The Last Headline from Ukraine.
Putin’s Goals Go Further than Ukraine. If he Succeeds, the Real Headlines will be from Moldova.
Well, from Transnistria to be exact. What, never heard of the place? It’s a sliver of land running north to south in eastern Moldova between the Dniester River to the west and the Ukrainian border to the east. Transnistria is legally a part of the independent nation of Moldova and recognized as such by 98% of the world, but for the majority of the people living in Transnistria — who are mostly Russian and Ukrainian — it is a self-proclaimed independent break-away state. “So what?”, you may think. Many such situations exist around the world, where different cultural groups demand independent status from a larger nation state. Why should Transnistria be so important? And why now? Here’s why in a nutshell, and it’s (no surprise!) cultural: Because Russia has invaded Ukraine, right on Transnistria’s border, and the long-term success of the Ukrainian invasion depends upon Putin achieving his larger regional goal of creating a “Greater Russia” in the image of the old Soviet Union. And that includes Moldova, where Putin finds his greatest cultural justification — the hidden engine driving his political and military dreams — for his grand plan: in Transnistria.
So What’s the Cultural Context?
