Of all the strange corners of the world I’ve wandered past, Transnistria has to rank among the top 5 destinations. To put is succinctly, it is the last bastion relic of the USSR. Straddling no more than a small strip of land east of the Dniester river, this minor territory is effectively an independent country with is own president, parliament, independent laws, currency, postal service, military, etc. Although it’s not recognized by any UN member state (in fact, only 2 other breakaway republics recognize Transnistria), it has it’s own border control and a Russian military contingent. Everything is in Russian, but many people hold both Moldovan and Ukrainian passports.
When Moldova declared independence in 1990, Transnistria remained aligned to the USSR and did not want to separate from mother Russia. This internecine tension led to a declaration of independence and a military conflict. Today, Transnistria is sort of a oxymoronic zeitgeist, a time-warp of strange oddities and contradictions; a place where “CCCP” and hammer and sickle appear besides modern infrastructure and a small splattering of brand names. The streets of Tiraspol are named after Marx and Lenin, Soviet symbols abound (the hammer and sickle is still on their official flag), there are at least two massive statues of Lenin, uniformed military (unarmed) can be spotted on the streets occasionally. Across the parliament building there is a war memorial to the fallen during the “war of independence”, with a massive tank hoisted on a monument with its barrel aimed directly at Moldova proper.