Statue of Stephen III of Moldavia (Stefan cel Mare or Stephen the Great) 1433 – 1504. During his reign, he strengthened Moldavia and maintained its independence against Hungary, Poland, and the Ottoman Empire. Stephen achieved fame in Europe for his long resistance against the Ottomans. He was victorious in 46 of his 48 battles, and was one of the first to gain a decisive victory over the Ottomans at the Battle of Vaslui.
More info on Moldova: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/moldova
Moldova is yet another place with a proud history and a dismal present, some parts of it might be nice to visit as a tourist, but I wouldn’t want to live there.
Yeah. But that is the problem presented by most situations that have “opportunity”. The opportunity is usually present because everything is all fucked up. You can hope that things will improve, and do as much research as possible to make sure things are going in the right direction, but ultimately you need to see some degree of chaos as opportunity for improvement. I guess the real issue is direction: where is the country going? Is it getting better or worse?
Even if I were looking for that kind of country, I still wouldn’t choose Moldova, corruption there is rampant, the infrastructure is under-developed, demographic trends are horrible, the organized crime element is strong(literally hundreds of thousands of Moldavian girls and women have been victims of human trafficking), the level of economic freedom is amongst the lowest in Europe, Russia occupies a part of the country (Transnistria), Romania wants to annex Moldova (whether the openly admit it or not) and the most unstable country in Europe (Ukraine) is right next door, etc., so no, I don’t think the country is heading in the right direction (or at least not at any acceptable pace).