Die Republik Moldawien: Perspektiven und Probleme

In the year 1991, a new and independent state appeared on the map of Europe, inhabited largely by a Rumanian speaking ("Moldavian") population: the Republic of Moldavia, in Rumanian Moldova, in Russian Moldaviya. The capital city is Chisinau, known outside of Moldavia by its Russian name, Kishinev. Moldavia is for the first time in its history an independent state, having been formed as a result of the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the same is true of Chisinau in its role as state capital. Moldavia's economic basis can be found in agriculture (wine, fruit, tobacco, sugar beet, vegetables, cereal, sunflowers), thanks to favourable natural conditions, as well as the food trade, linked to this. When the state was founded, Moldavia was faced with the question, whether it should attempt to forge close links or even merge with the neighbouring state of Rumania to the West, or to further pursue the close economic links to Eastern Europe, dominated by Russia. A first wave of Moldavian-Rumanian feelings of belonging together was followed by the political aspiration to retain Moldavia’s territorial independence and integrity, which has remained until the present day. The second point was greatly affected by the Russian speaking minority group and the Russian troops, stationed in Moldavia, around Tiraspol. "After the elections, Moldavia starts drifting eastwards", were the words used by international observers to describe this Moldavian turnaround. It appears to be settled that, for the foreseeable future, Moldavia will remain an independent state and will retain close economical and political links to Eastern Europe, within the framework of the CIS (Confederation of Independent States)