The Twitter Rebellion of Moldova

What are they fighting over? Well the communists won the election, but the election was a fair as a Chavez election. Yeah everyone could vote but the power of the state was used to support the incumbent party. To complicate matters there are territorial disputes over Modolva that involve Russia and Romania. Tracing its roots back to the Hitler-Stalin Pact, Stalin absorbed Moldova from Romania as part of the territorial exchanges that preceded the out break of war. Hitler was less then happy about that but he must have figured any Soviet push west would only be temporary. Well after their electoral defeat the opposition used twitter and other social networking sites to organize a "spontaneous" rebellion that actually took over the presidential building and the Parliament until security forces drove the protesters out.

THE poorest country in Europe is used to being neglected by the rest of the world. But protests against vote rigging in elections held on Sunday April 5th brought Moldova some attention this week. In the past few days youthful demonstrators, who were organised via Twitter and other social-networking sites, stormed parliament and the presidential offices in the capital city, Chisinau. Some threw rocks, broke windows and started fires. As the police belatedly tried to restore order, scores were injured and one person died. Nearly 200 people had been arrested by Wednesday. Amid allegations of foreign mischief-making, Moldova expelled the Romanian ambassador.

The problem now is which direction do the countries leaders take. Do they look east to Russia even though they are on the Ukranian and not Russian border, or do they look west towards the Euro-zone. In a perfect world they would be able straddle between the two. As of now the Moldovan givernment has decided to blame everything on Romania and had kicked out Romanian reporters.


More on the Rebellion:

Demonstrators in Moldova have attacked the country's parliament in protest at the victory of the governing Communist Party in Sunday's general election.

Witnesses say crowds poured into the building, smashing windows and setting light to furniture.Police said a woman died from carbon monoxide poisoning after inhaling fumes in a blaze, state television reported.President Vladimir Voronin urged an end to "destabilisation", but opposition leaders have backed the protests.They say the election result was fraudulent.EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana has urged all sides in the former Soviet state to refrain from violence, and Russia also voiced its concern.