Solving a conflict in the Transnistrian pace

Town hall and main square in Kamenka, northern Transnistria © Jana Karasová

A tachometer constantly stays on 100 km per hour. The newly renovated and half-empty road doesn’t get Nikita to slow down. Not even in the villages along the way. It seems like he is the only one in a hurry here. Buildings of local soviets – councils, houses of culture, memorials of Red Army and Lenin’s statues shimmer behind car’s windows. Nikita’s friend Tolik is used to a fast ride. His visitors, who sit on the back seats, only start breathing again when the car stops in front of the restaurant Staraja Melnica in the remote village Stroiesti. A statue that could be called „Lenin and representatives of proletariat“ stands in front of the restaurant entrance. Tolik and his companions get out of the car and head for a small tower on the top of a hill. The beautiful view of Dniester Valley sets out underneath. The river outlines the western border of this de facto country – the Transnistrian Moldovan Republic (PMR). It flows slowly, having no reason to hurry up. Time has a different pace in this corner of Europe.

It isn’t clear what this 4,000 km2 large strip of land really is. While local politicians and majority of half million population consider PMR to be a sovereign state, Moldova insists that the Transnistrian region is part of its territory. Even though, it has almost no control over it. Negotiations about the Transnistrian status are already lasting a quarter century. At the beginning of June, political representatives of both sides met together with a special representative of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). The goal of the renewed talks is durable settlement of the conflict. However, Transnistria constantly refuses any form of integration with Moldova that signed the Association Agreement with EU in 2014.

Bitter Moldovan aftertaste

Created by Vojtěch Cícha

More than 40 years of common history in one of Soviet Union republic connects both sides of Dniestr River. Their way parted on the dawn of USSR at the beginning of 1990s. Moldova’s emancipation process from the Soviet centre was accompanied with the Romanian national revival and possibility of reunification with Romania.

Kamil Całus, a research fellow in the Centre for Eastern Studies in Warsaw, explains that these steps „were met by firm opposition from representatives of the Russian-speaking minorities living in Moldova, who feared marginalisation.“ The Transnistria region was one of the centres of resistance and it renounced its allegiance to Moldovan government by proclaiming an independent republic on 2nd September 1990. Since that, Moldovan government had almost no control over Transnistria. And when it tried to restore it in 1992, the tension in between both regions sparkled a five months war.

War memories and fear of unification with Romania are still present among Transnistrian citizens, who rejected an accession to Moldova in the 2006 referendum. In past years, condemnation towards the EU influence is another reason for the distrust. It is strengthened by the fact that neither the political nor the economic situation is much better in Moldova than in Transnistria. It seems that there is no one else who Transnistrians would be suspicious against more than they are against Moldovans.

East to Eden

Tolik Perevoznyuk, a young man born and living in Transnistria, his girlfriend Tanya and about twenty other people crowd on a corridor of an administrative department in Rybnitsa, the third largest Transnistrian town. A few people sit on benches along walls and crease crumpled passports. An inscription „USSR“ can be recognized on some, the hammer and sickle on others. Newcomers line at stairs. In spite of that, it is hard to recognize the order in which people have come and an argument regularly interrupts silence. Tolik and Tanya need only two stamps and they don’t want to wait. At the first chance, they crush to the opened doors. They leave the office in two minutes and expectants only have few sentences for them - as nice as the grey rainy weather that rules Rybnitsa at the end of June 2015. A next person enters the office and one can see a small Russian flag on the table through open doors.

Tolik explains that the Transnistrian government doesn’t have to talk about the PMR’s international politics orientation because it is crystal clear. 98 per cent of voters confirmed "the course of the independence of the Moldovan Republic of Transnistria and the subsequent voluntary accession of Transnistria to Russia" in the 2006 referendum. Pro-Russian orientation affirmed also Vadim Krasnoselsky, Chairman of the Supreme Council: "Currently, about two hundred thousand Russian citizens, who have a Russian passport, [and] not even mentioning those who have another citizenship, live in the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic, but who consider themselves as Russians and close to Russia". However, neither Russia nor any other UN member state recognized the PMR’s sovereignty.

