Goodbye, Russia

last updated 8 January 2015

Chisinau, Moldova

Moldova elected a pro-Western parliament this week, becoming the latest former Soviet republic to distance itself from Russia. Democratic opposition parties had been gaining strength in the past few years, and some observers had been predicting another democratic revolution, like the recent ones in Georgia and Ukraine. But that will no longer be necessary. Blowing with the prevailing winds, Moldova’s ruling Communist Party, once allied with Russia, has turned toward the West and now wants to join the European Union. The Communists took 40 percent of the seats in parliament, while two centrist, pro-Western parties split the rest. Russia still has troops in one Moldovan province; the new government is expected to ask them to leave.