POLITICAL SHIFTS UNDERWAY IN MOLDOVA.

The Movement for a Democratic and Prosperous Moldova (see above) has recently taken shape with the declared purpose of supporting President Lucinschi’s reform program and promoting that program in February’s parliamentary elections. MDPM’s leader, Dumitru Diacov, was earlier this year deposed as vice-chairman of parliament by a seemingly odd coalition of leftists and rightists, pro- and anti-reformers, Romania-oriented and Russia-oriented elements, all of whom sometimes join forces to frustrate Lucinschi’s policies. MDPM forms the centerpiece of an emerging "centrist" electoral coalition which hopes for a plurality in the upcoming elections. The coalition includes the Civic Party, formed by ethnic Russians and Ukrainians of a pro-reform and pro-Western orientation, who recently left the Socialist Party. Vladimir Solonar, a vice-chairman of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, heads the Civic Party. The MDPM-Civic Party alliance now holds 35 parliamentary seats.

On the self-described right-wing side, several pro-Romanian parties hold a total of 16 parliamentary seats. The Popular Front, with seven seats, has concluded an electoral pact titled Democratic Convention with its former archenemy, Snegur, whose party holds another bloc of 10 parliamentary seats. Snegur, a champion during his six-year presidency of demarcation from Romania and of "centrism," is aiming currently to accommodate his allies’ pro-Romanian agenda and has taken to describing his party as "right-wing."

The leftist bloc now consists of the 22 deputies of the Socialist Party and the Socialist Unity Movement (Yedinstvo). Several of these deputies have officially left the SP and/or Yedinstvo — but not their parliamentary bloc — in order to join the Party of Communists. They have calculated that popular disappointment with the results of reforms enhances the Communists’ electoral prospects. As a result of this move, the Communists have obtained unofficial parliamentary representation. In addition, it is reliably reported that most Socialist deputies have preserved their Communist Party membership cards and claims to seniority in that party.

In what may on the surface appear paradoxical, the Moscow-oriented Socialists and Communists seek the restoration of "Moldova’s territorial integrity" in Transdniester, expecting to gain a large share of the vote there. For that same reason, the "right-wing" parties, with all their nationalist credentials, are loath to see Transdniester returning in the constitutional framework of Moldova. (Flux, Basapress, November 10-14)

Commercial Oil Production Inaugurated by International Consortium in Azerbaijan.