Republic of Moldova - 19 years of independence

On August 27, 1991, Moldova, a former Soviet Republic gained its independency. The people didn’t want to be under the Soviet coverage anymore and decided to go apart. Many countries did the same. The Soviet parliament was dissolved and Russia took the most important goods of the USSR – the financial resources, and the weaponry. All the newly appeared republics joined the Community of Independent States (CSI). Every country formed their parliament, government and the national defense system.
Republic of Moldova is celebrating 19 years since it became an independent state. It was a part of the Soviet Union since June 28, 1940 when it was occupied by the USSR through Ribbentrop-Molotov pact which was signed between USSR and Germany on August 23, 1939.

After 19 years of independence, Republic of Moldova is looking forward to join the European Union, but there are still many issues that need to be solved. The breakaway part of Moldova, a region in the Eastern part of the country named Transnistria (Transdniestr) is being a bone of contention between Moldova and Russia. Russia still keeps a part of its army on this territory since 1992, named Army 14. The United Nations does not recognize the breakaway region as an independent country, neither does Moldova. However, Russia considers that Transnistria is a legal state, which has a president (Igor Smirnov), a government and a Ministry of Foreign Affairs which, as said before, does not have any international recognition. This geo-political issue is stopping the Republic of Moldova from its way to joining the European Union.

Since its independency, Moldova has had four presidents: Mircea Snegur (1990-1996), Petru Lucinschi (1996-2001), Vladimir Voronin (2001-2009) having two mandates, and the last one – Mihai Ghimpu, who is the acting president of Moldova at the moment.
On the 5th of September there will be a Constitutional Referendum in Moldova. The people will be asked to vote on modification of the Article 78, which will propose to elect the president directly by the citizens. So far, the president was elected by the party that won the elections. If the answer will be FOR, the Moldovans will directly elect their president for the first time, in November this year.

After the former communist president Vladimir Voronin left his chair, Mihai Ghimpu, the current acting president, turned the country around and took another way, facing Pro-Western. Vladimir Voronin tried to keep the best international relations with Russia, neglecting Romania and breaking the neighbor relations with it. The new governance has started already the negotiations of a free travel in the UE by 2012. The political and cultural relations with Romania have improved. Romania’s government has recently offered a hundred million Euros on an irredeemable grant to Moldova. The US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton congratulated the new Moldovan government for the reforms they made so far and gave Moldova a grant, too.

The Moldovan international relations have improved significantly. Now, depending on what the Moldovans want for their future, they will have the possibility to decide at the presidential/parliamentary elections that will be held in Moldova this year.

Moldova, Happy Independence Day!