The Republic of Moldova is located in a zone with a temperate continental climate approximately half way between the Equator and North Pole. The four seasons of the year are clearly defined, winter being warm, and summer long, with a lot of sunny days.
The general movement of the atmospheric air mass is mostly from the Northwest Atlantic or Southwest.
Landlocked and bounded by Romania and Ukraine, with the ethnic divisions to prove it, Moldova has come a long way in a short time and is arguably more advanced than EU-friendly Romania in many respects.
Moldova is divided into 32 districts (Romanian: "raioane", raions), 3 municipalities (Chişinău, Bălţi, and Bender), one "autonomous territorial unit" (Gagauzia), and the territorial unit of Transnistria, the final status of which is yet unclear.