"I think the biggest problem is that people are waiting when Russia will solve their problems. I think that with right reforms we can make a good country," supposes Tolik and points out that the Transnistrian region has a fruitful soil, good climate and convenient geographical position not far from sea. No chance, the "spiritual-historical proximity" in between the Transnistrian region and Russia, as Krasnoselsky named it, remains strong and the Transnistrian regime aims to harmonize PMR’s legislation with Russian.

The Common Russian mind

Tolik lives in a roomy but a bit fusty Soviet apartment in the Rybnitsa’s neighbourhood close to Dniestr River. It is ten o’clock in the evening and Tanya starts cooking dinner. They have got used to staying up at night and waking up late in the morning. Both work on the internet for US companies during the US office hours. Among Transnistrian citizens, they are an exception. They host foreign visitors, follow foreign news outlets and speak English.

For the majority of citizens, Russian is the main and often the only language they use. It is also the main language of education. Another official Transnistrian languages are Ukrainian and Moldovan written in Moldovan Cyrillic alphabet. It was created by Soviets to distinguish Moldovan from the „bourgeois“ Latin-based Romanian. According to OSCE report, there are few schools that teach in the Latin-based Moldovan in Transnistria. In 1994, PMR’s government stopped to fund them and ten years later, it tried to close them. This sparked protests by students, parents as well as by international spectators. Now, they operate as non-state educational institutions and are funded by the Moldovan government. Even though, a number of students in these schools decrease significantly from 5,500 in 1998 to 2,000 in 2012. „Many Moldovans now would give their children in a Russian school, because they see it more perspective,“ expounds the trend Andrei Luca who works for OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights in Warsaw. He studied in Transnistria until 9th grade. „If you finish a Russian school, you have a wider choice at university in Tiraspol. And then there is some sort of unofficial recognition of Transnistrian diplomas in Russia.“

Also both „national“ TV channels broadcast in Russian. While Tolik, Tanya and their friends are having dinner, a reporter in a TV introduces new Transnistrian stamps. They feature traditional Transnistran dogs. Tolik stands up and turns the TV off. „It’s enough to watch [the news] once a week to be informed here,“ he explains. „It’s a really small place and if something big is happening you know it without TV.“ They will rather watch Game of Thrones later.

Transnistrian Game of Throne

A game of a throne will take place in Transnistria this winter. In December, the de facto country is going to hold a presidential election. The result of the last one five years ago was a huge surprise there. Forty-three years old Yevgeny Shevchuk prevailed „the father of the country“ Igor Smirnov who had been leading PMR for twenty years since its early existence. Official candidatures have been announced yet. However, it is not likely that Shevchuk would win again. The last year parliamentary election showed that his position is weak. His political opponent – the party Obnovleniye (Renewal) won 33 of 43 seats and its representative is a hot candidate for the president position. Paradoxically, Shevchuk was a party leader of Obnovlenije until 2009 when he was removed from the position.

As Freedom House NGO notes, „Obnovleniye […] is associated with Transnistria’s monopolistic business conglomerate, Sheriff Enterprises.“ In democratic countries, that would be unacceptable and constantly criticized by a civil society. But in Transnistria „there is population, but no society,“ says Tolik. The few civil society organization and activists are persecuted by the regime and under KGB surveillance. “Enormous corruption commands the region. And no one can talk about it much. Only during the election campaign, when one party attacks the other,” claims Nadiia Ivanova from the NGO People in Need.

Sheriff in the nowhere country

Train tracks in Rybnica, northern Transnistria © Jana Karasová

The Sheriff‘s motto "All the time with you!" is more than symptomatic. You can find Sheriff’s star almost everywhere in Transnistria. It is the only internet provider, owns a chain of supermarkets, gas stations, two bakeries and even a football team FC Sheriff Tiraspol. „It owns everything you need for a life in Transnistria – gas, food, internet, mobile network and alcohol,“ summarize Tolik Sheriff’s position. Kamil Całus also mentions that Sheriff is the largest employer in Transnistria, with 12,000 employees.

