Pridnestrovie

Pridnestrovie, officially the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic (PMR; Russian: Приднестровская Молдавская Республика, ПМР; Moldovan Cyrillic: Република Молдовеняскэ Нистрянэ; Ukrainian: Придністровська Молдавська Республіка), is a de facto state situated mainly on the eastern bank of the Dniester River between Moldova and Ukraine. Its capital and largest city is Tiraspol. In English it is also commonly called Transnistria or Trans-Dniester.

The republic was proclaimed on 2 September 1990 during the political crisis and national conflicts accompanying the destruction of the Soviet Union. Its immediate origins lay in the mass movement which developed in the industrial cities east of the Dniester against the Moldavian SSR's language legislation of 1989 and the growing influence of the Moldovan Popular Front. Industrial labour collectives played an unusually important role in this movement, organising strikes and creating the United Council of Labour Collectives (OSTK), which became one of the principal organisations behind the establishment of the republic.

Armed conflict between Pridnestrovian and Moldovan forces culminated in the 1992 war and the battle for Bendery. A ceasefire signed by Moldova and Russia on 21 July 1992 established a Security Zone and a Joint Control Commission with Moldovan, Russian and Pridnestrovian participation. Since then Pridnestrovie has maintained its own constitution, president, parliament, government, armed forces, currency, legal system and public institutions independently of the Moldovan government.

Pridnestrovie has close political, cultural and security relations with Russia, and a large part of its population holds Russian citizenship. Russia nevertheless does not formally recognise the PMR as an independent state. No member of the United Nations currently recognises its sovereignty. Moldova regards the territory as part of the Republic of Moldova, while the PMR maintains that the results of its referendums and its separate political development establish a right to independence. The OSCE-supported settlement process is formally based on Moldovan sovereignty and territorial integrity with a special status for Pridnestrovie.

Unlike several other post-Soviet de facto states, Pridnestrovie has preserved a particularly visible Soviet political and cultural inheritance. Its flag retains the hammer and sickle, statues of Vladimir Lenin remain prominent, the Supreme Council and local legislatures retain Soviet-era terminology, and the Great Patriotic War occupies an important place in public commemorations. The modern PMR is nevertheless not a socialist state. Its constitution recognises private, state and other forms of property on an equal basis, and large private enterprises play a major role in the economy.

Name

The republic's official English-language institutions use the name Pridnestrovie, derived from Russian Pridnestrovye (Приднестровье), meaning approximately "the land by the Dniester". The full official Russian name is Pridnestrovskaya Moldavskaya Respublika (Приднестровская Молдавская Республика). The official Moldovan form, written in Cyrillic according to PMR orthography, is Република Молдовеняскэ Нистрянэ, while the Ukrainian form is Придністровська Молдавська Республіка.

The term Transnistria is much more common in English-language media and Western diplomatic usage. Literally meaning "beyond the Dniester", it is derived from a Romanian geographical term whose meaning depends upon viewing the region from the western bank of the river. The name also has a separate and controversial historical association with the Transnistria Governorate, the Romanian occupation zone established between the Dniester and Southern Bug during the Second World War.

That wartime governorate was considerably larger than the present PMR and should not be confused with it. Romanian authorities administered the territory during the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union and carried out mass persecution and killing of Jews and Roma there. Because of this association, Pridnestrovian authorities object strongly to the use of "Transnistria" as the contemporary republic's name.

In September 2024 the PMR adopted legislation restricting the use of "Transnistria" as a substitute for the constitutional names Pridnestrovie and the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic. President Vadim Krasnoselsky argued that the word had become inseparable locally from the Romanian occupation and the Holocaust.

Geography

Pridnestrovie covers a long, narrow area running north to south along the Dniester. Most of the territory administered by the PMR lies east of the river, although Bendery and several nearby settlements are situated on the western bank. The republic borders Moldova to the west and Ukraine to the east.

The PMR government gives its area as approximately 4,163 square kilometres. Its principal cities are Tiraspol, Bendery, Rybnitsa and Dubossary. The administrative districts are Kamenka, Rybnitsa, Dubossary, Grigoriopol and Slobodzeya.

Tiraspol is the political and administrative centre. Rybnitsa is a major centre of metallurgy and heavy industry, while the Moldavskaya GRES power station at Dnestrovsk has historically been one of the most important energy facilities in the wider region.

