With the impending Russian made humanitarian crisis in Transnistria bound to increasingly make its way into the news, I figured I'd do a short thread on the history of the place to offer a bit of a context, inevitably also touching on the history of Moldova and Romania.🧵 In 1918, in the aftermath of Russian Empire's chaotic disintegration, Moldova succeeds in putting an end to over a century of brutal Russian occupation and, faced with the prospect of being re-absorbed by the new Russian state, votes for unification with the Kingdom of Romania.

With Russia playing geopolitical poker with the lives of the 500k people living in Transnistria that it very much likes to call "its own", a thought came again to mind, one of the first to naively strike me back on that infamous morning of February 24th, 2022.🧵 Whenever I heard those Russian speeches about their "historical claims to Ukraine" or the whole "we are the same people" narrative backed by passionate "brotherly" claims, as a Romanian, I couldn't help but compare that to our views and our actions in relation to Moldova.

With Russia cutting off the gas supply in an attempt to destabilize Moldova ahead of its 2025 parliamentary elections (a last ditch effort after the pro-EU Maia Sandu won a second presidential term), Transnistria is quickly spiraling into a full blown humanitarian crisis.🧵 The pro-Russian Transnistrian "authorities" have completely cut off the hot water and heating supply to urban areas, with residential buildings only receiving "enough gas to cook".

Even so, the 13 million m3 of gas left are estimated to completely run out in 14 days, at best.

By popular demand, as promised, I compiled a short thread of the funniest and most absurd of Russia's recent arsons (with a bit of a bonus something at the end). Do enjoy! 🧵 In Bryansk, an zealous Z patriot decided to do her bit for the motherland by following the online advice of what she believed to be FSB agents, which instructed her to set fire to a random police car, in order to smoke signal their super secret FSB helicopter patrol mission.

She promptly proceeded to walk towards the nearest police station and patriotically set fire to the police car she judged to be most likely to send the biggest smoke cloud, burning it to a crisp.

With Russian ships sabotaging our cables and getting themselves sunk all over, I figured I'd do a thread on arguably the greatest feat of incompetence in Russian naval history.

This is going to be a TLDR of the utterly idiotic voyage of Russia's "Second Pacific Squadron".🧵 Following the revolution of 1905, Tsar Nicholas II figured a short and easy war would be just what he needed to help with his abysmal popularity.

Of all potential candidates for that "short and easy war", in a remarkably well-thought-out move, he picked Imperial Japan.

Although having the possibility to bypass Ukraine through the Trans-Balkan pipeline, Russia's decision to stop gas deliveries to Transnistria starting with January 1st is likely to lead (as intended) to an unprecedented humanitarian crisis aimed at destabilizing Moldova.🧵 Transnistria's presumed strategic reserves are estimated to last for about 2 weeks when it comes to gas consumption and about 50 days when it comes to coal - following this, the Russian controlled territory is likely to face a severe heating and electricity shortage.

Considering the quoted tweet, the many parallels, similarities, and coincidences between Ceaușescu's and Putin's "timelines" came to mind.

I figured I'd do a short thread to highlight them, just for the sake of it. 🧵

https://x.com/Daractenus/status/1870512932641223033

After a gravely ill leader, Romania's 47yo Nicolae Ceaușescu, a little-known figure from security forces, rises to power.

In Russia, a sick Yeltsin is succeeded in by 47yo Vladimir Putin, another quasi-unknown figure from security forces.

OTD 35 years ago, Ceaușescu delivered what would become his final speech, addressing 100k people forcibly gathered there so he could stage a facade of popular support for his regime.

In one of the most iconic moments of modern history, he will lose control of the crowd.🧵 Bucharest would soon be engulfed in revolution, with an ever increasing number of people taking to the streets in the following hours.

To the sound of "Death to the dictator!", people begin to carve the communist coat of arms out of the Romanian flags they were carrying.

With a lot of whatever little is left of our democratic world soon to head towards the polling stations, and since voting our way into idiocracy can occasionally be tricky business, I've refined my list of ten very simple rules follow as to ensure we rise to the occasion.🧵 1. It can never happen to you!

It is essential to acknowledge that ending up in a full-fledged dictatorship is something that can only happen to other people. Of all times and places, you alone were lucky enough to find yourself in the one spot magically immune to it.

To make our collective plunge into idiocracy ever so slightly more convenient, I've compiled a list of seven very simple rules to keep in mind next time you happen to find yourself voting. Enjoy!🧵 1. Cherry-pick the electoral promises!

Of all things said or promised by your favorite candidate, It is of utmost importance to keep in mind he obviously only intends to do the things you agree with. Everything you personally disagree with, he can't or won't actually do.

Since a lot of my compatriots seem to have forgotten just why it was we where all so desperately eager to join NATO in 2004 and the EU in 2007, I figured I'd do a thread comparing Romania today with the "sovereign" Romania of 2003, the pre-EU, pre-NATO one. In 2003, shortly before joining NATO, Romania's GDP stood at $57 billion, while the GDP per capita was a meager $2700.

Today, the country's GDP is almost 7 times bigger, standing at $350 billion while the GDP per capita surpassed $18k, reaching that of a high-income economy.

In less then an hour, the Romanian president will be addressing the nation (and is likely to make some important announcements).

If interested, feel free to bookmark this thread. I'll be updating it with the main points of his speech.🧵 "One candidate benefited from massive illegal exposure despite declaring 0 campaign funds. As per information obtained by our secret services, his campaign was supported by a foreign state."

For anyone interested in the parliamentary elections taking place in Romania today (which are vastly more important than last week's presidential ones), feel free to bookmark this thread.

