IN A softly-lit room, teenagers rise and sing a hymn. Then the leader starts a reading of Russian president Dmitry Medvedev's state of the nation address.
But this is not Russia. It's Trans-Dniester, a tiny, poor separatist province in Moldova where the dream of joining Mother Russia is now stronger than ever.
After the Russian army went into Georgia in August and the Kremlin recognised two Georgian
rebel regions, many in Trans-Dniester are hoping they will be next in line – even though Russia is 430 miles away.
"If only we had one centimetre," of border, says Alyona Arshinova, 23, an activist with the Kremlin-funded youth group Proryv, or Breakthrough. "For me, Russia is everything."
Dmitry Soin, the group leader, is no less fervent, praising Russia's commitment to democracy at a time when the West is criticising it for rolling back democratic reforms. "The winds that are blowing in Russia must start blowing in Trans-Dniester," he tells the meeting.
This sliver of land twice the size of Luxembourg is home to 550,000 people – Russians, Ukrainians and Moldovans. It has proclaimed itself an independent republic, but is not recognised as such by anyone else, including Russia.
The mainly Russian-speaking region used to be part of Soviet Ukraine, but became part of Moldova, a region annexed from Romania shortly before the Second World War. Fearful that Moldova would reunite with Romania after the Soviet collapse and clamp down on the use of the Russian language, Trans- Dniester broke away in 1992 in a war that killed 1,500 people.
As with the Georgian regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, the Kremlin supports Trans-Dniester with cheap gas, monthly £7 stipends to pensioners, 400 peacekeepers and perhaps the most prized gift of all – its maroon passports. Every fifth resident holds a Russian passport.
A trip to Tiraspol, the capital, is a step back in time to the Soviet era. Rusty trolley buses carrying tired passengers break the quiet of an otherwise silent central square. Elderly womenline up to fill plastic bottles with milk on a street corner.
Giant portraits of the region's most industrious workers – as well as the regional president and the mayor of Moscow – adorn the streets. Foreign journalists are shadowed by security services.
Black-robed Orthodox priests bless a Soviet-style military parade marking the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, even though it launched 70 years of vicious, state-sponsored atheism.
Since the war with Georgia sent relations with the West to a Cold War low, Russia has cooled to Trans-Dniester. Some experts say Russia backs Trans-Dniester only to torpedo Moldova's prospective bid to join Nato.
If Moldova pledges not to join the western military alliance, Russia might agree to pressure Trans-Dniester to reach an accommodation with Moldova. But many here, such as Galina Antyufeyeva, an MP, are convinced Trans- Dniester's future lies with its eastern neighbour. "Who today can exist without Russia?" she asks.
