Moldova, or, in full, the Republic of Moldova (rarely, Moldavia; Romanian: Moldova, Republica Moldova) is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, located between Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east and south. The country is a parliamentary democracy with a President as its head of state and a Prime Minister as its head of government. The official state language is Moldovan,[1] identical to Romanian. 11% of the population uses Russian as the native language.[4] It is one of only two states in the world with a democratically-elected communist government, the other being Cyprus.

In the middle ages, the part of the present territory of Moldova west of the river Dniester was part of the Principality of Moldavia, and it was annexed[5][6][7] from the latter, then a vassal of the Ottoman Empire, by the Russian Empire in 1812, under the name of Bessarabia. Upon the dissolution of the Russian Empire in 1917-1918, Bessarabia joined Romania. In 1940, Bessarabia was occupied by the Soviet Union, and after changing hands in 1941 and 1944 during World War II, it was split between the Ukrainian SSR and the newly-created Moldavian SSR. With the fall of communism in Eastern Europe, the Moldavian SSR held free elections in February 1990, after which it changed its name to SSR Moldova, and then to Republic of Moldova. Moldova declared its independence from the USSR on August 27, 1991. Despite signing international obligations to withdraw[8]. Russian forces have remained on Moldovan territory; since 1993 they have been stationed in the breakaway republic of Transnistria.

Moldova is a member state of the United Nations, WTO, OSCE, GUAM, CIS, BSEC and other international organizations. Moldova has officially been a neutral country since its independence, and an early member of the NATO Partnership for Peace. Moldova currently aspires to join the European Union.[9] and is implementing its first three-year Action Plan within the framework of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) of the EU.