Photo Gallery Transnistrian Dreams
The breakaway Moldovan republic of Transnistria longs to return to the Russian fold -- and Moscow is content to use the sliver of territory along the Dniester River as a chip in its broader poker game with the West. Here, people shopping at a market in Tiraspol, the capital of Transnistria.
Transnistria is rife with monuments to the Russians and to the Soviet times. It is the only place in Europe with a hammer and sickle in its flag.
Oleg Pankov, an avowed communist, runs a sex shop in Tiraspol. But in the backroom, he maintains a shrine to his country's Soviet past. Transnistria is not a rich country, Pankov says, but people are always going to have sex.
A bridge over the Dniester into Moldova proper from Tiraspol. Despite the difficult balancing act Moldova and Transnistria have been performing since 1992, conflict has been surprisingly rare. To be sure, the two sides quarrel regularly about customs formalities and the exclaves, but they generally find a way to resolve their disputes.
The village of Malaesti just outside Tiraspol in Transnistria. More than anything else, the border is an annoyance for the villagers here. They are tired of having to apply for a travel permit every time they want to go shopping across the frontier, though some have made the best of it and registered in Transnistria in order to benefit from the pension supplement paid by Moscow.
The border crossing between Moldova and Transnistria at Bender. The EU Border Assistance Mission to Moldova and Ukraine (EUBAM) noted recently that its experts have not witnessed any relevant disruption of movement of people and cargo across the Transnistrian segment." Nevertheless, Putin brought up Transnistria in telephone conversations with both German Chancellor Angela Merkel and US President Barack Obama, complaining that the region was being blockaded by Ukraine.
A Transnistrian border guard gazing across the Dniester into Moldova. The Russian military regularly holds joint maneuvers with the Transnistrian army on the outskirts of Tiraspol, with the most recent one having taken place on March 25.
The Transnistrian parliament is known as the Supreme Soviet. An enormous statue of Lenin looms above the square in front of the parliament building, his granite cape flying out behind him like that of a superhero.
