Read about: Romania Twitter Riots

The Romania Twitter Riots were a series of huge anti-Communist protests which occurred in the country of Moldova’s capital following current president Vladimir Voronin’s recent re-election. The riots were attended by a group of nearly 10,000 protestors. The bulk of those involved were students who came together to protest what they felt was a blatantly rigged election. Many of the people involved in the Romania Twitter Riots were informed and organized using popular social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter. President Voronin accused neighboring country Romania as playing a large part in organizing the rights (thus the name the Romania Twitter Riots) despite the fact that the riots occurred in Moldova.

While the protests started out peaceful, the 10,000 gathered dissenters eventually turned violent. The protestors began to throw bricks and rocks at the deployed riot police, and the riot police responded in kind with batons and water cannons. The police were greatly outnumbered and quickly retreated, which gave the rioters the opportunity to swarm into the parliamentary building and presidential offices, where they began to smash windows and start fires.

While independent election observers from within the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe ultimately reported that they considered the Moldova elections to be relatively free and open, many within the country disagreed with their assessment. Dissenters claim that Voronin and his ruling Communist party manipulated the election’s results in order to acquire a 50% majority of the vote. This percentage is significant, as it will allow the ruling party to amend the former Soviet country’s constitution to allow President Voronin to run for a third consecutive term.

While official channels naturally decried the attacks, one of the nation’s weekly newspapers (the Ziarul de Garda) took the protestors side when considering the Romania Twitter Riots. The newspaper agreed that the elections were not open and free, but were in fact rife with fraud. Asking readers to submit their personal stories and first hand accounts of mismanagement at the voter pole, the paper was soon over-run with statements. As the papers’ director Alina Radu stated; “There were too many frauds. In just half an hour we had tens and hundreds of cases.”

The re-elected Moldova President Voronin responded to the possible Romanian involvement in the Twitter Riots by first expelling the Romanian Ambassodor to Moldova. Furthermore, Voronin implemented increasingly severe Visa restrictions against Romanians in response to the violent protests. Romania, however, denied having any involvement in the Romania Twitter Riots and threatened Moldova with retaliatory measures in response to their threatening actions.

Despite claims of Romania’s political involvement, analysts say that the students appeared to be largely self directed in their involvement in the Romania Twitter Riots. Many feel that Moldova’s students were merely angry about the elections results, and reacted violently to the feeling that their concerns and voice were being unheard, building to anger that exploded into the streets.

Policy analysts believe that President Voronin himself knows that there was no outside involvement in the Romania Twitter Riots, and that he simply used the violence to further drive a wedge between the two countries. Diplomatic tensions have been on the rise between the two countries since Voronin first took office, as the president has repeatedly accused Romania of attempting to absorb the smaller Moldova.