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To complicate things even further, it looks like Lasconi is quickly closing the gap vv Ciolacu, which means we could have a runoff without a candidate from either governing party (and the first runoff without a PSD candidate).

Was interviewed alongside Cristian Canțâr and Ecaterina Locoman about Moldova’s 🇲🇩 recent elections. Give it a listen!

Not sure if that was the intent, but the Romanian Constitutional Court's decision to mandate a recount of the first-round presidential election votes is bound to worsen the political chaos. And the main beneficiaries of chaos are almost certainly Georgescu &Co.

Georgescu, Simion, and the various extreme nationalists in #Romania like to call themselves sovereignists. Since this is based on Russia's "sovereign democracy" under #Putin, it means that it won't be either sovereign or democratic.

In a sign of the times, Russian-themed jokes are picking up in Romania. Q: Are the Russians our friends or our brothers? A: They are our brothers because you get to pick your friends.

CCR just canceled the first round elections in #Romania. While Georgescu would've been a disaster as a president, the decision further undermines Romania's democracy. And it will greatly complicate forming a new gov't as mainstream parties go back to fighting each other.

As someone who grew up listening to VoA in communist Romania, Trump's appointment of Kari Lake as VoA director is yet another warning signal for how the US will project its power internationally. nytimes.com/live/2024/12/1…

Completely crazy stuff.

Glad to have my short article w/ Grigore Pop-Eleches on Moldovan 🇲🇩 presidential elections 2020 vs 2024 out in the inaugural issue of the Moldovan Analytical Digest, edited by a great team including Jan Matti Dollbaum and Ellie Knott @ellieknott.bsky.social. Download it here: css.ethz.ch/en/publication….

It's one year after Alexei Navalny's death. What do Russians think of him now? Our online survey data show little change between Mar-Oct '24, then disapproval began to increase. In early Jan '24-25, there was a fairly sharp drop in strong disapproval. 1/

Here is what Russian 🇷🇺 attitudes toward Donald Trump look like, according to our daily survey data. After the US 🇺🇸 election on November 5 there was a notable increase in approval of Trump. But since Trump's inauguration on January 20 (and a bit before), attitudes have worsened.

Ukraine is Europe! We stand by Ukraine. We will step up our support to Ukraine so that they can continue to fight back the agressor. Today, it became clear that the free world needs a new leader. It’s up to us, Europeans, to take this challenge.

For Georgescu to talk about threats to democracy would be funny, if the whole situation wasn't so damn scary.

Voted in R2 of the Romanian presidential elections this morning (in an Orthodox church in Philadelphia). For those who can, please make the effort to go vote - it will be really tight, and the stakes couldn't be higher! Hai la vot!