History

Imperial period

The territory of modern Pridnestrovie has long been a borderland between different states, languages and populations. Moldovans, Ukrainians, Russians, Jews, Bulgarians, Germans, Armenians and other peoples settled in the region at different periods.

By the end of the eighteenth century most of the present left-bank territory had been incorporated into the Russian Empire. Southern Pridnestrovie entered the empire following the Russo-Turkish wars and the Treaty of Jassy in 1792, while northern territories formerly under the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth were incorporated during the partitions of Poland. Tiraspol developed from a Russian frontier fortress founded during this period.

The territory east of the Dniester was generally administered separately from Bessarabia. During the nineteenth century different parts of present-day Pridnestrovie belonged principally to the Kherson and Podolia governorates, while Bessarabia west of the river became a separate Russian province after 1812. This administrative distinction later became important in Pridnestrovian arguments concerning the historical relationship between the two banks.

Moldavian ASSR

Following the Russian Revolution and Civil War, the territory east of the Dniester became part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. Bessarabia, meanwhile, was incorporated into Romania in 1918, an act which the Soviet government did not recognise.

In 1924 the Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (MASSR) was established inside the Ukrainian SSR. It covered a larger territory than present-day Pridnestrovie and included a substantial Ukrainian and Russian population alongside Moldovans and other nationalities. Tiraspol became its capital in 1929.

The MASSR underwent Soviet collectivisation and industrialisation alongside the rest of the Ukrainian SSR. Tiraspol and other towns developed industrial enterprises and a multilingual urban working class. The existence of the autonomy also reflected the Soviet Union's continued claim to Bessarabia.

In June 1940, following a Soviet ultimatum and the withdrawal of the Romanian administration, the USSR took control of Bessarabia. Most of central Bessarabia was combined with six districts of the MASSR to create the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic. Other parts of the MASSR remained within the Ukrainian SSR. Tiraspol ceased to be the republican capital, which was moved to Chisinau.

Great Patriotic War

The region was occupied by Axis forces after the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. Romania, allied with Nazi Germany under Ion Antonescu, administered a large occupation zone between the Dniester and Southern Bug under the name Transnistria Governorate.

The occupation was accompanied by mass murder, deportation and starvation. Jews from Bessarabia, Bukovina and other Romanian-controlled territories were deported into the governorate, while local Jewish communities were also subjected to massacres and ghettos. Thousands of Soviet citizens from the region fought in the Red Army.

Soviet forces liberated the area in 1944 during the wider offensive through Ukraine, Moldova and Romania. The war remains central to Pridnestrovian public memory, and Victory Day and monuments to the Soviet war dead retain an unusually prominent position in the republic.

Soviet industrialisation

After the war the left bank became one of the most heavily industrialised parts of the Moldavian SSR. Metallurgy, electricity generation, machine-building, textiles, food processing and other industries were concentrated around Tiraspol, Rybnitsa, Bendery and Dubossary. Large enterprises drew workers from different parts of the Soviet Union, reinforcing the region's Russian-, Ukrainian- and Moldovan-speaking character.

By the end of the Soviet period the left-bank districts represented only a minority of the Moldavian SSR's population but contained a disproportionate share of its industrial capacity. A 1994 CSCE study estimated that the territory accounted for about 12–17 percent of Moldova's population while producing roughly 35 percent of its national income.

Industrial enterprises were more than workplaces. Soviet labour collectives operated housing, cultural institutions, clinics and other social facilities, and factory organisations played a large role in local politics. This became particularly important during the political crisis of the late 1980s.

Language conflict and the workers' movement

The immediate roots of the Pridnestrovian movement appeared during perestroika. The Moldovan Popular Front campaigned for the Latin alphabet, a stronger position for the Moldovan/Romanian language and a cultural reorientation towards Romania. A current within the movement also began advocating political union with Romania after the fall of Nicolae Ceaușescu.

On 31 August 1989 the Moldavian SSR adopted new language legislation. Moldovan/Romanian written in the Latin alphabet became the state language, while Russian was designated the language of interethnic communication. Article 7 required officials and workers in a broad range of public-facing occupations to attain prescribed language competence, with examinations initially planned from 1994. A later CSCE study noted that although the law was formally bilingual in several respects, its employment provisions had an asymmetric effect because Russian speakers were less likely to know Moldovan/Romanian than Moldovan speakers were to know Russian.

