Moldovan flag and name
Population - 4.32 million (estimate at July 2009)
Bessarabia was a region ceded by the Ottoman Empire to Russia in the early 19th century. In 1859 it united with Wallachia to become the Kingdom of Romania. Occupied by the USSR during WW2, some provinces were reorganised as Moldavia. Although now independent from the USSR since 1991, Russian "peacekeepers" have remained on Moldovan territory in the narrow strip east of the Dnestr (Nistru) river in support of the local population, which is mostly Russian (30%) or Ukrainian (29%). They have declared the area the independent republic of Приднестр (Transdnestr or Transnistria), but it remains unrecognised internationally.
There will be more information about Moldova later.
