By Stijn Mitzer and Joost Oliemans

With SyrianAir's sole A340 aircraft marking more than two years of successful operations to destinations in North Africa, the Middle East and Russia, photos posted on SyrianAir's website reveal interesting details on the operations of an airline that had nearly succumbed to years of sanctions. After years of scaling back its operations due to a slow degradation process that would see SyrianAir retiring ever more aircraft as spare parts became increasingly difficult to acquire, SyrianAir is now expanding its operations amidst an increasingly stable security situation in all of Syria's major population centres.

By Stijn Mitzer and Joost Oliemans

Transnistria, officially known as the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic (PMR), is a breakaway state in Eastern Europe that has remained in the shadows ever since its self-proclaimed independence as a Soviet republic in 1990 and subsequent violent breakaway from Moldova in 1992. Despite having ended armed conflict that same year, the situation in Transnistria remains extremely complicated, with the the breakaway state wishing to join Russia (which maintains a local peacekeeping mission) while continuing to remain heavily reliant on Moldova for exporting the limited produce its economy outputs. Nevertheless, Transnistria functions as a de-facto state with its own military and even air arm.