The legislation provoked strikes in heavily industrialised and multilingual areas. Workers in Tiraspol formed the United Council of Labour Collectives (Russian: Объединённый совет трудовых коллективов, OSTK) on 11 August 1989 as a coordinating body for factory strike committees. Similar organisations appeared in other towns.

The importance of factory committees gave the early Pridnestrovian movement a distinctive social base. Opposition to Moldovan nationalism was organised not only through ethnic organisations or political elites but through major industrial workplaces. The OSTK initially concentrated on the language question and preservation of the Soviet Union but increasingly became involved in demands for regional autonomy and separate political institutions.

This did not mean that the movement had a single ideology. Soviet communists, factory directors, trade-union activists, Russian and Ukrainian cultural organisations, Moldovan residents opposed to the Popular Front and supporters of continued Soviet federalism all participated. The early movement was more concerned with preserving the multinational Soviet order than with joining a post-Soviet Russian state.

Proclamation of the republic

Local referendums on political autonomy were held in settlements east of the Dniester from late 1989 through 1990. On 2 September 1990 the Second Congress of People's Deputies proclaimed the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic (PMSSR), initially as a republic within the Soviet Union.

The Moldavian government rejected the proclamation. The first lethal clash occurred at Dubossary on 2 November 1990, when Moldovan police and local demonstrators confronted one another during a struggle over government buildings. Three civilians were killed.

Political separation accelerated during 1991 as the Soviet Union disintegrated. Pridnestrovian institutions increasingly replaced Moldavian republican institutions on the territory they controlled. The PMR declared independence in August 1991. A referendum was held on 1 December 1991; according to the PMR Central Election Commission, 97.7 percent of participating voters supported independence and turnout exceeded 78 percent.

The vote was organised by the Pridnestrovian authorities and was not an internationally supervised referendum. Moldova did not recognise either the result or the republic's declaration of independence.

1992 war

Armed confrontations grew during late 1991 and early 1992, particularly around Dubossary. Pridnestrovian workers' detachments and militia formations developed into the Republican Guard, while Moldova attempted to restore control over state institutions in the region.

Large-scale war developed in spring 1992. The heaviest fighting took place around Dubossary and Bendery. Bendery is situated on the western bank of the Dniester but had joined the Pridnestrovian movement and became the site of the largest battle of the conflict in June.

The former Soviet 14th Army was stationed in the region during the collapse of the USSR and was incorporated into the Russian Armed Forces in April 1992. Its role during the war remains central to interpretations of the conflict. A contemporary CSCE investigation found that the army had transferred weapons to local fighters, trained Pridnestrovian forces and eventually intervened directly during the battle for Bendery. The same report noted that relations between the Russian army command and the PMR leadership were not always cooperative and that General Alexander Lebed later clashed politically with Igor Smirnov.

Several hundred people were killed and more than 100,000 were displaced during the conflict according to the OSCE.

On 21 July 1992 Moldova and Russia signed an agreement establishing an immediate ceasefire and a demilitarised Security Zone around the Dniester. A tripartite Joint Control Commission was created with Moldovan, Russian and Pridnestrovian representatives, alongside a joint peacekeeping force. Deployment began on 29 July.

The ceasefire ended the large-scale war. No comparable armed conflict between Moldova and Pridnestrovie has taken place since.

Post-war development

The end of fighting left the PMR in control of most territory it had claimed. Igor Smirnov, one of the leaders of the original movement, became the dominant political figure and served as president from 1991 until 2011.

During the 1990s the republic developed the institutions normally associated with a state despite its lack of diplomatic recognition. It introduced the Pridnestrovian ruble, maintained armed forces and border guards, adopted a constitution and established separate ministries, courts and security institutions. Many Soviet administrative forms and symbols were retained.

The economy initially preserved a larger state sector than many neighbouring post-Soviet economies, but this changed substantially during the late 1990s and 2000s. Privatisation expanded and private business became increasingly important. The most powerful company to emerge was the Sheriff conglomerate, founded in 1993, which expanded into retail, fuel, telecommunications, media, construction, sports and other sectors.

Political competition became more visible during the 2000s. The Renewal movement gained strength in the Supreme Council and became associated with the growing influence of Sheriff. Smirnov lost the 2011 presidential election to Yevgeny Shevchuk, demonstrating that the presidency was not permanently controlled by its founding leadership. Shevchuk in turn lost to Vadim Krasnoselsky in 2016.

