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The war in Transnistria

The conflict between Moldova and Russian-backed separatists; bread riots in Egypt; the eruption of the Eyjafjallaj枚kull volcano in Iceland.

With speculation mounting that President Putin might mount an attack on Moldova, Max Pearson hears a first-hand account of the war in the 1990s between the Moldovans and Russian-backed separatists in the disputed region of Transnistria. There's also a chilling story from the Cold War about how a Soviet air defence official prevented a potential catastrophe by realising that a computer warning about a US nuclear attack was a false alarm.

In the second-half of the History Hour, an Egyptian poet remembers how 48 hours of unrest in 1977 forced the government to scrap a huge increase in the cost of bread, and an Icelandic geophysicist recalls how the 2010 eruption of the Eyjafjallaj枚kull volcano caused disruption all over Europe.

PHOTO: Russian-speaking Transnistrian fighters during the war (Getty Images)

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50 minutes

Last on

Mon 16 May 2022 23:06GMT

Broadcasts

  • Sat 14 May 2022 13:06GMT
  • Sun 15 May 2022 19:06GMT
  • Mon 16 May 2022 23:06GMT

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