Taki Magazine

Eurasia Riot Update

by Mark Hackard on April 15, 2009

The anti-government riots in Kishinev have quieted down, and the Moldovan government has detained several individuals it claims are connected with inspiring the opposition action. According to Moldova’s Communist president Vladimir Voronin, among those arrested are a Romanian journalist and nine Serbs.

The Serbs, if they have anything to do with the uprising, could be veterans of the US-supported organization Otpor, whose operatives were also spotted in Tbilisi in 2003 and Kiev in 2004. Meanwhile, the Moldova director of the American National Democratic Institute Alex Grigorjevs is being deported on suspicion of helping organize the protests.

Voronin’s government is the poster child for misrule, but there might be more taking place than simple local outrage at their corruption and incompetence. The webs of NGOs, student fronts and civic groups that spring up for color revolutions have the feel of old Comintern operations.

Let’s not forget, though, who created the Comintern and wrote the book on political fronts and the manipulation of “people power”. The Russian security services have likely been generous in lending assistance to the Moldovan government, which has loudly broadcast its fears of annexation by Romania.

Romanian president Traian Basescu is offering citizenship to ethnic Romanians in Moldova. Similar moves by Russia in the former Soviet periphery have been roundly condemned by Washington, but I haven’t seen any official US concern about Romania’s initiative. What started with the declaration of Kosovo independence has rippled into other corners of Europe, and the full consequences haven’t yet materialized.

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