Moldova is a small land-locked country in Eastern Europe, north of the Balkans, surrounded by Romania to the southwest, across the Prut river, and Ukraine to the northeast.
The capital of Moldova is Chișinău. The local language is Romanian, based on the Latin alphabet, but Russian is widely used. Moldova is a multi-ethnic republic that has suffered from violent ethnic conflict. In 1990 the self-proclaimed Transnistria Republic in eastern Moldova declared independence and a civil war was fought during the first half of 1992. A ceasefire was declared and Transnistria has maintained de facto independence with its own government and currency but is not recognized by any other country. Economic links have been re-established between these two parts of Moldova despite failure in political negotiations. The major religion in Moldova is Orthodox Christian.
Moldova’s population is occupied mainly in food production and processing. Once known as “the garden” of the Soviet Union, Moldova has now lost most of its traditional Russian markets for agricultural products and is exploring new international markets.