{"id":103982,"date":"2007-04-23T17:02:00","date_gmt":"2007-04-23T17:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/new.moldova.org\/2007\/04\/23\/soviet-ghost-lives-on-in-moldova-43783-eng\/"},"modified":"2007-04-23T17:02:00","modified_gmt":"2007-04-23T17:02:00","slug":"soviet-ghost-lives-on-in-moldova-43783-eng","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.moldova.org\/en\/soviet-ghost-lives-on-in-moldova-43783-eng\/","title":{"rendered":"Soviet Ghost Lives on in Moldova"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading Time: <\/span> 3<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>


\nBy Andrei Brezianu and Vlad Spânu* <\/em><\/p>\n

Moldova is a landlocked stretch of land of the former Soviet empire, still ruled by Vladimir Voronin, a Communist ex-apparatchik, who is prone to remarks. One which made the headlines was an off-the-cuff order that photo-models featuring in roadside advertising should be of the right nationality, ie, Moldovan.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

More recently he hinted at some kind of ‘Greater Moldova’ – this would logically be at the expense of neighbouring Romania, now part of both the EU and of NATO. <\/p>\n

“We would be shocked if over the past 150 years the Moldovans in Romania could have forgotten their own state,” he told the state news agency Moldpres, hinting that his government might seek the recognition of a Moldovan ethnic identity under EU criteria. <\/p>\n

In truth, the claim that the language spoken by his subjects is not Romanian but “Moldovan” is as absurd as insisting that the Spanish spoken in Venezuela must be called Venezuelan. So what is going on? <\/p>\n

Founded in the 14th century, Moldova maintained its own statehood, mostly under Ottoman suzerainty, until 1812, when it was cut in two. The former principality of Moldova joined Wallachia in 1859 to form modern Romania, an entity recognised by international law from 1862 onwards. <\/p>\n

Czarist Russia got the country’s eastern part, swallowed it up under the name of Bessarabia, and restricted the use of the local language. It was not a happy arrangement. At the end of the First World War, in a last-ditch attempt to avoid Sovietisation, Bessarabia united with Romania. <\/p>\n

\"\"The Ribbentrop-Molotov pact soon confused things further. In June 1940 the Hitler-Stalin agreement awarded the USSR not a republic, like the Baltic states, but half a province of Romania, which became the “Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic”. <\/p>\n

Voronin is a product of its political culture, indeed of a particular sliver of it – the Russian protectorate of the “Moldavian Transnistrian Republic” where he was born 58 years ago and which seceded in 1990. <\/p>\n

Reports of the death of the USSR, as Russian President Vladimir Putin constantly reminds us, are exaggerated. Voronin is secretary-general of Moldova’s Communist Party, as well as president, of a country of crushing poverty, ubiquitous crime and corruption and negligible attention to basic human rights. The most visible export is cheap labour and a flourishing human trafficking. <\/p>\n

Posturing about lost empires no doubt helps divert attention from such problems, and the lack of serious progress towards EU integration. But Russia’s interests are both more subtle and more sinister. Maintaining such an aggressive puppet- regime on the EU’s border keeps up a constant message of displeasure towards Romania, which Russia hardly bothers to conceal it would prefer disjoined, like Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. <\/p>\n

The West’s response should be to send a clear message that reborn imperial ambitions, even in pantomime form, can hardly be in the best interests of Moldova, especially if it is serious about joining the EU. <\/p>\n

——-
\nAndrei Brezianu and Vlad Spânu<\/a> are authors of the Historical Dictionary of Moldova<\/a>. Dr. Brezianu is a publicist and broadcaster who chaired Romania\/Moldova area studies at the George P. Shultz Foreign Service Institute (2002-2003). Vlad Spânu is the President of the Moldova Foundation in Washington, DC and he was until 2001 a senior Moldovan diplomat.
\n——-
\nReprinted from and with the permission of the European Voice of The Economist, an independent view of the EU (Belgium), Vol. 13 No. 15: April 19, 2007: http:\/\/www.europeanvoice.com\/current\/article.asp?id=27852
\n——-
\nTranslation of this article in Romanian<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reading Time: <\/span> 3<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>Moldova is a landlocked stretch of land of the former Soviet empire, still ruled by Vladimir Voronin, a Communist ex-apparatchik, who is prone to remarks. One which made the headlines was an off-the-c<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-103982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"content_social_share":"Reading Time: <\/span> 3<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>


