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Moldova protests

Moldova’s ex-president blames EU for current crisis in his country

Communist Party leader Vladimir Voronin published an open letter to President of the Council of Europe Thorbjorn Jagland

Vladimir Voronin getting out of a car (archive) ITAR-TASS/Vadim Denisov

Vladimir Voronin getting out of a car (archive)

© ITAR-TASS/Vadim Denisov

CHISINAU, September 10. /TASS/. Moldova’s ex-president Vladimir Voronin, who is the leader of the opposition Communist Party and who stood at the helm of the country from 2001 through to 2009, has blamed the EU for the crisis that brought about mass protests in Chisinau.

"In front of everyone’s eye and with an obvious share of involvement of your permanent mission, as well as many embassies of the EU member-states and other international organizations, an unprecedented corrupt mafia-based system has taken hold of Moldova," Voronin said in an open letter to the President of the Council of Europe Thorbjorn Jagland. "In essence, this system is state power here today."

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He wrote the letter in response to Jagland’s much-quoted article ‘Bring Moldova Back to the Brink’ that contained highly critical notes on the ruling Alianta pentru Integrare Europeana (Alliance for European Integration), which came to power on the wave of mass riots in April 2009 when protesters rampaged the buildings of parliament and the presidential administration and set them on fire.

"Over the last six years little has been done to open up the country’s economy and its institutions," Jagland wrote in the article published on August 10. "Corruption remains endemic and the state is still in the hands of oligarchs, while punishingly low incomes have propelled hundreds of thousands of Moldovans to go abroad in search of a better life."

"All of this causes something bigger than just astonishment," Voronin said. "Would it not actually be right to begin the process of recuperation in my country with you, the European institutions, with the elimination of bias towards the countries and political organizations that do not fit into the so-called standards and values of yours?"

"Moldova’s corrupt rulers who waved the deceptive slogans of ‘Euro-integration’ received a carte blanche for full arbitrariness," he said. "The false incentives like ‘Moldova: a History of Success’ promulgated by Euro-bureaucrats have covered up a destruction of democratic principles and dismantling of the state ruled by law here.".

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