Moldova is the name of one of the states that emerged on the territory of Europe after the collapse of the USSR. What is this newly independent country like today?
The official name of the country, which is familiar to Russian citizens as Moldova or Moldavia, is the Republica Moldova. It was assigned to it after the country seceded from the USSR on August 27, 1991, in which it stayed under the name of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Moldova.
Territory of Moldova
Geographically, the Republic of Moldova is located in South-Eastern Europe: this country has common borders with Ukraine and Romania. Its total area is slightly more than 33 thousand square kilometers: thus, Moldova is a relatively small state, which occupies the 135th place in the world in terms of the area of its territory. Large rivers flow here - Dniester, Danube, Prut, Reut and others, which belong to the Black Sea basin.
Economics and politics
Today Moldova is a parliamentary republic, headed by the president, whose role since 2012 has been played by Nicolae Timofti. The monetary unit used in the country for making payments is the Moldovan leu, which exchange rate is about 14 lei per one US dollar. The country's economy is largely based on agriculture, which is due, on the one hand, to the favorable climate, and on the other hand, to the lack of significant reserves of minerals. Most of the agricultural products destined for export go to the countries of the European Union.
Population of Moldova
The total population of the country is about 3.5 million people. According to this indicator, the country ranks 118th in the world. The largest city and capital of the Republic of Moldova is Chisinau, which is home to over 700 thousand people, that is, about 20% of the population. About 3/4 of the total population of the country is made up of representatives of indigenous peoples - Moldovans. In addition, ethnic groups of significant numbers include Ukrainians, Russians, Romanians and Bulgarians. More than 90% of the population are adherents of the Orthodox religion.
The recognized means of communication on the territory of the republic, that is, its state language, was the Moldovan language: this provision is contained in the country's Constitution, adopted in 1994. However, on December 5, 2013, the Constitutional Court of the Republic decided to recognize the Romanian language as such. However, according to experts in the field of linguistics, in terms of vocabulary, syntax and other parameters, these languages in their current state are almost identical. In particular, both of them use the Latin alphabet to write words.
