Transnistrian Time-Slip

Transnistrian Time-Slip - NYTimes.com

May 22, 2012, 12:30 pm

By FRANK JACOBS

Borderlines explores the global map, one line at a time.

Earlier this month, Catherine Ashton, the European Union high representative for foreign affairs [1], applauded the resumption of freight rail traffic through eastern Moldova as “a crucial step forward for restoring confidence between the sides to the Transnistrian issue.” For many this may have been the first time they became aware of something called the “Transnistrian issue,” let alone Transnistria itself [2].
You’ll find Moldova on a map — it’s right there, a pork shoulder of land between Romania and Ukraine — but not Transnistria, an unrecognized breakaway republic in the east of Moldova. And if Transnistria were on a map, it would be easy to mistake it for a misprint, a river inked too wide (to continue the porcine metaphor, if Moldova is a pork shoulder, Transnistria is a sliver of bacon). Located mainly on the eastern bank of the Dniester [3], Transnistria stretches for about 250 miles north to south, averaging no more than 15 miles across. It thus patently lacks what military experts call ‘strategic depth’ — the ability to retreat without automatically suffering defeat.

Timofti denies Russian radar plans for Moldovan border | euronews, interview

Timofti denies Russian radar plans for Moldovan border | euronews, interview

16/05 16:19 CET

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Three years of political stalemate in Moldova ended in March with the election of President Nicolae Timofti.
His republic sits between Romania and Ukraine, a former Soviet republic with fragile relations with a breakaway region, Transnistria, that needs mediation from the EU, US, Ukraine, Russia, and the OSCE, the 5+2 group.
Moldova is desperately poor and has a militarised eastern border, yet is determined to become an EU member alongside its western neighbour Romania.