise an iron curtain over Prut River. We will not give him the opportunity to do this, because we will have a European behaviour, a responsible behaviour, not to President Voronin, but to the four million Romanians who live in Moldova, the four million Romanians, citizens of the Republic of Moldova, who are part of this people,” Basescu said.

He added that he kept silent over the topic so far, in spite of opposition parties’ criticism, because he wanted to have an overall view of what happened in the R. of Moldova. “I thought that giving a rushed response to President Voronin was exactly the kind of game he wanted to draw us in,” he said.

Basescu refused to make further comments, saying he would address all issues related to the Moldova events and the “ungrounded accusations Chisinau authorities, including Voronin, brought against Romania,” in his Parliament address.

Chisinau last week was gripped by violent protests against the ruling Communist Party’s victory in the legislative elections. One person was killed, dozens were injured and over 200 were arrested following a day of clashes between demonstrators and police, in which protesters stormed the parliament building and President Voronin’s offices. The opposition insisted that the legislative elections, which were won by the Communists, were rigged and asked for a repeat of the ballot.

Voronin directly accused Romania of being behind the protests and immediately moved to expel the Romanian ambassador to Moldova and to introduce visas for Romanians. Romania rejected the allegations as “provocation”, but underlined that it will not take similar measures against Moldovan diplomatic personnel in Bucharest.

Geoana: Romania must redefine its position in Moldova ties

Meanwhile yesterday, during a debate on the Moldova events, Senate Speaker Mircea Geoana underlined that Romania should redefine its position in the current international context and in its ties with the Republic of Moldova. Geoana said Romania is somehow isolated in the EU and underlined that this is proven by the weak response of European states to anti-Romanian attitudes in Chisinau.

“The neighbour we have the best ties with at the moment is the Black Sea. We have an obligation to the Republic of Moldova and it is high time we redefine our position to these events,” Geoana said. He added that Romania is facing difficult ties with both Moldova and Russia at the moment.

Geoana also said that both at Brussels and Washington, there is low interest in regional developments, not only in R. of Moldova, but also in Ukraine and Georgia, which are also facing a difficult period.

The debate was also attended by FM Cristian Diaconescu, the head of the Social-Democrat Party’s National Council, Adrian Nastase, the head of the Senate’s foreign affairs committee, Titus Corlatean and several politicians, analysts and NGO representatives.

Nastase, a former foreign minister and prime minister, criticized President Basescu for the current ‘poor state’ of Romania’s foreign policy and said he expected the head of state’s Parliament address, scheduled later on Tuesday evening, to be an “image exercise, some sort of hysteric circus”.

A similar opinion was voiced by ex President Emil Constantinescu, who said in an interview to RFI that Romania’s neighboring policies have failed and that Basescu’s speech in Parliament would only be meant to impress the public. “In my opinion, the president doesn’t know what to do, neither he nor the government has any kind of strategy” regarding Moldova, he said. In an earlier statement, Constantinescu protested the “repressive and illegitimate” actions taken by Moldovan authorities to repress opposition demonstrations and called on Amnesty International, the Council of Europe and the OSCE to intervene. Also yesterday, Chamber of Deputies Speaker Roberta Anastase said she decided to sent a letter to her EU counterparts, to draw attention on the events in Chisinau, which “proved the undemocratic nature” of Voronin’s rule. Anastase voiced deep concern over the actions of the Moldovan government and the country’s democratic perspectives.

She also criticized the authorities’ “brutal and abusive” actions against demonstrators and the measures taken against foreign journalists. Her comments came as on Monday evening, a spokesperson for the PSD, Cristian Dumitrescu, said his party was going to ask the Council of Europe, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the United Nations to dispatch missions to R. of Moldova so as to clarify all allegations of human rights violations.

Tension still high in Moldova

The three largest opposition parties in Moldova – the Liberal Democrats, the Liberals and Our Moldova Alliance, yesterday demanded that the April 5 polls be cancelled and new elections be held, saying they have enough evidence to prove that the elections were rigged. “We checked the lists of voters and found that several people who died years ago or who have been living abroad for a long time were on these lists,” the head of Liberal-Democrats, Vlad Filat said.

The votes will be recounted today, at the request of President Voronin. Opposition parties charge that Voronin hopes the communists will obtain one more seat in Parliament after a recount, so as to be able to impose the next president.

