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POLITICĂChampion, Marc. In Moldovan Vote, It’s East vs.West / Marc Champion // The Wall street Journal. – 2009.– 29 July. – P. A9.Pe paginile ziarului american The Wall Street Journala fost publicat articolul lui Marc Champion In MoldovanVote, It’s East vs. West, în care este pusă în discuţieproblema alegerilor din Republica Moldova, în deosebialegerile parlamentare repetate din data de 29.07.09. Autorularticolului presupune calea pe care îl va alege RepublicaMoldova pentru următorii ani: comunismul saudemocraţia.Cititorul va putea lectura integral articolul în Almanahulnostru, aprecierile, concluziile, aşa cum au fost sesizatede autor:“Moldovans repeating national elections on Wednesdayface stark choice: vote for the ruling Communist Partyand receive loans from their Chinese and Russian backersworth well over a third of national income, or put theirfaith in the West.The outcome of the vote is too close to call, according toopinion polls and political analysts, though few expect arepeat of the riots and brutal police crackdown that followedApril’s turbulent elections that were tainted by fraudallegations.Those elections and Wednesday’s vote are having an impactwell beyond the borders of this small ex-Soviet nationof four million, stoking a fierce geopolitical competitionfor its loyalties. Vladimir Voronin, Moldova’s outgoingpresident and likely speaker of the next parliament, turnedsharply east after April’s events, when anticommunistprotesters stormed his office and the parliament building.He accused neighboring Romania of provoking the riots inan attempted a coup d’état and angrily rejected EuropeanUnion criticism of his handling of the election aftermath,in which hundreds of opposition supporters were jailed,and two people died.Mr.Voronin, a former baker and Soviet-era interior minister,traveling to Moscow in June, got a warm welcomeand a pledge of $500 million in loans for infrastructureprojects in Moldova. It wasn’t revealed what conditionswere attached to the loan, and it isn’t clear whether theoffer would remain if the communists were to lose theirgrip on power.That presents Moldovans with the prospect that votingagainst the communists could mean relying instead on theWest, specifically the International Monetary Fund, tohelp lift up the country’s economy.On Monday, Mr.Voronin denied accusations that themoney came with a political price attached, in an interviewwitch a political price attached, in an interview withRussian news agency Interfax. He said Moscow had madeno conditions, “unlike certain international organizations”.He didn’t specify which organizations he meant.Last week, China also put its substantial resources behindMr.Voronin, when China Overseas EngineeringGroup Co. signed a memorandum of understanding for$1 billion in loans for infrastructure projects.The two pledges are equal to 37% of Moldova’s $4 billionannual gross domestic product and dwarf the amountof money on offer from Western institutions such as theIMF.The EU hasn’t tried to match the Russian and Chineseloan offers. But it has sent a string of officials to encourageclean elections, including last week’s visit by Poland’s ForeignMinister Radek Sikorski, a big proponent of EU expansioninto the region. An IMF official in Moldova saida mission was expected to arrive in Chisinau to negotiate anew loan facility as soon as a new government is formed.China’s interest in Moldova, a small and distant countrywith few natural resources, has baffled some diplomatsin the capital, Chisinau. But they note that China has longhad close relationship with Mr.Voronin’s government,one of the last in Europe to call itself communist.ChinaOverseas Engineering Group didn’t return calls itself communist.China Overseas Engineering Group didn’t return callsfor comment, and the Chinese Embassy in Chisinaucouldn’t be reached.Russia’s interest in Moldova, where its military supportsa separatist enclave of Russian speakers, is evident.Moscow is determined to protect its zone of influence inthe ex-Soviet bloc and saw April’s violent postelection streetprotests as part of “Romania’s Anschluss policy towardMoldova”, said Sergei Markov, director of the Institutefor Political Studies in Moscow, in a reference to NaziGermany’s annexation of Austria. Most of Moldova is Romanianspeaking and belonged to Romania before WorldWar II, when it was seized by the Soviet army.Mr. Markov said the two offers of loans don’t indicateany rivalry between Moscow and Beijing. “I would notbe surprised if Russia asked the Chinese to offer money,because both are interested to reverse this trend of Western-backedregime change in the region,”he said. Since2003, postelection street protests have led to changes ofgovernment in Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan.Political analysts in Moldova say the country’s Westernleaningopposition parties are more likely to lose than gainvotes in Wednesday’s poll, which was forced not by thestreet protests but the failure of the Communists to gatherthe 61 votes needed in the 100-seat parliament to elect anew president.Some Moldovans are skeptical the Russian and Chinesemoney will materialize, whoever wins the election”.38 Imaginea Republicii Moldova în străinătate