Wedged between Moldova and Western Ukraine, and officially part of Moldova is the de-facto and unrecognised breakaway republic of Transnistria, which still has the hammer and sickle on its flag. This 4,163 square kilometre sliver of land on the western bank of the Dniester River has large ethnic Russian and Ukrainian populations. Transnistria broke away from Moldova in September 1990, due to concerns over minority rights within the then-Moldovan Soviet Socialist Republic, and the potential for an independent Moldova to join neighbouring Romania.

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By GeoVane, formerly AR Global Security and Base Rate (Global Guessing, and Crowd Money).

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Russian President Vladimir Putin once said that the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, was "the greatest geopolitical catastrophe" of the 20th century - and not without a reason. After the dissolution of the USSR in December 1991, the post-Soviet union was littered with territorial and ethnic disputes, with some of them turning into brutal and long-lasting conflicts - many of which remain frozen to this day.

One such frozen conflict is that of Transnistria. Wedged between Moldova and Western Ukraine, and officially part of Moldova is the de-facto and unrecognised breakaway republic of Transnistria, which still has the hammer and sickle on its flag.

This 4,163 square kilometre sliver of land on the western bank of the Dniester River has large ethnic Russian and Ukrainian populations.

Transnistria broke away from Moldova in September 1990, due to concerns over minority rights within the then-Moldovan Soviet Socialist Republic, and the potential for an independent Moldova to join neighbouring Romania.

This new de-facto Transnistrian republic would remain in the USSR, but its separation from the Moldovan SSR would be rejected and annulled by then-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

After the USSR fell in 1991, conflict would erupt between the newly independent Moldova and Transnistria which had already declared its own independence from the Soviet Union.

With the help of some Russian personnel who were stationed in Moldova before the collapse of the USSR, Transnistrian forces would cement their control over what is now the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic, or Transnistria, and a ceasefire agreement between the two sides would be signed in July 1992 - leaving the conflict frozen to this day.

As part of this 1992 agreement, a 1500 strong Russian peacekeeping force was and still is stationed in Transnistria.

Though Russia does not recognise Transnistria as an independent state, it does maintain relations with, and has influence in, Transnistria.

The Transnistrian conflict is a major roadblock for Moldovan ambitions to join the EU and NATO, and allows Russia to exert leverage over Moldova - and this is the way things look set to stay for the foreseeable future.

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