Meanwhile, allegations of abuse and violence against people detained following last week’s protests continued. The family of a young man who was arrested and beaten up by police agents said they were going to sue the Chisinau police, while the head of the Moldovan Center for Human Rights said that three children, who were also detained, without their parents’ knowledge, were “put under a lot of pressure.”

Chisinau Mayor and Liberal leader Dorin Chirtoaca said that the Moldovan police are trying to hide the ‘ill treatment’ detainees were subjected to, by moving them from Chisinau to other police offices across the country or to unknown locations.

In an online discussion with HotNews readers, Chirtoaca said those who commit these severe acts against citizens should be tried for crimes against humanity at The Hague.

On Monday evening, the Moldovan Foreign Ministry withdrew the accreditation of a correspondent of the Romanian public television to Chisinau. The decision was heavily criticized by the Romanian public TV channel.

* * *

MOLDOVAN OPPOSITION TO BOYCOTT RECOUNT, CALLS FOR NEW VOTE
AFP (France)
April 14, 2009

Leaders of Moldova's main opposition parties said Tuesday they would boycott a recount of disputed legislative elections, calling it a sham and demanding a new vote.

"The recount is a farce which the Communists thought up in order to legalize violations that occurred during the election," Serafim [Urechian], head of the Our Moldova party, told reporters.

"The opposition will not participate in the recount," he added, speaking at a joint press conference with leaders of two other opposition parties.

The leaders of Our Moldova, the Liberal Party and the Liberal Democratic Party called instead for a repeat of the disputed April 5 election in Moldova, an impoverished former Soviet republic wedged between Ukraine and Romania.

This week, elections officials said they would conduct the recount Wednesday and finish it in one day, while Moldova's Communist President Vladimir Voronin said the recount would restore stability.

Together the three opposition parties won about 35% of the vote, compared to about 50% won by the Communists, official results showed.

But allegations that the Communist Party had falsified the vote sparked street demonstrations last week, including one in which young protesters stormed and ransacked parliament.

The opposition says that voter lists included dead people and Moldovans working abroad.

* * *

MOLDOVA PRESIDENT CALLS FOR AMNESTY FOR PROTESTERS
Reuters (USA)
April 15, 2009

Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin urged legal authorities today to proclaim an amnesty for people detained while taking part in anti-communist demonstrations, except for criminals and repeat offenders.

''I call on the competent bodies to carry out a general amnesty and call for an end to all forms of prosecution against participants in street protests,'' Voronin said in comments broadcast before a televised address to the nation.

''Representatives of the criminal world and repeat offenders must remain in prison.'' About 200 people were detained after violent protests last week against alleged vote rigging in an election won by the Communists, and international groups have since accused the authorities in the ex-Soviet state of mistreating detainees.
---------
OUT NOTE: reports from the ground say that today, April 16, no one was released from the police custody.

* * *

LEADER OF MOLDOVA'S 'TWITTER REVOLUTION' IN HIDING
Telegraph (UK)
April 16, 2009

A woman who helped organise the protests that rocked Moldova last week has gone into hiding after the "Twitter revolution" forced a recount of the general election.

Natalia Morar, 25, was behind a flash mob that ended with 20,000 people storming the parliament building in the country's captial Chisinau.

She now fears she will be arrested for her role in the unrest, which left parliament buildings damaged.

Miss Morar, told the Guardian she had not slept for two nights and was moving from one apartment to the next in an attempt to outwit the authorities.

Reports said police had ordered she be placed under house arrest.

"They have staked out my house and my mother's," she told the paper, speaking from a secret location.

"They entered my apartment without a search warrant. If they find me they will arrest me – and what happens then, no one knows. I haven't spoken on the phone or gone online for two days for fear of being traced."

The protests began after a conversation between Morar and six friends in a cafe in Chisinau on April 6.

"We discussed what we should do about the previous day's parliamentary elections, which we were sure had been rigged," she said.

The elections brought a larger-than-expected victory for the incumbent Communist party.

"We decided to organise a flash mob for the same day using Twitter, as well as networking sites and SMS."

With no recent history of mass protests in Moldova, "we expected at the most a couple of hundred friends, friends of friends, and colleagues", she said.

"When we went to the square, there were 20,000 people waiting there. It was unbelievable."

On Tuesday, the demonstrations continued into peacefully. But later that day protesters stormed the parliament building and the presidential palace opposite. Fire broke out in one wing of the parliament, and the young protesters damaged computers and office furniture.

