How, where and with what justification could Russia launch an attack? A feature published in Scena9 In 2021, Russian president Vladimir Putin published a rambling essay on the Kremlin’s website called ‘On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians’. As a work of historical analysis it is questionable, but as a historical document, it is […]
Tag Archives: Moldova
A controversial supplier of electricty from the frozen conflict zone of Transnistria to Moldova has an ownership structure linked to companies involved in a “billion dollar theft” from Moldova’s banking system in 2014 A preliminary investigative report into Moldova’s energy troubles published in The Black Sea and across dozens of the largest news sites in Moldova […]
Moldova’s political class is discredited, fragmented and unpopular at home and abroad – but is the opposition too divided to challenge the failed leadership of Europe’s poorest country? A feature – published here in The Black Sea CAMP NUMBER ONE I call the phone number of Ilian Casu, the deputy chairman of Partidul Nostru […]
Stepping through the minefield of history to probe the prospect of unity between two countries at the choke point between the EU and Russia. A feature published in The Black Sea, EU Observer and Moldova.Org European empires have spent centuries carving up the territory of today’s Moldova, bartering pieces back and forth, stitching them together, attaching a […]
2. Moldova: Part of a series of three stories revealing the complexities of living with HIV in eastern Europe. Published in The Black Sea “You don’t meet many couples where one is injecting drugs and the other is clean,” says Gary from Balti, Moldova Visual by Andrei Cotrut “My outer appearance has changed. If I brought […]
Meeting the mothers with HIV who refuse doctors’ recommendations to abort their babies in Ukraine and Moldova. A feature published in The Black Sea and EU Observer I meet Svetlana in a cafe in central Kyiv. She is 38 years old and a month away from giving birth to her first child. “Finding I was pregnant […]
Fornication has overtaken drug use as the main route of transmission for new cases of HIV in Moldova – The country needs a deep and meaningful conversation about sex – a feature published on The Black Sea and Moldova.org After losing his job as a barman in Moldova’s capital of Chisinau, 26 year-old Ivan found […]
At the entrance to the Republic of Moldova’s second-largest city Balti, huge Soviet mosaics celebrate a paradise for the proletariat and peasants. A travel blog published on The Black Sea and Moldova.org. Giant mosaics decorate residential blocks constructed in the Soviet era in the industrial city of Balti in north Moldova. These images combine traditional folklore with Socialist realism to promote hope in an industrial […]
Bugs! Depravity! Bodily fluids! Experiencing romance and nightmare on the overnight train linking Romania and Moldova – a travel blog published in The Black Sea The means of transport to Moldova from the west are limited. There are expensive flights and overcrowded buses, but for those looking for a retro-chic experience of real travel, there […]
Drug users in Moldova are losing their jaws to fatal intoxicant Vint, an injectable cocktail extracted from cold-and-flu relief tablets. An investigation published on new in-depth reporting website The Black Sea – http://www.theblacksea.eu/index.php?idT=88&idC=88&idRec=1123&recType=story “You have to keep moving,” says 28 year-old Dmitri Ivko, an engineering graduate in Chisinau, Moldova. “You have a lot of […]
Michael Bird Writer & Journalist 