2006 referendum

On 17 September 2006 the PMR held another referendum on its international status. Voters were asked to choose between a course towards independence followed by free association with Russia and abandonment of independence followed by entry into Moldova.

According to the PMR Central Election Commission, 97.2 percent of participating voters supported continued independence and the subsequent course towards association with Russia. Turnout was reported at more than 78 percent.

The referendum was not recognised by Moldova or by the principal international organisations involved in the settlement process. It did not result in Russian recognition or accession to Russia, but its result became the formal basis of the PMR government's long-term foreign-policy orientation.

Unlike Crimea, the DPR and the LPR, Pridnestrovie was not recognised by Russia and did not enter the Russian Federation. Its official position has continued to combine a claim to independent statehood with a strategic orientation towards Russia.

Politics

The PMR Constitution defines Pridnestrovie as a presidential republic. The president is directly elected for a five-year term and serves as head of state. Legislative power belongs to the Supreme Council, while the government exercises executive functions.

Vadim Krasnoselsky has served as president since 2016 and was re-elected in December 2021. Alexander Rosenberg is Chairman of the Government. Tatyana Zalevskaya was elected chair of the Supreme Council in December 2025.

The Supreme Council has 33 deputies elected from single-member constituencies. The eighth convocation was elected on 30 November 2025; the PMR Central Election Commission reported that 102,665 people voted, slightly more than 26 percent of registered voters. The next presidential election is scheduled for 13 December 2026.

The republic retains institutional names inherited from the Soviet period, including the Supreme Council and local Councils of People's Deputies. This continuity is real but should not be confused with continuity of the Soviet economic system. Article 4 of the constitution recognises private, state and other forms of ownership and gives them equal legal protection.

Modern Pridnestrovie therefore combines Soviet political symbolism with a capitalist economy. State enterprises remain important, but private capital also occupies a large part of commerce, media, telecommunications and other sectors. Sheriff is the most important private conglomerate and has been closely associated with the Renewal political movement. Academic studies have described the company's economic and political influence as exceptionally extensive; Renewal won 29 of the 33 Supreme Council seats in the 2020 election.

This political economy differs sharply from the movement which originally created the republic. In 1989–1990 industrial labour collectives were among the main independent centres of political organisation. The later growth of large private conglomerates and privatisation changed the class structure without erasing the Soviet symbols and historical language inherited from the founding period.

Economy

Pridnestrovie's economy retains the industrial character developed during the Soviet period. Metallurgy, electricity generation, textiles, food production, alcohol, engineering and agriculture are important sectors. Major enterprises include the Moldovan Steel Works at Rybnitsa, the Moldavskaya GRES power station, Tirotex and the KVINT wine and brandy producer.

The republic uses the Pridnestrovian ruble, issued by the Pridnestrovian Republican Bank. It is not freely traded on international currency markets.

Sheriff is the most visible private company. Beginning with retail and fuel in the 1990s, it expanded into supermarkets, petrol stations, telecommunications, television, advertising, construction and football. FC Sheriff Tiraspol, owned by the group, became internationally known after qualifying for the UEFA Champions League.

Russia has historically been central to the region's energy supply and public finances, but Pridnestrovie's actual trade structure is more geographically mixed. Access to the European Union market through Moldovan trade arrangements has become increasingly important. Moldovan customs data for 2025 reported that 71 percent of exports from economic agents in the Pridnestrovian region went to the European Union, while 48 percent of imports came from EU states.

This has produced an unusual combination: politically and strategically the PMR remains closely aligned with Russia, while a large part of its industrial export economy depends on access to Moldovan and European markets.

2025 energy crisis

For many years Pridnestrovie's economy depended upon Russian natural gas delivered through Ukraine. The gas supplied households and industry and fuelled the Moldavskaya GRES power station, which also exported electricity to the rest of Moldova.

That system was disrupted on 1 January 2025 when Russian gas transit through Ukraine ended. Gazprom also halted supplies amid a dispute over Moldovan gas debts. Heating and gas service disappeared for tens of thousands of households, industrial production was suspended and rolling electricity cuts were introduced.

The European Union provided €30 million for an emergency supply arrangement covering the beginning of February. Gas delivered through Moldovagaz allowed electricity and heating to be restored, and Krasnoselsky publicly thanked European and Moldovan officials involved in arranging the temporary supply.

