joined forces in 1996 with the tacit aim of resisting Russian regional dominance.

Vasile Tarlev [is] an ethnic Bulgarian, the 37-year-old manager of the Bucuria confectionery factory … [The] new government received parliamentary endorsement on 19 April … In a further reflection of Voronin’s desire for stability, the new administration’s seventeen members included eleven individuals who had been ministers or deputy ministers in the previous government headed by Braghis.