On Sunday, Traian Basescu of the Justice and Truth Alliance became Romania’s president, defeating ex-communist Ion Iliescu 51.23% to 48.77%. Iliescu held the presidency for 11 of the 15 years since Romanians executed communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu on Christmas Day in 1989. Iliescu’s loss truly marks an end to the corrupt, communist legacy of Ceausescu, who must be turning in his grave now. Basescu’s victory is also bad news for Russian President Vladimir [Ras]Putin, who has now seen yet another neighbor’s populace vote to become closer to the Western world of nations.

But before I get my hopes up too high, there’s a catch: Iliescu’s Social Democrats (read: corrupt, ex-commies) still control Romania’s parliament. New president Traian Basescu will have to do some serious schmoozing to build a coalition large enough to wrest power from the Social Democrats – perhaps even call for new parliamentary elections. According to the BBC:

Like ex-communist parties elsewhere in Central and Eastern Europe, [the] Social Democrats rely on a dense network of local patronage and influence, often going back to the days of Communist rule. No party in Romania is free of corruption.

But, according to observers, Mr Basescu's Truth and Justice alliance relies rather less on this kind of influence.

Mr Basescu's electoral success is also said to reflect the emergence of a younger, educated "middle class", embarrassed by Romania's culture of graft and patronage, and keen to see the country embrace "Western" norms.

Let’s hope Basescu is successful. Too many millions have died at the hands of communists. Time to move on.

While Romania (under Ceausescu) always remained distant from Moscow’s communist leaders in Soviet times, poor Russian President [Ras]Putin can’t be happy with Basescu’s win. In March of this year, Romania joined NATO. The country has concluded accession talks for joining the EU. It probably won’t be too long before Romania becomes an official member of the European Union.

Despite the fact that most ex-Soviet satellite countries have gravitated towards the West and away from Mother Russia, Putin has surrounded himself with other former KGB goons, so in the Kremlin nowadays, “influence stems from the former Soviet organs of repression.”

Putin just doesn’t see the writing on the wall. He doesn’t want to. He wants to restore Russia’s old czarist/communist (any difference?) imperial ambitions. The problem is, fewer and fewer people are willing to go along with this grand delusion.