A subsequent arrangement used gas purchased on the European market with financial backing from Russia. Pridnestrovian authorities said industrial output nevertheless fell sharply during 2025 because supplies remained below previous levels and the cost structure had changed.

Energy supplies remained vulnerable during 2026, although the PMR government reported in August that no acute supply crisis was then underway.

Relations with Russia

Russia has been Pridnestrovie's most important external political partner since the 1992 war. It participates in the settlement process, maintains troops in the region and has provided economic, humanitarian and social assistance.

A large part of the population also holds Russian citizenship. Russian authorities stated in September 2026 that approximately 220,000 Russian passport holders lived in Pridnestrovie, although the Moldovan government disputes the precision of this figure.

The Russian tricolour has been used alongside the PMR flag at official locations since legislation adopted in 2017. Russian television, media and education are widely consumed, and the Russian language is dominant in much of public life.

The relationship is nevertheless not one of formal state union. Russia has never recognised the PMR's independence, even after recognising Abkhazia, Alania, the Donetsk People's Republic and Lugansk People's Republic in other circumstances.

In February 2024 a Congress of Deputies of all levels appealed to the Russian Federal Assembly for diplomatic measures to protect Pridnestrovian interests amid a dispute over Moldovan customs duties. The congress also sent appeals to the United Nations, OSCE, European institutions and other participants in the settlement process. Despite widespread outside speculation before the meeting, the resolution did not request immediate annexation by Russia.

Russian forces and peacekeeping

Two different Russian military presences are often grouped together when discussing Pridnestrovie.

The first is the Russian contingent of the Joint Peacekeeping Force, established under the July 1992 ceasefire. It operates in the Security Zone together with Moldovan and Pridnestrovian contingents under the Joint Control Commission. PMR authorities regard the operation as the principal guarantee against renewed war and strongly oppose its removal before a political settlement.

The second is the Operational Group of Russian Forces (OGRF), descended from elements of the former 14th Army and stationed outside the peacekeeping structure. Among its functions has been guarding the large Soviet-era ammunition depot at Cobasna.

The OSCE has explicitly distinguished the two. The peacekeeping contingent operates under the 1992 agreement, whereas the OGRF is not part of the joint peacekeeping mission.

At the 1999 OSCE Istanbul Summit Russia undertook commitments concerning withdrawal of its forces and military stocks from Moldova. Large quantities of equipment and ammunition were removed or destroyed with OSCE assistance in the following years, but the process stopped in 2004.

Moldova has repeatedly called for the remaining Russian forces to leave and for the existing peacekeeping arrangement eventually to be replaced by an international civilian mission. Pridnestrovie rejects that position and argues that the peacekeeping force prevented a resumption of the 1992 conflict.

In September 2026 Reuters estimated the total Russian military presence in the region at around 1,500 personnel.

Relations with Moldova

Moldova does not recognise the PMR as a sovereign state and regards the territory as part of the Republic of Moldova. Pridnestrovie maintains the opposite position and seeks international recognition of its independence.

The two sides nevertheless maintain extensive practical relations. People, goods and services cross between the territories, and many Pridnestrovians hold Moldovan documents alongside PMR, Russian or Ukrainian documents. Pridnestrovian enterprises also use Moldovan customs documentation for international trade.

Formal negotiations developed after the 1992 ceasefire. The OSCE Mission to Moldova was established in 1993 to facilitate a settlement. Since 2005 the principal international framework has been known as the 5+2 format: Moldova and Pridnestrovie are the two sides, Russia, Ukraine and the OSCE act as mediators, and the European Union and United States participate as observers.

The two sides have reached practical agreements on vehicle registration, telecommunications, education, recognition of university documents, agricultural land and freedom of movement without agreeing on the republic's final political status.

The 5+2 process largely stopped functioning after the escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War in 2022, although direct talks and working groups continued intermittently. On 26 February 2026 the OSCE facilitated the first in-person meeting in more than a year between the Moldovan and Pridnestrovian chief negotiators.

The positions remain fundamentally different. The PMR seeks recognition of the independence it says was established by referendum and war. The OSCE framework, supported by its 57 participating states, seeks a settlement preserving Moldova's internationally recognised borders while granting Pridnestrovie a special political status.

