Separatist authorities in Moldova's breakaway region of Transdniester were holding a vote to pick a de facto president on December 12 in an election mostly ignored by Chisinau and likely to be poorly attended by would-be voters.
The breakaway authorities in the region of around 500,000 people's main city, Tiraspol, are currently led by Vadim Krasnoselsky, who is seeking to defeat a little-known challenger, Sergei Pynzar.
An impoverished country sandwiched between EU member Romania and Ukraine, Moldova lost effective control over Transdniester after breakaway leaders declared independence in 1990.
That declaration has not been recognized by a single UN member state.
But it sparked war two years later between the Moldovan Army and the Transdniestrian rebels backed by Russia over the narrow strip of land between the Dniester River and the Ukrainian border.
Russia still has around 1,400 of its troops stationed in Transdniester, ostensibly to protect Soviet-era arms depots.
Krasnoselsky defeated Yevgeny Shevchuk in the last election for the Tiraspol authorities' self-styled presidency, in December 2016.
Only around one-quarter of Trandniester's eligible voters went to the polls for legislative elections a year ago that the separatist authorities nevertheless declared valid, the lowest turnout in the area's history.
Last year, Moldova's then-president, Igor Dodon, hosted Krasnoselsky in Chisinau and addressed him as "president" for the first time in Moldova's history, in a move squarely aimed at attracting Transdniestrian votes.
Some observers have accused Moscow recently of using Russian gas supplies to punish Moldovans for subsequently electing pro-Western President Maia Sandu over the Russia-backed Dodon.
Sandu on September 22 repeated her call for the departure of Russian troops from Transdniester.
Moldovan lawmakers last month approved budget amendments to allow the national energy company to pay energy debts to Russia's Gazprom to avert a new energy crisis.
