Demisia premierului Victor Ponta cerută de mediul academic

Am postat asta pe CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/04/world/europe/romania-impeachment/index.html?iref=allsearch

Where is Romania anyway? Any why should you care about Liberia, Bulgaria, or Romania, another -ia country just like Kazakstan, Pakistan, Afganistan are some -stan countries?

Romania is at the border of the western sphere of influence rubbing against Russian's sphere, and is one country where the the interceptors of the US anti-missile system directed against Iran are located.

But that strategically placed country is on the verge to be lost for a long time under the Russian influence and no-one gives a damn. Not the US ambassador there who is only interested to obtain the rights for hydraulic fracking drilling for his friend general Wesley Clark (the one with the NATO air campaign in Kosovo), or even CNN who, surprise-surprise, is associated in Romania with Antena 3, a shameless propaganda machine which would easily put Fox News to shame.

So what is the story with this impeachment? A little history is in order. The second tier communists took power after 1989 and they became very rich by taking ownership in fraudulent privatization, Ponzi schemes or down right stealing. This streak of very good luck came to a sudden halt when the current president took power. Not that he was a true democrat, he was a former communist himself but was well versed in all his former colleagues dirty tricks and knew how to fight them effectively. This brought about a first impeachment process which was soundly defeated at the polls. The second term is a re-run of the first, but this time around his popularity is greatly eroded by the unpopular economic sacrifices needed to avoid another Greece-style collapse.

Now his opponents: Mr. Basescu became president by defeating Mr. Nastase, the son of a former high ranking Politburo member who ran Romania with an iron fist as prime minister in the early 2000s. Mr. Nastase, the embodiment of corruption and insufferable arrogance, was just condemned for corruption and finally went to jail after a soap opera story with a fake suicide attempt covered up by the interior minister, and dirty doctors who did plastic surgery to create fake bullet wounds. The final imprisonment of Mr. Nastase sent a shockwave through the political system who rallied in the impeachment process to stop the judiciary independence and stop further jail time for politicians who are almost all corrupt.

Now as the story goes, the prime minister, Mr. Ponta, a protege of Mr. Nastase, is also embroiled in a huge scandal, of plagiarizing his PhD theses under the supervision of Mr. Nastase. The plagiarized was exposed by the reputable journal Nature (no doubt acting on a tip from Mr. Basescu's allies), and when the body in charge of judging the plagiarism (including the president of the Romanian Academy of Science) were deliberating, Mr. Ponta's government cut the electricity in the building and disbanded the scientific panel.

Mr. Basescu is no saint, but the alternative is far worse. Romania is a NATO and EU country, and to give a taste of the other side, when they were previously in power and applying for NATO membership, they were building in secret a red phone line with Moscow. This was unsurprising given the fact that the president in charge then, Mr. Ion Iliescu, currently the honorary president of the PSD party was a known KGB agent and a high level politburo member in charge with propaganda under Ceausescu.