Transnistria.

Or Republic of Moldova in its entirety.

Or the southern most, neighboring the Danube, region of Ukraine, but former Romanian territory.

Probably the main center of interest for this map is the city of Bender (or Tighina how’s called in Romania), a political abnormality – controlled by Transnistrian separatists but on the other side of the river, a strategic location controlling the navigation on the river. Bender acts as Russia’s bridgehead, through its separatist proxies, over the Nistru/Dniestr river.

The control of this city by the separatists, since 1992, after a brief war between Rep. of Moldova (backed by Romania) and the separatist region of Transnistria (backed by Russia), messed up the chances of Rep. of Moldova (with the exception of the separatist region) reuniting with Romania, despite having a two thirds majority Romanian population.