Back in the USSR

Transnistria is a nowhereland hugging a narrow valley near the Black Sea. No bigger than Cornwall or Rhode Island, the unrecognised country is a Soviet museum long occupied by Russian ‘peace-keepers’. Its oligarchs in Adidas track suits hunt wild boar with AK-47s. Its young people train for revolution at the Che Guevara High School of Political Leadership. Its secret factories have supplied arms to African insurgents and electrical generators for Iran’s nuclear power programme. Yet its isolation