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MoldovaEasing of Tensions
While combat in the civil war remained at a bloody
stalemate
into mid-1992, the political situation in Moldova changed
dramatically, at least partly as a consequence of popular
dissatisfaction with the conflict. In the first stage of
the
realignment, former CPM First Secretary Lucinschi was
named
ambassador to Russia. Lucinschi, the highest-ranking
"Moldavian"
outside of the country during the communist era, was able
to use
his connections with the Moscow political elite to promote
accommodation.
Soon afterward, in July 1992, Prime Minister Valeriu
Muravschi (who had replaced Mircea Druc) was replaced by
Andrei
Sangheli of the Democratic Agrarian Party of Moldova.
Sangheli
was a former CPM raion committee first secretary
and
member of the Council of Ministers. Sangheli's new
government
included significantly improved minority representation
and
promised a more efficient economic reform program, as well
as a
more moderate approach to the ethnic conflict.
By taking this more flexible approach, Moldova was able
to
reduce the level of violence involved in the separatist
dispute,
if not to bring the conflict to an end. But the shift in
policy
direction precipitated a strong backlash from the more
extreme
elements of the Popular Front, which felt that it was
slipping
from power. This and popular dissatisfaction with the
failing
economy forced a fundamental political reorientation.
In December 1992, President Snegur, who clearly
supported the
more conciliatory course, touched off a crisis by
delivering a
speech to Parliament in which he laid out a course of
foreign
policy based on the pursuit of national independence.
Snegur
warned against the extremes of either unification with
Romania or
reintegration into some form of alliance with Russia. His
public
position against efforts to promote unification further
soured
relations between himself and the Popular Front and at the
same
time sharpened divisions between moderates and more
extreme
nationalists within the Popular Front itself.
Fallout from Snegur's speech was almost immediate. In
early
January 1993, Alexandru Mosanu, chair of the Moldovan
Parliament,
offered his resignation, citing the differences between
himself
and the president of the republic and complaining about
tendencies within the government favoring the previous
political
system.
If, as some suggest, Mosanu's resignation was intended
to
rally support in an effort to undermine President Snegur,
it
failed miserably. Not only was the resignation accepted,
but
Parliament voted overwhelmingly to replace Mosanu with
Petru
Lucinschi, a leader of those very forces about which
Mosanu had
warned.
Data as of June 1995
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