"Not only did we underestimate the power of Twitter and the internet, we also underestimated the explosive anger among young people at the government's policies and electoral fraud," she said.

Miss Morar, who is banned from Russia for opposing the Kremlin, believes Moldova's powerful neighbour was involved in the vendetta against her: "It was when Russia expressed strong support for Moldova's position on the elections, and condemned the protests, that they started targeting us."

The results of the recount will be announced on Friday.

* * *

TWO MOLDOVAN SUSPECTS OF ORGANIZING CHISINAU RIOTS EXTRADITED FROM UKRAINE
Kyiv Post (Ukraine)
April 16, 2009

Moldovan citizens Gabriel Stati and Auren Marinescu suspected of funding the Chisinau riots have been extradited from Ukraine, Ukrainian Deputy Prosecutor General Oleksandr Shynalsky told Interfax-Ukraine.

"They are already in Moldova," he said.

Stati and Marinescu were seized in Odesa on April 9. Moldovan police wanted them "for actions aimed to seize power in violation of the Moldovan constitution". The riots in Chisinau occurred on April 6-7.

* * *


MOLDOVAN CAPITAL’S MAYOR SPEAKS AGAINST COMMUNISM
By ELLEN BARRY, New York Times (USA)
April 13, 2009

The 30-year-old mayor of Chisinau, Dorin Chirtoaca, told a crowd of around 3,000 in the city’s central square on Sunday that Moldova’s youth had rejected Communism because they “understand that their future has been stolen.”

Last week, after anti-Communist rallies culminated in a violent raid of government buildings in Moldova, authorities arrested hundreds of participants and cracked down on high school and college classrooms across the country. Those who gathered on Sunday were mostly in their 40s and 50s, many carrying candles from morning church services.

During last week’s demonstrations, “the young people threw out portraits of Voronin and Lenin and others because they have come to hate them,” Mr. Chirtoaca said to shouts of applause, referring to Moldova’s 67-year-old Soviet-educated president, Vladimir Voronin. “They understand that their future has been stolen. They understand that their votes in the parliamentary elections were stolen. Regimes that use terror end badly.”

Mr. Chirtoaca, elected two years ago on an anti-Communist platform, called for a moment of silence in memory of Valeriu Boboc, 23, who died Wednesday after participating in demonstrations on Tuesday. His parents have said that his death was caused by a beating at the hands of the police.

Moldova’s Interior Ministry released a statement on Sunday saying an autopsy showed that Mr. Boboc had a broken rib, but that his death had not been caused by the injury. “Doctors think that the young man was poisoned by unknown substances,” the statement said, according to Interfax. “Prosecutors are ready for an international probe in order to exclude other interpretations of this fact.”

Meanwhile, Moldova’s Constitutional Court on Sunday authorized a recount of the results from the April 5 parliamentary elections, as well as a verification of voter lists, allotting nine days for its completion. Preliminary results released April 5 showed Communists getting about 50 percent of the vote, which would give them enough leverage to select the next president unilaterally — a bitter disappointment to young people eager to shake off Communist rule. The results set off large anti-Communist protests last Monday and Tuesday.

The crowd that gathered on Sunday was striking for its absence of students, who have been severely sanctioned for participating in the actions last week. Aurelia Pospai, 62, a university instructor, said the state Ministry of Education on Wednesday ordered faculty members to sign a document promising to prevent their students from participating in rallies. She said she hoped to send a message that the protest movement was not confined to the young.

“Since 1984, we were fighting against Communism,” she said. “And now we have fallen back into it with this regime. We want them out even more than the young people do.”

* * *

MOLDOVAN GENERATION GAP STOKES POLITICAL FEUDS
By MANSUR MIROVALEV, AP (USA)
April 12, 2009

With one-quarter of the population working abroad to eke out a living, impoverished Moldova has become a country of the young and the very old.

It's a generation gap that has split the country politically — and violently.

The elderly, who look to Moscow for leadership and are nostalgic for the Soviet past, recently voted to return Communists to power. The young, rallied by text messages and Twitter and eager to join Europe, seized and trashed parliament and the country's presidential offices in response.

The unrest continued Sunday, as 3,000 anti-government protesters gathered in downtown Chisinau to call for the government to resign.

Some Moldovans say the absence of working-age adults, less embittered than the old and more practical than the young, is to blame for turning the parliamentary contest into a clash of generations.

Ion Covali, a 61-year-old retired trucker, voted for the victorious Communists because he believes capitalism has only brought his once-proud country poverty and humiliation — a point driven home by the world economic crisis.

