«If at least one shell falls in Transnistria, I will have breakfast in Tiraspol, lunch in Chisinau, and dinner in Bucharest.» These words of General Alexander Lebed in 1992 stopped the war in Moldova. The conflict arose after the collapse of the USSR, when the authorities in Chisinau decided that their country should join Romania, and the Russian-speaking residents did not agree with that. Transnistria, officially known as the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic, is wedged between Moldova and Ukraine. There, on around 4,000 square kilometres, nearly 500,000 people of various ethnicities cohabit. Most speak Russian but also other languages, including Moldovan, which they write using the Cyrillic script.Today, the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic is a de facto independent state. It has its own institutions of power, laws and economy. But Moldova did not accept the loss of territory.
Seeking Recognition: Transnistria
