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A Brit, a Bike, and a Breakaway State
A Brit, a Bike, and a Breakaway State – Transnistria (AKA Pridnestrovie/the PMR) VIDEO [Article Below] Summary: Pridnestrovie (AKA Transnistria, or the Pridnestrovien Moldavian Republic [PMR]) is a breakaway state sandwiched between Moldova and Ukraine. A relic of the USSR, statues of busts and Lenin still dot it’s streets, Russian peacekeepers man the border with Moldova, and UN restrictions mean there are no chain franchises here. After cycling through Moldova in winter, I travelled to Tiraspol, the capital of the PMR, to find out what’s it like to live in “the country that doesn’t exist”. Thoughts From the Road The road is quiet. The last vehicle I saw was…
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What does it mean to be Gagauz?
“…we have a fear about our language; we are afraid of it dying. But we make an effort every day to prevent that.”
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Pros & Cons of the Soviet Union
"When we became independent, we have a joke that we became independent not just from the Soviet Union, but also from oil, natural gas... we became... super poor at the same time. A lot of factories... had been working for the needs of the Soviet Union, so there was no point running them any more. A lot of very talented people... became unemployed in a moment."
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Inequality & Youth Culture in Moldova
"Here it is very strange, people divide into groups. Some are very, very rich; they work in parliament or something. The rest are very poor and they just try to survive... this imbalance is because of corruption. If people want to get better medical assistance, for example, they have to pay, because everyone knows that if you're not going to pay a bribe then you won't be treated as well."
