ABSTRACT
Moldova is a small, landlocked state in the Black Sea Basin, denied access to the sea by a strip of Ukrainian territory some 40 km wide at its narrowest. It has a relatively high population density for a country with a very low GDP per capita. Being agricultural, the country was one of the least developed of the Soviet republics. The Moldavians are essentially Romanians, the ancestors of whom inhabited Bessarabia. This was conquered by the Russian Empire in 1812 but most of the territory reverted to Romania in 1918. It was later annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940. Indeed, independence was preceded on 19 August 1990 by the declaration of the Republic of Gagauzia by the Turkic-speaking Gagauz minority in the south of the country. By 1 August 1995, the Gagauz conflict was over but the Transdniester issue remains. On 16 March 1994, Moldova joined the PfP and, on 8 April, ratified membership of the CIS.
