on the square and essentially apologized for the ill-conceived decree on the Russian language … Vancea also announced that he intended to resign.

President Vladimir Voronin dismissed the education minister Tuesday [26 February] over his plan to force schoolchildren to learn Russian and he appointed a new reformist finance minister in a signal to foreign lenders … [The education minister] was moved to another post … Anger over the language plans sparked two months of nationalist-led street protests by thousands of students that developed into mass demonstrations against the communist-led government’s pro-Russian policies.