Dennis Deletant is giving a lecture on Transnistria and its upcoming presidential elections on December 11, 2016. The situation in Transnistria must be considered against the background of the increased tension in East Central Europe between Russia and its neighbors Moldova and Ukraine and the implications for relations between Moscow, on the one hand, and Washington and Brussels on the other. The lecture will consider to what degree the financial interests of the economic and political elite in Transnistria converge with the geo-strategic interest of Russia and how far the pursuit of these interests will affect Moldova’s aim to restore its territorial integrity.

Professor Dennis Deletant is currently Visiting Ion Ratiu Professor of Romanian Studies at Georgetown University and Emeritus Professor of Romanian Studies at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College, London. He is the author of several monographs and volumes of studies on the recent history of Romania, among them Ceauşescu and the Securitate: Coercion and Dissent in Romania, 1965-89 (London; New York, 1996), Communist Terror in Romania: Gheorghiu-Dej and the Police State, 1948-1965, (London; New York, 1999), Ion Antonescu. Hitler’s Forgotten Ally (London: New York, 2006), and British Clandestine Operations in Romania during the Second World War. In October of this year he was awarded the Order of the Star of Romania, the country’s highest civilian honor, by President Klaus Iohannis, for his contribution to Romanian studies.