Quick. What is this country? And where is it located?

I was recently thumbing through a Lonely Planet guide to Romania and Moldova and learned about a strange autonomous region of Eastern Moldova bordering on Ukraine that still runs things as if it were the Soviet Union. The Moldovans (and everyone else) call this region Transnistria or Transniestr or Transdnistria, and consider it part of their country; the Transnistrians call it the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic or PMR, or Pridnestrovie.

I became somewhat fascinated with this little area because I had never heard about it, a description as the Cuba of Europe seemed intriguing, and then it was independently brought to my attention by this Strange Maps post where the author pointed out that, with Russia’s recent action and the US media’s recent attention to the similar breakaways nations of South Ossetia and Abhkazia we may be hearing more of these breakaways republics soon, so I wanted to be on the cutting edge.

By the way, these three breakaway republics are part of the hilariously named Commonwealth of Unrecognized States. Quick, before clicking on the link, what are the other two “countries” in the commonwealth? Good trivia, huh?

My favorite thing about Transnistria has to be its unintentionally funny propaganda/tourism website. Unlike that of, say, North Korea, the Transnistrian website is fairly well-designed. That only makes their trumpeting of outside observations that “Compared to Moldova, this is like the Riviera” and “There is…a public-spiritedness and lack of sleaze…compared with many other post-Soviet countries” and “the kids are playing western computer games: Tomb Raider, Tank Racer” even better.

When a country’s website says about its currency “Pridnestrovie has its own currency, the PMR Ruble, which is freely exchangeable with no currency controls of any kind” you have to wonder if they protest to much, no?

Speaking of Moldova. Transnistria really hates Moldova. Possibly with good reason. And they really let it out:

Historically, Pridnestrovie’s territory was never part of Moldova. The two countries were forced into a joint nation in World War II when Hitler and Stalin redrew the borders of Europe. In the breakup of the Soviet Union, both countries withdrew from this forced and unnatural union.

Pridnestrovie is a modern, forward-looking country and…crime is virtually absent. As for the stories to the contrary, they are unproven accusations only: Attribute them to Moldovan smear propaganda; not to any basis in fact or reality.

Foreign diplomats say reports of smuggling from Pridnestrovie are wildly exaggerated and attribute them to Moldovan pressure.

Even ethnic Moldavians living in Pridnestrovie today have no desire to join Moldova.
Part of the reason is Moldova’s human rights record. The poorest country in Europe is also the world’s top exporter of forced child prostitution. Censorship is rampant, torture is widespread and it has “failed to build” democracy. 90% of its young want to leave.

I could go on. But really, you should check it out for yourself. By which I mean click on the links below. As my Romanian friend says, “Nobody goes there unless they want trouble.”

visitpmr.com
pridnestrovie.net Includes wonderful “Ten things you didn’t know about Europe’s newest country” section. Number 10: Double Iceland’s population. Number 3: Historically never part of Moldova
wikipedia page
wiki travel page
Lonely Planet article

Oh, just one more thing. The entire country has free public phones! Which they totally aren’t listening to every conversation with!