Moldova’s Conflict: Unfreezing, In a Good Way?

Author:
Thomas de Waal

The word “frozen” is applied misleadingly to the series of half-dozen unresolved conflicts in the post-Soviet space. None of them are properly frozen, especially in eastern Ukraine and Nagorny Karabakh, where people continue to be killed.

There was a literal deep freeze last week on both sides of the Dniester River, in both official government-controlled “right-bank Moldova” and Transdniestria, the slither of breakaway territory that is patronized by Moscow. Even the statue of Karl Marx outside the government building in the Transdniestrian capital Tiraspol seemed to shiver in icy subzero temperatures.

But in political terms the Transdniestrian conflict is also not frozen—and for a better reason. Things are moving under the surface, in a positive direction.

The article's full-text is available here.

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