Moldova has Become a Geopolitical Battleground between Russia and the West

From the most impoverished European nation to one of the unhappiest places on earth, Moldova has attained no shortage of dubious milestones in its brief post–Soviet history.In 2000, the World Bank characterized Moldova as a “captured state,” one in which the levers of government are held hostage to powerful private interests. Moldova’s political dysfunction is, at least partly, the result of deep-seated social cleavages. The population remains sharply split between two mu