Sandwiched between Romania and Ukraine, Moldova emerged as an independent republic following the collapse of the USSR in 1991.
The bulk of it, between the rivers Dniester and Prut, is made up of an area formerly known as Bessarabia. This territory was annexed by the USSR in 1940 following the carve-up of Romania in the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact between Hitler's Germany and Stalin's USSR.
Two-thirds of Moldovans are of Romanian descent, the languages are virtually identical and the two countries share a common cultural heritage.
The industrialised territory to the east of the Dniester, generally known as Trans-Dniester or the Dniester region, was formally an autonomous area within Ukraine before 1940 when the Soviet Union combined it with Bessarabia to form the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic.
This area is mainly inhabited by Russian and Ukrainian speakers. As people there became increasingly alarmed at the prospect of closer ties with Romania in the tumultuous twilight years of the Soviet Union, Trans-Dniester unilaterally declared independence from Moldova in 1990.
There was fierce fighting there as it tried to assert this independence following the collapse of the USSR and the declaration of Moldovan sovereignty. Hundreds died. The violence ended with the introduction of Russian peacekeepers. Trans-Dniester's independence has never been recognised and the region has existed in a state of lawless and corrupt limbo ever since.
The region reasserted its demand for independence and also expressed support for a plan ultimately to join Russia in a September 2006 referendum which was unrecognised by Chisinau and the international community.
It still houses a stockpile of old Soviet military equipment and a contingent of troops of the Russian 14th army. Withdrawal began under international agreements in 2001 but was halted when the Trans-Dniester authorities blocked the dispatch of weapons. Subsequent agreements to resume did not reach fruition as relations between Moscow and Chisinau cooled.
The Moldovan parliament granted autonomous status to the Turkic-language speaking Gagauz region in the southwest of the republic in late 1994. It has powers over its own political, economic and cultural affairs.
Moldova is one of the very poorest countries in Europe and has a large foreign debt and high unemployment. Its once-flourishing wine trade has been in decline and it is heavily dependent on Russia for energy supplies.
The Russian gas supplier Gazprom cut the gas supply off at the beginning of 2006 when Moldova refused to pay twice the previous price. A temporary compromise arrangement was reached soon afterwards and the two sides agreed a new price in July 2006 with a further rise in 2007.
Gas supplies were cut off again for several weeks in January 2009, this time as a result of a dispute over prices between supplier Russia and transit country Ukraine.
President: Vladimir Voronin (outgoing)
Vladimir Voronin took office after his Communist Party swept back to power in parliamentary elections early in 2001, ending a decade of largely ineffectual post-Soviet reformist government.
The Communist Party topped the poll in fresh elections in March 2005 and the new parliament - which elects the president - gave Mr Voronin its backing for another term.
The party won elections again in April 2009, but, barred from serving a third term, Mr Voronin has been elected speaker of parliament instead.
The party's choice to succeed him was the prime minister and Voronin ally, Zinaida Greceanii, but in May opposition MPs succeeded in twice denying the Communists the three fifths majority in parliament needed to elect her, raising the prospect of another election.
The April 2009 election results had prompted thousands of opposition supporters to take to the streets following allegations that the vote was rigged. President Voronin accused neighbouring Romania of stirring up the riots, an accusation rejected by Bucharest as an act of "provocation".
Mr Voronin first came to power promising to forge closer ties with Russia. Relations cooled sharply in 2003 after he pulled out of a proposed deal on Trans-Dniester settlement following protests by those who said it gave too much influence to Moscow.
He said that from then on he would seek more substantial support from the West in resolving the conflict, and has since welcomed Ukrainian settlement proposals.
He has repeatedly demanded that Russian forces withdraw from Trans-Dniester and has called for them to be replaced by internationally supervised peacekeepers.
When he first became president, he accused his predecessors of having reduced Moldova to dire poverty. Under his leadership, the country has remained one of the very poorest in Europe.
A former bakery director, Mr Voronin was born in 1941. He rose through the ranks of the Communist Party and was briefly Soviet-era interior minister at the end of the 1980s.
Television is the most-popular medium. The public broadcaster's Moldova One channel is available nationwide. Observers say it presents a highly-favourable image of the ruling party. Russia's Channel One and Romania's Antena 1 networks are widely available.
By 2009 there were 37 terrestrial TV channels, 47 radio stations and 168 cable operators, according to the media regulator.
The press divides along pro-government or opposition-leaning lines. Political parties publish their own titles. Moldovan editions of Russian papers are among the best-selling publications. The reach and impact of the print media are low.
While the constitution guarantees press freedom, the penal code and press laws prohibit defamation and insulting the state. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said the media were "targeted" by demonstrators and "treated as an enemy" by security forces amid post-election protests in April 2009.
Around 700,000 Moldovans were online by March 2008 (Internetworldstats). Anti-communist youth protests in April 2009 were organized with the help of social media platforms and text messaging.
The authorities in the breakaway Trans-Dniester region operate their own TV and radio outlets.
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