Vladimir Putin has basked in what he said was a record turnout by Russians for his re-election this weekend. But in a sliver of land in eastern Moldova, Russian passport holders showed up in far fewer numbers than in 2018. Transnistria is sometimes dubbed the “original frozen conflict”, as it was the first former Soviet region where Moscow stationed soldiers after a brief Russia-backed secessionist war from Moldova in 1992. It has a population of 350,000, and while 97 per cent hold Moldovan passports, more than half are also Russian nationals who routinely cast their votes for Putin.
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