[adrenalinup]

The same strategy applied to Moldova. But we had even less luck than Latvia&Baltics as we are the "the fastest skrinking country" [1], lot of young people and those who can emigrate are going abroad, as the post-soviet era didn't left much of viable bussines and we had to start from scratch with not so much money and neither much know-how. (for soviets Moldova was labeled as an agriculture country).

And if the soviet era was not enough, Russians didn't stop there, the military aggression continued, they occupied a portion of Moldova creating an enclave called Transnistria. [2]

Our asspiration to get into Europe Union are meet with economical embargo from the same annoying neighbour. (and not only us, everyone one the Russian boarded is harassed) [3] It's hard but we are evolving, but not as fast as as we would like..

It's hard to hide, but the Russia is really a very unfortunate neighbour to have. Really happy to see Baltics doing better after so much misfortune that we share..

[1] http://thenextweb.com/shareables/2011/10/27/earth-will-soon-...

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transnistria

[3] http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/30/business/international/ukr...

[olegious]

Maybe if Moldova didn't mistreat Russians we would've never left- thereby contributing to the decline. My parents were born in Moldova, I was born in Moldova. Since we were Russian speakers we were told to "Go home." Along with many other Russians, Jews and non-Moldovans. Now a country that used to be considered one of the best places to live during the Soviet times is the poorest country in all of Europe.

Not all these issues can be blamed on Russia, look to Moldova's corrupt leadership for answers.

[rdtsc]

> Now a country that used to be considered one of the best places to live during the Soviet times is the poorest country in all of Europe.

Pretty sure Moldova's decline didn't happen because they told Russians to go home. Estonia also told Russians to "go home" and is now in the European Union and doing pretty. Belorussia didn't tell Russians to "go home" and now is a weird post Soviet dictatorial dystopia.

It seems here, if anything, Moldova didn't yell "go home" loud enough. And come to think of it, don't really remember too many of the Russians packing their bags either. Even to this day from what I hear many refuse to learn and speak Romanian. And when spoken too in Romanian respond with "please, use human language" implying the local population is inferior or subhuman.

The attitude that Moldova was so great _because_ Russians were imported in there and placed in administrative positions, replacing the native population, and without the Russians Moldova just fell apart is a bit silly. (Ok, not a bit silly, it is ridiculous). Native land owners, intellectuals, teachers, priests were deported by the tens of thousands by Stalin. Most died in Gulags. Can't blame Moldova too much for inviting Russians go back to where they came form, 70 years is good enough time to crash un-invited at someone place.

> Now a country that used to be considered one of the best places to live during the Soviet times is the poorest country in all of Europe.

Spoken from the point of view of a family that was imported by the Soviet officials, brought in to displace locals, given nice free apartments, good jobs. Yes Moldova was a pretty nice place to party. (They used to say "Go to Moldova, pay 1 ruble for a giant teapot filled with wine", stuff like that).

[olegious]

Telling a large portion of your population to "get out," especially when that population is educated and was born and grew up there is never a good idea. I and hundreds of thousands like me could've been contributing to the rebuilding of the country, instead we were told to leave- Moldova's loss is America's and Israel's gain.

The Moldovan Russians that refuse to learn Romanian today are idiots- my comment in no way supported them or anti-Moldovan policies of the Soviets.

[shitgoose]

I am sure this is a small detail on a grand scheme of things, but Moldova and Russia do not share a border. In fact they quite far from each other.

[adrenalinup]

It's even worse than that. There is Russian army that occupied a portion of Moldova called Transnitria. Time to time they are trying to escalate the situation, like trying to take control of neighbour village, or killing some local people when some of their military is getting drunk on new year eve, this very scary for us. [1] [2]

[1] http://www.rferl.org/content/moldovan_man_shot_dead_at_check...

[2]http://www.presseurop.eu/en/content/news-brief/3899861-new-t...

[shitgoose]

Which of these articles talks about Russian military getting drunk and shooting locals? [1] is about a Moldovan man getting shot while failing to stop his car at the checkpoint with no mention of alcohol or random shooting. [2] is about Transnistrians redrawing the border with Moldova.