MOLDOVA….

Engineers have replaced agrarians and communists have replaced reformers in the new government led by Dumitru Braghis, a political ally of President Petru Lucinschi. Of the parliament’s 101 members, fifty-seven (including forty communists) support the Braghis government, ending months of stalemate. The government has a seemingly impossible task-persuading the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to bail out the bankrupt treasury, while simultaneously carrying out a communist program to roll back reforms the IMF had supported. Fiscal chaos will run a close race with hypocrisy throughout the winter. Presidential elections take place this fall.