\nBy Andrei Brezianu and Vlad Spânu* <\/em><\/p>\n

Moldova is a landlocked stretch of land of the former Soviet empire, still ruled by Vladimir Voronin, a Communist ex-apparatchik, who is prone to remarks. One which made the headlines was an off-the-cuff order that photo-models featuring in roadside advertising should be of the right nationality, ie, Moldovan.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

More recently he hinted at some kind of ‘Greater Moldova’ – this would logically be at the expense of neighbouring Romania, now part of both the EU and of NATO. <\/p>\n

“We would be shocked if over the past 150 years the Moldovans in Romania could have forgotten their own state,” he told the state news agency Moldpres, hinting that his government might seek the recognition of a Moldovan ethnic identity under EU criteria. <\/p>\n

In truth, the claim that the language spoken by his subjects is not Romanian but “Moldovan” is as absurd as insisting that the Spanish spoken in Venezuela must be called Venezuelan. So what is going on? <\/p>\n

Founded in the 14th century, Moldova maintained its own statehood, mostly under Ottoman suzerainty, until 1812, when it was cut in two. The former principality of Moldova joined Wallachia in 1859 to form modern Romania, an entity recognised by international law from 1862 onwards. <\/p>\n

Czarist Russia got the country’s eastern part, swallowed it up under the name of Bessarabia, and restricted the use of the local language. It was not a happy arrangement. At the end of the First World War, in a last-ditch attempt to avoid Sovietisation, Bessarabia united with Romania. <\/p>\n

\"\"The Ribbentrop-Molotov pact soon confused things further. In June 1940 the Hitler-Stalin agreement awarded the USSR not a republic, like the Baltic states, but half a province of Romania, which became the “Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic”. <\/p>\n

Voronin is a product of its political culture, indeed of a particular sliver of it – the Russian protectorate of the “Moldavian Transnistrian Republic” where he was born 58 years ago and which seceded in 1990. <\/p>\n

Reports of the death of the USSR, as Russian President Vladimir Putin constantly reminds us, are exaggerated. Voronin is secretary-general of Moldova’s Communist Party, as well as president, of a country of crushing poverty, ubiquitous crime and corruption and negligible attention to basic human rights. The most visible export is cheap labour and a flourishing human trafficking. <\/p>\n

Posturing about lost empires no doubt helps divert attention from such problems, and the lack of serious progress towards EU integration. But Russia’s interests are both more subtle and more sinister. Maintaining such an aggressive puppet- regime on the EU’s border keeps up a constant message of displeasure towards Romania, which Russia hardly bothers to conceal it would prefer disjoined, like Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. <\/p>\n

The West’s response should be to send a clear message that reborn imperial ambitions, even in pantomime form, can hardly be in the best interests of Moldova, especially if it is serious about joining the EU. <\/p>\n

——-
\nAndrei Brezianu and Vlad Spânu<\/a> are authors of the Historical Dictionary of Moldova<\/a>. Dr. Brezianu is a publicist and broadcaster who chaired Romania\/Moldova area studies at the George P. Shultz Foreign Service Institute (2002-2003). Vlad Spânu is the President of the Moldova Foundation in Washington, DC and he was until 2001 a senior Moldovan diplomat.
\n——-
\nReprinted from and with the permission of the European Voice of The Economist, an independent view of the EU (Belgium), Vol. 13 No. 15: April 19, 2007: http:\/\/www.europeanvoice.com\/current\/article.asp?id=27852
\n——-
\nTranslation of this article in Romanian<\/a><\/p>\n

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