The second smallest of the former members of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), Moldova is a landlocked country measuring 33,843 square kilometers (13,063 square miles). In 2004 the country had an estimated population of almost 4.5 million people. Moldova's neighbors include Ukraine to the north, northeast, and east and Romania to the west. The country was part of Romania prior to the USSR, which it joined after World War II (1939–1945), and ethnic Moldovans are generally recognized as descended from the same peoples as ethnic Romanians. Almost 65 percent of the country's population is ethnic Moldovan, and ethnic Russians and Ukrainians each comprise about 13 percent of the population. Many citizens still closely identify with Romanian language and culture. The people of Moldova are overwhelmingly Eastern Orthodox, which is practiced by 98 percent of the population.

Along with other former Soviet Republics, Moldova declared independence from the USSR in 1991. Immediately people in the geographic...