Moldova in The Economist
The Economist published an article about an alleged deal between the Moldovan President and Moscow regarding Transnistria. It has to do with disolving the Parliament and organizing anticipated Parliamentary elections to include representatives and voters from Transnistria.
This initiative is another "suprise-suprise!" action which is not being open to public debate. Until recently, available information seems to come from leaking unofficial sources. Politicians , experts and bloggers have already experessed their opionions on something that the wider public has not been properly informed about.
Later addition: Here is a recent
EUobserver article on EU's reaction to this issue.
And here is how Moldovan media interpretes the above EUobserver article.
One thing is obvious: a secret plan, the so-called "Zubakov plan" that becomes public in an unofficial way breeds a great deal of speculation and manipulation. As journalist Dumitru Minzarari puts it, "the political parties and intrest groups are currently analyzing their own benefits and losses that might result from the potential consequences of this plan, trying to identify potential political alliances" (my own translation) at the expense of the country's sovereignity and public interest.
LATEST ADDITION: At a meeting with Deputy Assistant Secretary of State David Kramer, the Moldovan President claims there is no any Russian 'secret plan'. Likewise, Russia denies existance of such a plan as well.
Comments:
Thank you for sharing this!
It will be interesting to follow how this "masterplan" of theirs is to unfold. Still hoping that the opposition reacts in time (not likely though, they are all concerned with the big race for the mayoralty chair), and the media gets its hands on this issue fast enough to bring it to the attention of the people.
Looks like the EU has expansion fatigue and the US is bogged down in the Mideast and not wanting more international involvements so Russia filled the vacuum to get what it wanted.
Although the official Moldova still did not make a decision on this issue (at least not one that I'm aware of), it would be interesting to observe and analyze the negotiation process that is currently going on. Most likely, an official decision on this issue will not be announced before the upcoming local elections, scheduled for 3rd of June.
The Economist published another article on roughly the same topic today. Here is the link. It's quite rare that they write so much (2 full articles in 2 weeks) on Moldova & Transnistria. But I'm glad they do, because a lot of important people read that magazine and the Moldovan press seems to quote their opinions every time they write something on the topic.
PS: Let me know if you need to be a subscriber to see the article. I am, so I could forward you a copy if you want to.
Thank you, doomie. This article is attemting a comparison between West Berlin in the cold war and Transnistria - a new and interesting perspective.
And you are right, it is pretty rare that the Economist publishes 2 article about Moldova at such a short interval ...maybe somebody in the West really cares :)