Vice President Joe Biden: God bless Moldova!?

On March 11th, the day when earthquake and tsunami have apocalyptically stricken Japan, Vice President of the United States visited a tiny country in Eastern Europe for half a day. Maybe because of this tragic happening in Japan, the news about Joe Biden’s short stopover in Moldova unfortunately remained unnoticed, but this fact doesn’t at all diminish the importance of the event for the country and the region.

Before the trip there were many questions about the scope and timing of such an unprecedented top level visit to Moldova. What was the sense of it, given the fact that for two years the country is bogged down in an endless power struggle and inability to elect a head of state? Young leaders of the ruling democratic alliance have gradually slipped from fighting communism into openly fighting each other for clan and oligarchs‘ interests. A former pimp, who also raided businesses during Voronin times with the help of the latter has been elected by the democrats onto one of the highest state positions, like in a banana country. More than that, he became the first deputy of the acting President, who two years ago publicly accused the guy of running a mafia business - now he is the biggest party sponsor and the best pal with the acting President. Can you imagine something like that in a truly democratic country?!

Monopolies and mafia rule the economy and dictate the decision making processes, that is why there is no yet real market economy and free competition, and that is why the country after 20 years of independence is still officially the poorest country in Europe, with probably the highest prices for many vital items. The economy is completely distorted and corruption is flourishing, and with lately skyrocketed cost of living it seems there is no light in the tunnel. It has become so ugly and distasteful, that disappointment and disgust are the dominating feelings among many thinking people in Moldova. If another elections would take place soon, there is a high risk of a communist comeback, since many say that maybe they were not so good, but at least there was clarity and order.

Why would the Vice President of a country, which is promoting democratic values, visit such an antipode?

Theories are in abundance. Some say, that “having lost” Ukraine and Georgian territories, US are trying to compensate it at least with a breakthrough in Moldova. Others say, that finally there is a sort of high level agreement on Moldova between US and Russia, and given the recent policy reset and approach of the two nations, US has delivered a message to Moldovan officials, that Transnistrian conflict shall be settled but without any harm to new US-Russian relationship. Given the fact that Moldova has become a nexus of various geopolitical implications, there is also a point of view that United States are trying to put a foot on the ground here, and mark a more active presence for the near future.

I guess, in politics there is no one single answer - all of the above and possibly some other reasons have the right to exist.

But one thing is true: after performance in Moldova, questions about the sense and timing of the Vice President’s visit have vanished.

First of all, it had a great deal of symbolism for a country, which is by many considered a failed state, forgotten by God and known only for its excellent wines, beautiful lands and welcoming people. Last year the Hollywood action comedy “RED” arouse the interest about “What is Moldova?” when it ended with a special assignment for Bruce Willis and his team to save once again the world by getting out from Moldova a dirty nuke. Which was not far from the truth, as last year special services did capture a group of people smuggling radioactive uranium. Jay Leno recently mockingly mentioned Moldova in his show after an international poll made public the results, according to which Moldova is the most drinking nation in the world. Hollywood helped yet again to promote Moldova, when Natalie Portman won the Oscar, - her grandparent originates from Moldova, as well as grandparent of another top US politician Rahm Emanuel. Both personalities have been mentioned by Joe Biden in his speech.

For a country, which is for 20 years torn apart by a separatist regime and used as a black hole in money laundering, which is known for women trafficking, which is highly corrupted and unable to reach internal stability for a breakthrough, such a top level show of support was more than vital. Joe Biden’s short stopover enlivened the topic of Moldova from a much more positive perspective, and this is what really counts in such circumstances.

Secondly, it is about style and class in politics. The older generation of politicians in Moldova is gone, paving the way for young democrats. Though still being criticized, the older generation of soviet nomenklatura represented a carefully selected, well educated, balanced, serious, responsible and charismatic personalities. They made their way up through hard work, having mastered with style the art of political maneuvering and craft of social management. The new generation of democrats have made their lightning political careers mostly through leveraged acquisitions of political appointments and corrupted business schemes, which famously turned them into oligarchs, quite often displaying traits of political narcissism, psychologic personality issues and inferiority complexes. Unfortunately, money cannot buy political culture, charisma, art of social management, style and class of a personality, who would be above the greed and vanity, and narrow business interests of the clans the nouveau-riches represent.

The drama of Moldova is not that there are no politicians, who’d be able to bring in new truly democratic rules of the game, no. There are a few quite well educated intellectuals in the new political elite like Alexandru Tanase, Mihai Godea, Iurie Leanca, Dorin Chirtoaca, Igor Dodon, Oxana Domenti, Liliana Palihovici, Natalia Gherman, Victor Osipov, Angel Agache, Oleg Efrim, who’d be more than able to lead the country to a more fair future with true democratic values. The drama of Moldova is that, contrary to Russia, for example, where oligarchs at least formally were distanced from power by Putin, in Moldova the utterly corrupt state system established during Voronin times, has paved the way for oligarchic clans and mafiotic type businesses to rule the parade. The biggest mistake of former President Voronin, who is still a heavy political mogul and very charismatic person, is that having had for 8 years an absolute power, he was too obsessed by it and was not able to lay the grounds for a positive and smooth transition into a better political future. According to some estimates, the communist corrupted vertical of power has become an easy prey for oligarchs and mafia clans, who overtook it and now this “clanification” of power represents a much higher threat for state security, than Transnistrian conflict, not only eroding the basis of the state itself, but also because if the parliamentary parties won’t be able to find a suitable compromise to elect a strong, charismatic, visionary leader as a President, who stands above all this “vanity fair”, then the country will either implode, or... a new more radical force might emerge soon with unpredictable consequences. And both objective and subjective prerequisites for this start to appear, triggered by the political impotence and empty ambitions.

In such circumstances, Joe Biden’s speech, though full of obvious credits, diplomatic protocol reverences and compliments (like Moldova becoming a leader and sample for democratic changes in the region!), nevertheless, was a very powerful brilliantly structured factual message, delivered with great charisma and skills of a very experienced politician. United States Vice President’s speech may become a true case study for young aspiring diplomats, and for sure it should become a serious lecture for Moldovan new young political leaders, as Joe Biden showed it all: high class, style, charisma, greatness of simplicity, and an ability to get to people’s minds and hearts.

United States blessed Moldova. Now a “mere trifle” remains to be solved: that Moldovans themselves would not be so lame to miss such a blessing in their own personal ambitions.