Moldova does not often make the headlines or draw the international spotlight, but its relative obscurity belies its strategic importance . The country, wedged between Romania and Ukraine in the flatlands of Eastern Europe, has felt the competing influence of larger powers for centuries. After a long period of suzerainty under the Ottoman Empire's watchful gaze, the territory that Moldova now comprises repeatedly changed hands between its Romanian and Russian neighbors over the 19th and 20th centuries. When Moldova at last gained its independence in 1991, the fledgling nation that emerged from the Soviet Union's shadow boasted a patchwork of cultural and political ties that, more often than not, conflicted with one another. Nowhere is this better reflected than in Moldova's political system, which historically has been split between east and west.