Analyst Says Moldova's Communists Still Formidable
Sam Greene, deputy director of the Carnegie Moscow Center (file photo)
July 31, 2009
An analyst at the Carnegie Center in Moscow says the Communists in Moldova remain a formidable political force despite losing their majority in the elections, RFE/RL's Moldovan Service reports.
Samuel Greene said in an interview that Moldova's Communist Party has a "vast apparatus" and the opposition will have to take the Communists' views into account when they elect a new president.
Four opposition parties won enough votes in the July 29 parliamentary elections to form a government, but they will have less than the 61 votes in parliament needed to elect a new president to replace outgoing Communist incumbent Vladimir Voronin.
Greene added that Moscow will only have limited goodwill for a more pro-Western Moldova that the liberals promised during the campaign to create.
He said if being pro-Western means Moldova joining NATO, Russia will have absolutely no goodwill for Chisinau.
But Greene added that Russia might want to be more constructive in solving Moldova's frozen conflict in the breakaway Transdniester region, possibly in cooperation with the EU.