Moldova And The Transdnestr Republic

Nicholas Dima provides a concise historical background of Moldova, a former province of Romania, from its years as a territory of the Soviet empire to the post-Soviet era when Russia refused to relinquish its grasp on the disputed region. Dima shows how Moscow is now attempting to regain its former geopolitical power by means of assistance to the self-proclaimed Transdnestr region of Moldova-the last Marxist stronghold in the former Soviet space-through which it could potentially gain a new foothold on the Balkans and surprise Europe and the world once again.

Moldova: Arena of International Influences brings international perspective to Moldova’s foreign relations since its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Eighteen chapters analyze the policy toward Moldova of selected international actors: Belarus, Bulgaria, China, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, the European Union, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the unrecognized breakaway state of Transnistria. For these international actors, Moldova functions as an arena of influences—a sphere of intersecting interests, activities and, occasionally, competition. For the first time, leading experts and practitioners from many of the countries engaged in Moldova are brought together in a common language. The result is a detailed map of the international political landscape in Moldova, a chronicle of the past two decades, and a forecast of the country’s future.

Corruption and the perceived partiality of the justice system and state administration of Moldova have long frustrated efforts – both internal and external – to improve its domestic politics. It nevertheless remains an important partner for both the European Union and Russia, however its strategic positioning between these two powers have left its citizens stretched at times, even torn, in terms of national identity. Looking into recent domestic developments as well as the EU and Russia’s strategies towards Moldova in recent years, this study gives a brief overview of the European and Russian stakes held in Moldova and how its recent presidential election may change Moldova’s future geostrategic positioning. This study is part of the 2016-2017 HCSS StratMon.

Research Paper (postgraduate) from the year 2003 in the subject Politics - Region: Russia, grade: A, Central European University Budapest (Department of Political Science), course: Civil War and Ethnic Conflict, language: English, abstract: This text discusses some of the reasons for ethnic conflicts in Post-Soviet Moldova and compares the unsolved case of Transnistria with the case of the rather unknown Gagauzia which equally aimed for secession from Moldova.

- Parties to the conflict

Since 1 January 2007, Moldova has been a direct neighbour of the European Union. Nonetheless, Moldova and the Russia-dominated geopolitics of the Black Sea region receive still relatively little attention in the West. This is all the more surprising as there remain a number of consequential political divisions and unresolved conflicts in the area. One of them is the Transnistria conflict in Moldova.This book is a contribution to the, so far, small research and policy agenda on Moldova, and includes findings of several research trips to Moldova, Transnistria and their neighbouring countries. At first, the study reassesses the Transnistria conflict. Contrary to widely held assumptions, this conflict is found to be mainly based on a clash of elites and geopolitical interests rather than on ethnic tensions. The second part of the book analyses the interests, official position, actual impact and potential role of the EU in Moldova's internal separatist conflict and its related external tensions with Russia. So far, the EU has had a limited involvement in the conflict resolution efforts and in the international relations of Moldova. This book concludes that it is becoming increasingly important and possible for the EU to get effectively involved in this region, but that the scope of EU activities in Moldova and Transnistria depends on the country's relations with, and on the actions in this area of, the United States and Russia. At its end, the study offers recommendations for future EU policies directed at Moldova.