Demographics

Pridnestrovie has a highly mixed population. Russians, Moldovans and Ukrainians are the three largest national groups, alongside smaller Bulgarian, Gagauz, Belarusian, Jewish, Armenian, Polish and other communities.

The 2015 PMR census recorded 475,665 permanent residents, a fall of 14.3 percent compared with the 2004 census. Official PMR statistics put the population at approximately 447,300 at the beginning of 2026.

The decline reflects low birth rates, an ageing population and long-term labour migration. Many residents work or have family connections in Russia, Moldova, Ukraine and European Union countries.

Pridnestrovian identity has never mapped neatly onto a single ethnicity. Russians, Moldovans and Ukrainians participated on both sides of the original political conflict, and a 1994 CSCE study concluded that a distinct Pridnestrovian identity had developed beyond simple ethnic divisions.

Languages

The constitution gives Moldavian, Russian and Ukrainian equal official status. Russian is the most widely used language in government, commerce and interethnic communication.

The PMR continues to write Moldavian in the Cyrillic alphabet, preserving the orthographic system used in the Moldavian SSR before 1989. Moldova uses Romanian written in the Latin alphabet.

Education has consequently been a recurring political dispute. Most Moldavian-language schools controlled by the PMR teach in Cyrillic, while several schools administered under Moldovan authority teach the Moldovan curriculum using Latin script. Their legal status, property and operation became long-running subjects of negotiation.

Agreements reached through the OSCE-sponsored process after 2017 reduced several of these disputes and established arrangements allowing the Latin-script schools to function. The language issue nevertheless remains closely connected to the different national histories promoted by the two sides.

Culture and identity

Public culture in Pridnestrovie retains more visible Soviet continuity than in most other former Soviet territories. The republic's flag is based on that of the Moldavian SSR and retains the hammer and sickle. Its coat of arms likewise preserves the Soviet heraldic form.

Lenin monuments remain in public spaces, Soviet street names are widespread and the parliament continues to be called the Supreme Council. The anniversary of the October Revolution is still publicly commemorated, while Victory Day on 9 May and the liberation of the region from Axis occupation have particular importance.

This Soviet imagery coexists with the revival of the Russian Orthodox Church and with the institutions of a post-Soviet capitalist state. It should therefore be understood primarily as part of historical and civic identity rather than evidence that the Soviet mode of production survived after 1991.

The region's official understanding of itself stresses its multinational composition. This derives partly from the industrial population created during the Soviet period and partly from the much older mixture of Moldovan, Ukrainian, Russian, Jewish, Bulgarian and other communities along the Dniester.

Pridnestrovian State University, named after Taras Shevchenko, is the principal higher-education institution. The republic also maintains Russian-, Ukrainian- and Moldavian-language cultural organisations and schools.

International status

Pridnestrovie possesses most of the institutions normally associated with independent statehood and has exercised continuous de facto control over its core territory since 1992. It has its own government, legislature, courts, armed forces, police, currency and border structures.

Its international legal position is different. No United Nations member state formally recognises the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic, including Russia.

The PMR argues that its statehood emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union, local referendums and the right of peoples to self-determination. Its authorities also point to the fact that the left-bank territory had belonged to the Moldavian ASSR before the creation of the Moldavian SSR in 1940 and argue that Moldova's own rejection of aspects of the 1940 settlement weakened its claim to Pridnestrovie. This is the PMR's legal and historical argument rather than a position accepted by international organisations.

Moldova regards Pridnestrovie as part of its sovereign territory. The OSCE, European Union, United States, Russia, Ukraine and the other participants in the established negotiation framework have formally supported a negotiated settlement based on Moldova's territorial integrity, although Russia also maintains particularly close relations with the PMR and acts as a guarantor and mediator in the conflict-settlement process.

The result is a political order which has survived for more than three decades without either international recognition or reintegration into Moldova. Pridnestrovie has consequently developed a separate state, economy and political identity while remaining embedded economically and geographically between Moldova, Ukraine, Russia and the wider European market.

See also

• Soviet Union
• Russia
• Ukraine
• Great Patriotic War
• Russo-Ukrainian War
• Multipolarity

External links

• President of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic — official website
• Supreme Council of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic — official website
• Government of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic — official website
• Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic
• Novosti Pridnestrovya — official news agency
• OSCE Mission to Moldova