Politicians in Moldova’s Kremlin-backed breakaway region of Transnistria have appealed to Russian President Vladimir Putin to “protect” it against “pressure” from Chișinău.

In 2023, the world around de facto states and secessionist entities became more and more unstable. As the power structures that have sustained many of these entities “unfreeze,” windows of opportunity opened for changing the status quo on the ground - changes mostly pursued through force.

A bipartisan House delegation said the United States would stand by the island in the face of pressure from China, drawing connections between Taiwan’s cause and Ukraine’s.

What is stopping China from invading Taiwan? In the past, it was overdetermined that Beijing would not use force to compel reunification. Today, however, the military balance of power has shifted decisively. It is now something of a conventional wisdom that a Chinese invasion has become more likely than not.

A newly-published book explores the circumstances around the violence that accompanied Transnistria’s de facto secession from Moldova. Three decades later, finding new answers to old conundrums is key to preventing ongoing tensions from escalating.

As one of thousands of Turkish Cypriots, Sude Dogan is denied Cypriot citizenship because she is a child of a mixed marriage between a Cypriot and a Turkish parent. Tirelessly campaigning for citizenship rights of children in de facto states, she is under a ferocious attack by Turkish nationalists.

Some of the people who were forced to leave Ukraine after the Russian invasion have fled to Transnistria. Why are Ukrainians seeking sanctuary in a de facto state that receives financial and military support from Russia, and what is their status there?

It’s a tough sell. Tens of thousands of ethnic Serbs who live and work in Kosovo but stubbornly reject the country’s official currency have a week to ditch the dinar in their daily lives.

A large share of Transnistria’s economy, including most of its budget, depends on a structural subsidy it receives from Russia in the form of free gas. As Ukraine has promised to stop all Russian pipelines going through its territory by the end of 2024, how will Transnistria cope?

China uses fabricated polls and outlandish claims on social media to bolster its camp in Taiwan’s election.

In the Sixties the British government expelled them from their island. Exiled to the UK, they’ve never given up hope of returning to their island. ‘As more and more of our elders are dying, it is important to preserve our culture.’

For years to come, its violent dissolution will loom large in the Armenian consciousness and reverberate across other majority-minority conflicts around the globe.

Chief justice says government did not overreach its powers when it revoked autonomy of Jammu and Kashmir in 2019.

Chinese military aircraft including 12 fighter jets also detected in Taiwan’s air defence zone in past 24 hours.

Venezuelans who turned out to vote in a referendum on the status of a disputed oil-rich territory long controlled by Guyana have overwhelmingly backed Venezuela’s territorial claim.

While the conflict over the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh concluded with an Azerbaijani victory, resentments simmer on both sides, creating fertile ground for new violence.

Reber Dosky, who makes documentaries about Kurdistan and was our guest at De Facto Live #6, has been jailed for three days in Turkey. Dosky was there for a new project and got arrested because of suspected ‘terrorist activities’. (article in Dutch)