Chisinau, Moldova
Moldova’s newly re-elected President Vladimir Voronin this week called on Russian forces to leave his country. Moldova, one of Europe’s poorest countries, won independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, but Russia still has 1,200 troops in Transnistria, a breakaway Moldovan province populated by ethnic Russians. The Russian government says the soldiers are there only as peacekeepers. Voronin said their continued presence was an “anachronism” impeding the “irreversible” drift of Moldova away from Russian influence, and toward closer ties with the European Union.
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