Today the self-proclaimed republic of Moldova, a former province of Romania, is at the center of Russia´s geopolitical strategies toward the Balkans. Nicholas Dima provides a concise historical background of Moldova from its years as a territory of the Soviet empire to the post-Soviet era when Russia refused to relinquish its grasp on the disputed region. The core of the book details the political upheaval of the 1980s, the independence of Moldova, and Russia´s subsequent maneuvering of the region back under Moscow´s control. Dima shows how Moscow is now attempting to regain its former geopolitical power by means of assistance to the self-proclaimed Transdnestr region of Moldova -the last Marxist stronghold in the former Soviet space -through which it could potentially gain a new foothold on the Balkans and surprise Europe and the world once again.