The province of Transdniester is one of the most screwed up places in Europe. Arms, drugs, and sex trafficking run rampant, and are even used to fund the government. Elections are for show. And the leaders pay their respects not to the people, but to Russia, whose military is propping up the government. It broke away from Moldova over a decade ago and established an authoritarian separatist government that, without Russia, would be completely unfeasible.

Negotiations have been under way for years, especially in recent months, trying to bring the province back into Moldova while retaining some of its own autonomy. But peace negotiations have stalled once again over simple matters. Of course, the Transdniestrian leadership has no reason to want to go back to Moldova. They have pretty sweet deal not having to be accountable to anyone.

This is where Ukraine comes in, which is imposing new customs rules on its border with Transdniester that will require Moldovan customs officials to check all cargo to make sure all those arms, drugs, and little girls aren’t making it across. Officially, this is due to domestic and international pressure to clean everything up. but unofficially, since Transdniester is not a recognized state and will not allow cargo to be searched by Moldovan authorities, it effectively amounts to a bans of all Transdniestrian goods leaving the province through Ukraine.

Since Transdniester is propped up by Russia, and the latter is the former’s main trading partner, both are a bit pissed. The United States, unsurprisingly, is happy. This is because of the immense pressure put on the separatist government, no doubt. It will experience a large drop in revenues, and ordinary people affected by this will know that the fat cats in their own government are to blame. And hopefully they’ll kick them out. But there is still the issue of the Russian military, and they don’t look to be moving anytime soon.