ABSTRACT
Moldova is a small country which borders on Ukraine in the north, east and south, and on Romania in the west. It is located inland (to the northwest of the Black Sea) and has some 4.3 million inhabitants, out of which some one million are Ukrainians and Russians. There are two larger ethnicity-based areas: the Gaugaz, a Christian Turkish people who live in the south, and Russians/ Ukrainians who live in the east, Russians particularly in Transdniester, on the east side of the Dniester river.
