Refreshing news: Moldova

While the Ukrainian government is performing a brutal crackdown on the pro-European protesters who've flooded the streets and squares across the country, the news coming from neighboring Moldova is quite different. And in a sense, refreshing.

Some background first. When the USSR crumbled to pieces in 1991, the Moldavian SSR declared its independence under the name the Republic of Moldova. At the same time, its easternmost part (beyond the river Dniester) in turn declared independence from the new country, and decided to remain in Moscow's orbit. Its name is Transnistria, and it remains an unrecognized country to this very day.

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