Moldova Scraps Soviet-Era Abbreviation For Chisinau Airport

Moldova will alter the three-letter international abbreviation for Chisinau's airport, Infrastructure Minister Andrei Spinu announced -- the pro-Western government's latest move to curb the influence of Moscow and the Russian language in the former Soviet republic. The current KIV abbreviation -- shortened for Kishinev, the capital's name in Russian -- will be replaced with the RMO acronym that stands for Republica Moldova, the country's official name in Romanian. The change will come into force on January 18. "The main aim is to remove the Russian name...and rid ourselves of the legacy of what the name Kishinev meant," Spinu said.