With a huge portrait of Lenin hanging on the wall behind him, Vladimir Voronin is passionately speaking about how his country resists Europe, "just like Cuba is hanging on amidst imperialist predators." Only this time Voronin is not making such statements in his position as Moldavian Communist Party leader, but as President of the Republic of Moldavia.
Voronin early in April became the first communist chief of state elected president of a former Soviet republic, after USSR's falling apart in 1991, while the Communist Party represents the absolute majority in the Moldavian Parliament.
The communists' coming in power marks Chisinau's process, only natural as we might say, of shifting to former Soviet space, still deep in wishful thinking about the communism and the great Soviet Union, after a decade of disappointing reforms.
"There is no other choice but building a socialist society." These were Voronin's own words at the opening of the fourth Convention of the Moldavian Communist Party, clearly showing that, in his opinion, the West and capitalism are not an alternative to becoming closer to Moscow.
To point it out, he chose Moscow as the destination of his first visit in his position as President of Moldavia, where President Vladimir Putin promised him help in the Dnestr problem and in the energy supplying problem, too, "if possible," as Chisinau is almost completely dependent on Russia in this respect.
The popularity Voronin and communists are currently enjoying is no surprise in a country considered the poorest in Europe and even in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), where the so-called reformist forces have not succeeded in doing much about the economy so far. Approximately 80% of the population in the Republic of Moldavia is currently scraping by with less than one dollar a day.
The economy is still relying on agriculture, most of the production being exported to the CIS.
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