Moldova

It's a pity that reporting from places like Moldova tends to come from news agencies, either directly or in thinly-veiled rewrites. This week, Dmitry Medvedev has been 'mediating' the dispute between Moldova and Transdnestria, one of the saddest and most pathetic situations in Europe. Reuters cover it, but with a news-agency style of being so placid as to be totally useless:

Russia is pressing hard for a resolution because that would show it still maintains influence in settling ex-Soviet conflicts after last year's war with Georgia damaged its reputation as an honest broker.
Medvedev will meet Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin in his Barvikha residence near Moscow, a Kremlin statement said. Separatist leader Igor Smirnov will join the talks later.

More spirited, and much more informative, is the commentary from Radio Free Europe:

As for Smirnov, he is always ready to participate in whatever meetings in whatever format Moscow dictates. He is a Russian citizen who was sent to Moldova in 1987 in order to foment and lead a separatist movement to counterbalance the nationalist movement that was emerging in Chisinau. And he accomplished this task brilliantly.

I don't see any reason to believe this meeting will count for anything - but if it has to be covered, I wish we could more easily get beyond the agencies' name-soup style.