The enterprise is however registered under Moldavian authorities, as well as other Transnistrian companies that want to trade outside PMR. They have the same conditions as Moldovan businesses including an option to export to and import from the EU market. The access is now even more beneficial since the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area in between Moldova and EU has been implemented. Still, Moldova has almost no control over goods inside PMR and the region is considered to be a European smuggling heaven. But the scope of smuggling is impossible to estimate. „It is a gap on a Europe map. You are taking goods to nowhere and taking out of nowhere,“ hits the Transnistrian black market principle Tolik.

The official production of Transnistrian factories that bears a sign “Made in Moldova” is almost exclusively export-oriented. The official PMR’s news agency reported in January that 32% of Transnistrian export goes to the EU and 49% to Moldova. EU countries are also the third largest trade partners for PMR, after the Eurasian Customs Union and Moldova. The figures suggest that access to the Western market is more than important for Transnistria. It walks on the edge when it comes to the issue of its potential independence or reunion with Russia that could lead to the unpleasant isolation and make Transnistrian ill economy even worse.

Passports‘ wide offer

Two old Soviet military van with a sign „skoraya medicinskaya pomocz“ – “first aid” stand in front of a hospital building in Camenca, a town in northern Transnistria. Opposite to them, two men in their 60s‘ sit on a bench. A woman in a white coat carrying a small but heavy suitcase goes out of the building. One man stands up and walks towards the cars. While he starts the car, the woman opens the back doors, sits down on the only seats there and puts the suitcase under a berth covered by green sheeting, a canvas stretcher hangs above the berth. Otherwise, the ambulance is empty.

Poor quality of health care in the region seems to be a good metaphor for the economical situation in the Transnistrian region as well as in Moldova itself. International Migration Organization notes: “[…] the main push factor for Moldovan migrants remains to be economic reasons, especially the lack of employment opportunities and the small salaries offered by the local labour market.” The number of Transnitrians’ economically active citizens sharply decreased from 241,100 in 1995 to 142,400 in 2014. In the same year, Transnistrians working abroad sent back home $270 million; around 80 per cent of the amount came from Russia.

Under certain conditions a Transnistrian citizens can choose from 4 passport options beside their unrecognized PMR’s passport. A first option is a Moldovan passport, an advantage – visa-free access to the EU. Moldova considers Transnistrian its citizens, so logically it is in favour to give them a Moldovan passport. A second option is a Russian passport. Generally, it is enough to prove that a person is stateless and speaks Russian. A third option for those born to parents with Ukrainian roots is a Ukrainian passport. And a fourth option is a Romanian, which means also an EU passport. Officially, it is only for those whose grandparents were born in Romanian Kingdom. Thanks to the unresolved status of Transnistria, it doesn’t seem to be really hard especially for younger generation to move abroad and leave their region as well as the conflict settlement to Soviet time nostalgic elders.

Transnistrian time

Emergency department in Kamenka, northern Transnistria © Jana Karasová

Also Tolik plans to leave Transnistria, maybe this autumn. Where? Neither Russia nor Ukraine is appealing to him. He thinks about China or Great Britain. He would like to see London. Maybe, he might work there, or study. However, the study option is out of reach because diplomas from the Transnistrian university is not recognized abroad.

The OSCE conference on confidence building in the Transnistrian settlement process that took a place in Germany in the middle July could help to solve this problem. Apostilisation of diplomas issued in PMR is one of the issues that all sides have committed to resolve. Another topic is the cooperation in the area of natural resources protection in the Dniester River basin. Small topics that probably won’t move the settlement process much closer towards a final and durable solution.

Dniester doesn’t seems to be distracted by it anyhow and it flows in its slowly pace as last 25 years. Meanwhile, the ambulance car leaves the hospital area. It passes a two meters high Lenin’s bust and slowly continues to the town… It is like there is no reason to hurry up in Transnistria, not even with the settlement process. At least until the status of a gap on a map of Europe brings benefits to Transnistrians and doesn’t force them to change their Russian oriented minds.