"We used to be a magnet, everyone in the Soviet Union envied us," Covali said, as wrinkles on his face smoothed into a frail smile. "But now we live in a dump."

Covali's grandson, 19-year-old Ion Covali, was among thousands of youths who took to the streets after the April 5 vote. Demonstrators alleged widespread voting fraud and called for new elections.

For the younger Ion, who didn't bother to vote, the protests were exhilarating. "Everything was so unexpected," the university student said. "And everyone was high on this sudden freedom."

Nina Bondarenko, a 60-year old schoolteacher, said Moldova's elderly — who built their lives during the Soviet era — still cling to the myths of Communism. "Soviet children were drilled into believing white was black and vise versa, and they have become ... today's pensioners," she said.

The younger generation, she said, are free to think for themselves. But the country's youth have grown up without parental supervision, leaving them feeling both bold and abandoned, Bondarenko said.

"The schools are filled with children whose parents are abroad, and many children protest it any way they can," she said.

Wednesday's protests, among the largest Moldova has seen since March 2002, ended with 193 people arrested and almost 100 injured.

Sergei Roscovanu, a taxi driver who recently returned from working in Ireland, is neither a student nor a pensioner. The 25-year-old said he didn't know whether to blame the protesters or the Communists for the unrest.

He is certain of one thing: Moldovan society has suffered because so many live abroad. "We have been bled dry by the exodus," said Roscovanu.

The 1991 Soviet collapse transformed Moldova into one of the poorest countries in Europe. Up to a fourth of the population of 4 million work in the European Union or Russia and their remittances amounted to almost 40 per cent of Moldova's GDP, according to the World Bank.

"There is a growing conflict between grandparents and grandchildren," said Anatoly Petrenko of the opposition group European Action.

The elections left the Communists with 60 out of 101 seats in parliament, one short of being able to name a replacement for President Vladimir Voronin, who in 2001 became Europe's first democratically elected communist head of state.

On Friday Voronin, who is stepping down after two terms, ordered a re-count of votes calling for a resolution of Moldova's "political dead-end."

While older Moldovans tend to regard Russia as their country's chief ally, many youth look west to Europe and neighboring Romania, which shares close linguistic, ethnic and historical ties with Moldova. Many protesters called for unification with Romania, a member of the European Union and NATO.

Voronin, meanwhile, has accused Romanian authorities of supporting the violent protests and of helping the opposition organize the revolt.

Older Moldovans like to reminisce about the days when Moldova was a jewel in the crown of the Soviet Union. The tiny republic had thriving agriculture, and Covali recalls driving trucks loaded with Moldovan fruit, vine and cigarettes to central Russia and Siberia.

After the 1991 Soviet collapse, the world turned upside down for the pensioner's generation. Sitting at an oak dinner table at his crammed apartment in the capital, Chisinau, Covali pointed at the pictures of his two sons, Corneliu and Marius, who work at a fish cannery in Portugal to support their families.

Now the world's economic downturn, he said, threatens even this tenuous economic lifeline.

"I voted for Communists because they promise stability amid this capitalist crisis," Covali said. "They are far from perfect, but they are better than these opposition crybabies that squabble between themselves instead of serving the people."

Young Moldovans, meanwhile, live in a world of electronic gadgets and computers, swiftly changing fashion trends and multicultural influences.

Many have traveled or worked abroad and resent that their impoverished country is ruled by the aged elite that seeks closer ties with Russia and still calls itself Communist.

Communism is unfashionable among youth here. "It's just a brand for the old people," sneered Roman Lobov, a 22-year old university student with closely cropped hair.

If anything, the recent protests may have aggravated Moldova's yawning generation gap.

"The revolt only boosted communists' ratings," said Svetlana, a middle-aged saleswoman at a bookstore in central Chisinau, who refused to provide her last name, saying she fears pressure from nationalists.

"Many of my friends were indifferent to voting, but after what happened they said they will vote for Voronin," she said.

Of course, not all of the young supported the protests. Neither do all elderly Moldovans back the Communists.

But prospects for a reconciliation of Moldova's divided generations appear slim in the short run, said young Ion Covali, wearing a black coat and white-blue jeans.

He was standing outside a movie theater with a marquee advertising both Hollywood and Russian blockbusters, another symptom of his country's split between East and West.

"We need changes so much," he said, "but sometimes I think they will come only after the older generation is gone."