Trans-border Trans-Dniester

BBC News ^ | May 10, 2005 | Simon Reeve

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There are almost 200 official countries in the world but there are dozens more unrecognised nations determined to be independent. They have rulers, parliaments and armies, but they rarely feature on maps and receive few foreign visitors.

The leaders of Trans-Dniester gather to watch Independence Day celebrations Trans-Dniester broke away from Moldovan control in 1990

The detention cells in the KGB secret police headquarters in Trans-Dniester - which lies between Moldova and Ukraine - are not the ideal place to spend a Saturday night.

Perhaps I have seen too many Cold War thrillers, but after a BBC film crew and I were detained by the KGB in Trans-Dniester for spying, I had visions of being held for years in a dark cell and having to write escape plans on toilet paper.

Fortunately, the KGB offered us salads, gave us their cap-badges as souvenirs, and eventually set us free.

It was a strange experience.

But then Trans-Dniester is a fairly strange country. Stuck in a Soviet timewarp, it is not actually a "real" country at all.

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Probably the strangest corner of Europe, and one with increasing links to worldwide arms smuggling and highest-bidder military hardware.

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