>USSR2 File: Moldova’s fake makeover: Post-communist government controlled by (surprise!) “ex”-communists, parliament dominated by open Communist Party

>Following two turbulent elections in April and July, the ruling Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova once again secured a plurality of seats in the national parliament, but not enough to form another government. Instead, four parties committed to integrating Moldova, one of Europe’s most impoverished countries, into the European Union (EU) formed a coalition government. Together the Liberal Democratic Party, Liberal Party, Democratic Party, and Our Moldova Alliance commanded enough seats in parliament to elect the country’s acting president, Mihai Ghimpu of the Liberal Party. Vlad Filat of the Liberal Democratic Party was appointed prime minister (pictured above). Two-term president Vladimir Voronin, a communist who in an earlier political incarnation attained the rank of general in the Soviet Interior Ministry, was constitutionally compelled to step down from his office.

Last gasp for Moldova’s communists, who enjoyed an electoral resurgence for eight years beginning in 2001, right? Not so fast. Two important leaders in Moldova’s new ruling Alliance for European Integration are, lo and behold, “ex”-communists, Serafim Urechean of the Our Moldova Alliance and Marian Lupu of the Democratic Party. Moldova’s acting president, Ghimpu, moreover, co-founded the People’s Front of Moldova, which became the country’s new ruling party in 1991 when the Moldavian section of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union banned itself and changed its name.

In 2000 former Soviet dictator Mikhail Gorbachev described the EU as the “new European Soviet,” meaning that the European super-state is nothing more than a partial fulfillment of Vladimir Lenin’s dream of creating a “world proletarian republic” from regional building blocs of socialist states. Moscow’s clandestine role in supporting the formation of the EU, asserted Soviet defector Vladimir Bukovsky in a 2006 interview with the Brussels Journal, was carried out in tandem with Western Europe’s social democrats and socialists. The Soviet strategists love the EU because the EU is their collective baby. By contrast, they do not love NATO which, while boasting overlapping membership with the EU, is dominated by Moscow’s archnemesis, Washington.

Prime Minister Filat advocates EU membership for Moldova and the withdrawal of Russian peacekeepers, present in Moldova’s Russian-speaking breakaway region Transnistria since 1992. Geographically, the former Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic is wedged between Romania and Ukraine. Significantly, Filat insists that Moldova will maintain close relations with Moscow and neither join NATO nor unify with NATO member Romania but, rather, remain neutral. “Moldova is a neutral country,” Filat announced on October 9, adding: “This is determined by its constitution. We want normal relations with NATO. Or at least those close to the level Russia has with the alliance.” Moldovan political analyst Sergei Nazaria commented on Filat’s remarks: “From my perspective, we do not face any threats today and nobody is planning to attack us. In the present geopolitical situation, it makes sense to maintain Moldova’s neutrality. The North Atlantic alliance is not quite a friendly organization for Russia. If we join NATO, we will be perceived as ‘not very good people’ . . . This will lead to a dramatic worsening of relations with Russia.”

As usual, the Soviets have all the bases covered. Thus, while Moldova’s open communists no longer occupy the roles of head of state and government, the country’s “ex”-communists are in fact faithfully carrying out Lenin’s plan for creating a “neutral, socialist Europe” under Moscow’s thumb, to quote from KGB defector Anatoliy Golitsyn’s first book New Lies for Old (1984).