Amid Ukraine crisis, Moldovans ponder Russia ties Since the absorption of Crimea into Russia, Moldova's president Nicolae Timofti has said he fears the same scenario could play out in his own country, in the pro-Russian separatist region of Transnistria. But at the central market in the Moldovan capital Chisinau, economic survival for people in Europe's poorest country is a bigger concern than geopolitics. Images and soundbites.