I'll do my best to do an hourly or so update on it (or whenever something of note comes up). Worth noting there's a strong possibility round one of the presidential elections might get annulled and repeated based on the outcome of today's election. The first exit-polls (which proved wildly inaccurate last week) will be released at 9PM local time (when voting inside the country will have concluded).

The main thing I'll be looking for until then is the voter turnout, which unfortunately has a bit of a glass ceiling this time as people can only vote in their county (Romania is split into 41 counties) of residence.

Another important thing to look for is the distribution of votes in-between urban and rural area. While rural areas historically tend to vote for the current incredibly corrupt ruling party, the urban areas tend to go towards reformist parties. The votes likely to go to the right-wing wackos seem somewhat evenly split between the two.

So far, the turnout looks pretty good and it is likely to be the highest we've had in over a decade.

In order to make it clear to everyone how bad things are about to get for all of us if the pro-Russian Calin Georgescu takes control of Romania, EU's 7th largest country and a vital NATO member, I've translated just enough of his statements for you to get a taste.🧵 About water...

"We do not know what water is. H2O does not mean anything. [...] Every vaccine is a software designed to modifying the spiritual structure of humans and water is the antidote![...] Water from the Carpathian springs can heal any disease. [...] Water is alive!"

‼️In what might be catastrophic news for Romania, for Ukraine and Europe in general, in the first round of the Romanian Presidential Election, an almost completely unknown individual somehow managed to win some 16-18% of the votes (for now, still counting and still growing every minute) and might actually end up qualifying for round 2.

This man does not belong to any party (thus no party machinery to back him), no vast fortune to fund his campaign that we know of and has a face and name not even 1 in 50 Romanians would have recognized 1 month ago while his score tonight was not predicted by any pollster, even remotely.

As I'm writing this, probably every third Romanian just discovered, upon googling the guy, that he is openly pro-Russian, openly and unapologetically pro-Iron Guard (Romanian WW2 fascist movement), violently anti-NATO, anti-EU and an all round terrifying monster of a man (all views which he kept hidden during his "campaign").

I am absolutely convinced, as is everyone else here tonight, that this man is a Russian asset and his meteoric rise from 0% to God knows how much, could not be explained in any other way but by a massive and unprecedented Russian interference. UPDATE: With some 50% of the votes counted, not only is he gonna make it into round two, but he seems to be heading towards a win in this first round.

Again, this is a man probably 9 out of 10 Romanians first heard about tonight.

Here's a neatly organised timeline of "major" Russian "red lines" we crossed, with Putin doing absolutely nothing about🧵 June 2022: Putin warns U.S. against sending Ukraine longer-range weapons, threatens Russia would strike targets in the West if they donated more advanced weaponry to Ukraine.

Mere days days later, the first HIMARS arrive in Ukraine. Russian threat goes unfulfilled.

Because most of Trump's nominations are somewhat unknown to most of my fellow European, I figured I could a thread with some short but I'd say pretty honest reviews.🧵 With "they're eating the cats, eating the dogs" as one of US's most pressing issues apparently, the stable Kristi Noem is an excellent choice for Homeland Security, one that stands to deliver a quick solution by shooting both the cats and the dogs. And likely the immigrants too.

For anyone interested in the elections taking place in Moldova tomorrow, feel free to bookmark this thread.

Similar to how I did last round, I'll do my best to do an hourly or so update on it tomorrow (or whenever something of note comes up).

Per the "campaign" Russia started engaging in yesterday - ironically trying to portray Maia Sandu and Romania as the ones "buying votes" and attempting to steal the election - they seem to be setting the stage for "something" in the event of a Sandu win. According to the Moldovan Police, in the last 24h - and still ongoing - a massive influx of people is coming into the country (30k so far, about triple the number you'd see on any other given day), most being Moldovan passport holders residing in Russia.

While the Russians appear to be using a myriad of routes to get them from Russia to Moldova, most of them are being flown to Istanbul and from there taken by buses to the Moldovan borders - all transportation being free and paid for by the Kremlin.

On a similar note, per Moldovan press, Transnistria also seems to have prepared to move several tens of thousands of people into Moldova "so they can vote" tomorrow.

While all these people are for sure being sent to Moldova to vote for the pro-Russian candidate, if Maia Sandu still manages to win, I'm not very convinced simply packing up and quietly going back to Russia is their plan B.

As I've split my Russian cities "travel guide" into a myriad of different threads and posts, I've decided to finally gather them all in one place (mostly so I can have something to pin on my profile).

Welcome to "Posh Russian cities - The Definitive Edition" 🧵 While a romantic sunset, sunrise or the sun in general is not something you're likely to experience in Norilsk - a city that fields a beautiful bi-annual Biblical plague when the local river runs red with pollution, is one for sure bound to go straight to your heart. And lungs.

Having always been mildly curious about the topic, I decided to use my nonexistent financial and legal expertise to find out how much money Navalny's "anti-corruption foundation" makes and just what it is they spend it on - and it has been one extraordinary journey! 🧵 As a starting point, I figured I'd take a look at their official website - which while kind enough to list every payment method humanity ever managed to create as available to give them money - makes absolutely sure not to provide any kind of financial reports on that money (very much a standard when it comes to transparent NGOs and not-for-profit websites).

What the website does do, somewhere down below in a corner, with a font size possibly chosen out of a sincere desire to blind their inquisitive enemies, is mention a NY employer identification number (85-0774334).

For the sake of better understanding the inner workings of the "mysterious Russian soul", I've compiled a long list of polls which, put together, make for a rather compelling image, one that I hope will dismiss the idea of the "silent majority of the good Russian people". 🧵 While apparently a lot of people in Africa still hold somewhat of a positive view of Russia, less then 1 in 10 Russians would even conceive having someone from Africa as a family member, neighbor, friend, coworker or all round go as far as to see them as a human being.