The United States Can Help the Country Through This Difficult Period
Moldova's minority Communist Party, which held power from 2001 until September 2009, boycotted a vote on December 7 that would have given the presidency to Marian Lupu, above, the candidate put forward by the majority coalition that favors reform and European integration.
By Samuel Charap, Yekaterina Chertova | December 15, 2009
Photo: Just a SpectatorOn December 7, the parliament of Moldova—a small, impoverished former Soviet republic of roughly 4.5 million people nestled between Ukraine and Romania—failed once again to elect a president. The minority Communist Party, or PCRM, which held power from 2001 until September 2009, boycotted a vote that would have given the presidency to Marian Lupu, the candidate put forward by the majority coalition that favors reform and European integration. While U.S. policymakers might be tempted to throw up their hands and give up on Moldova—where political instability has become a fact of life—it would be a profound mistake to let a country so close to the heart of Europe drift and potentially descend into chaos. This is all the more true given the transnational threats such as human trafficking that emanate from Moldova and the presence of a “frozen conflict” on its territory.
Eight years of Communist rule left Moldova in shambles. Grinding poverty, porous borders, corruption, and inadequate rule of law have contributed to widespread human trafficking, human rights abuses, and poor governance. These problems were compounded by the “frozen conflict” in Moldova, where the unrecognized self-proclaimed pseudo-state of Transdniestria straddles the country’s eastern border with Ukraine. Transdniestria is to Moldova as South Ossetia and Abkhazia were to Georgia before its August 2008 war with Russia—a separatist enclave with Russian “peacekeepers” stationed on its territory that is sustained by financial support from Moscow." more
