Moldau travel guide

The Republic of Moldova (Republica Moldova) is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, located between Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east and south. The country is a parliamentary democracy with a President as its head of state and a Prime Minister as its head of government. The official state language is Moldovan - which is identical to Romanian. 11% the population also uses Russian as the native language.
Most of its territory was historically part of the Principality of Moldavia, and it was annexed by the Russian Empire in 1812, as part of Bessarabia. At the dissolution of the Russian Empire in 1918, Bessarabia joined Romania. In 1940, Bessarabia was occupied by the Soviet Union, and after changing hands in 1941 and 1944 during World War II, it was split between the Ukrainian SSR and the newly-created Moldavian SSR. The Moldavian SSR declared its independence from the USSR on August 27, 1991, and then changed its name to Republic of Moldova. Russian forces have remained on Moldovan territory, in the breakaway region of Transnistria, despite signing international obligations to withdraw.
Moldova is a member state of the United Nations, WTO, OSCE, GUAM, CIS, BSEC and other international organizations. Moldova has officially been a neutral country since its independence, and an early member of the NATO Partnership for Peace. Moldova currently aspires to join the European Union. and is implementing its first three-year Action Plan within the framework of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) of the EU. (...) more....