Reintegration
Is the Transnistrian problem on the new government’s agenda?
A recent Euronews article presented the Transnistrian conflict as not being heavily featured on the agenda of President Maia Sandu or her former party that would form the future majority government in Parliament. “When it comes to Transnistria, the new government in Chisinau and Sandu herself have refrained from commenting on the issue.” Euronews suggests that the pledge to continue talks within the 5+2 framework wouldn’t be enough. “Talks have tended to focus on security, free movement, human rights, and economic issues rather than the elephant in the room: namely, whether Transnistria and its population will re-join Moldova,” is mentioned in the article.
History tells it all
The Transnistrian conflict has been lasting for almost 30 years now and the issue is more layered than it seems. Let’s take it from the beginning: what is Transnistria? It’s the successor of the western part of the Moldovan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (RASS) – a broken territory of Soviet Ukraine, which was given autonomy back in 1924. It was foreseen as a tool of powerful political and propaganda factor in solving the “Bessarabian question”, meaning the re-annexation of Bessarabia by the Soviet Union in 1940. Thus, on August 2, 1940, the Moldovan Soviet Socialist Republic was proclaimed part of the Soviet Union, which included the western part of the Moldovan RASS and most of the territory between the Prut and the Dniester.
The left bank of the Dniester has been always vastly populated by Ukrainians and Russians, especially during the industrialisation of the area when a significant migration from other Soviet republics happened. The autonomy of the region was never a problem during the Soviet Union, until the moment the Republic of Moldova declared it’s independence. Then, the powerful tool implemented back in 1924 did it’s job for the second time. This is how the Transnistrian conflict began.
The current situation
Nowadays, Transnistria is de jure part of Moldova, but de facto it is a semi-presidential republic with its own government, parliament, military, police, postal system, currency and vehicle registration. Moscow never withdrew its troops of the Operational Group of Russian Forces in Transnistria (OGRF) that still conduct over 100 military exercises each year in Transnistria and in the Security Zone. About 1000 of Russian soldiers supervise the Cobasna arms depot, which is thought to house about 20 000 tons of guns and ammunition. The Russian troops, under the excuse of the peacekeeping mission, established multiple stations and checkpoints, being always militarily present in the area.
In 2017, the Constitutional Court ruled that Moldova remained “under military occupation”, concluding that the Russian Federation hadn’t withdrawn its occupation troops but, on the contrary, had strengthened its military presence in the Transnistrian region. Since she took office, President Maia Sandu has also insisted on the withdrawal of Russian troops and removal of Russian weapons from Moldovan territory, calling for the replacement of the existing military peacekeeping mission with a civilian observer mission under the OSCE supervision.
Transnistrian residents who hold the Moldovan citizenship can vote during every Moldovan election, despite the fact that, before every ballot, concerns regarding possible fraud are raised. The Moldovan side, on the other hand, is ‘asked’ to not interfere in the ‘internal’ affairs of Transnistria, especially when it comes to smuggling or illegal financial schemes.
See also: The last week before the parliamentary elections – disputes, promises and fraud attempts
At the same time, the Bureau for Reintegration Policies has never reacted in accordance to the illegalities happening to the Transnistrian residents. No matter how many criminal cases, prosecutions, arrests, illegal sentences and imprisonments happened in the Transnistrian region, the Moldovan state authorities stood aside.
The Russian influence
“In addition, the political influence of the Russian government is undergirded by the presence of Russian troops, who are ostensibly stationed in the territory to guard a Soviet-era ammunition depot and, as peacekeepers, to uphold a 1992 cease-fire between Transnistrian and Moldovan forces. Moscow has also financially supported the territory’s pension system and provided subsidized energy,” is stated in the Freedom in the World Report published by Freedom House.
The political, social and economic systems of the region are “heavily dependent on subsidies from Russia.” In exchange, “Transnistria’s entire political establishment, including opposition parties, supports the separatist agenda and Russia’s role as the territory’s foreign patron.”
Moreover, the national security of Moldova is under serious threat, as the natural gas debt of the Republic of Moldova (except for the Transnistrian region) was artificially increased by at least $952 million “through abusive actions, committed by Gazprom in conspiracy with central authorities of Moldova,” the WatchDog.MD Community said.
The main issue with the accumulating debts is related to a clause of the contract signed by “Moldovagaz” and “Gazprom”, according to which, the Moldovan supplier is obliged to provide gas to the Transnistrian region without being paid. Moreover, “Moldovagaz” cannot interrupt the gas supply to the Transnistrian region without the written consent of “Gazprom”. The gas tariffs in Transnistria are much lower than the market average. All revenues from gas sales in Transnistria are actually “loaned to the separatist region’s budget.” In such a way, both the Transnistrian and Moldovan parts get indebted – a scheme used for years in order to increase the dependence on Russia.
There is one more thing: 80% of consumed electricity in Moldova is provided by a power plant (MGRES) located on the left bank of the Dniester (it was strategically placed there during the Soviet Union). The power plant, which is controlled by a Russian company, is the largest gas consumer in the Transnistrian region and, consequently, contributes the most to the amounting debt of “Moldovagaz” to “Gazprom”. Therefore, Moldova got itself into a vicious situation of nurturing the Transnistrian conflict through its own debts, while Russia can leverage its energetic monopoly at any moment.
See also: A WatchDog.MD report// The trap of consuming Russian gas and accumulating debts
The new government
In order to have equal negotiating positions with “Gazprom”, Moldova must have alternative sources of gas and electricity supply,” the report concluded. The independence of the energy sector is one of the top priorities announced by the new government’s agenda. “Priority is given to interconnection projects for electricity, state recovery of the gas transmission network, along with strict monitoring of the implementation of these projects,” President Maia Sandu declared during the first plenary session of the newly elected Parliament.
Political will is needed to end the Transnistrian conflict, including from the Kremlin, said the PAS leader, Igor Grosu, as being cited by Euronews. “I believe that the Transnistrian region will have no reason to disturb the waters. Under regional conditions, a peaceful approach would be a plus for Moldova,” he said.
Political expert Mihai Isac told Euronews that President Sandu is setting a lot of hope on the involvement of the global community. “She wants to internationalise the issue to get Russia to start negotiations for the region’s political status,” he said. Neither the president of the country, nor the political party that will form the majority government in Parliament (PAS) have never made strong statements related to the Transnistrian conflict resolution, precisely because they are aware of how complex the matter is.
**
There is no simple answer to the Transnistrian question. The Russian influence is still there, maintaining it’s troops illegally and fuelling money into the so-called Transnistrian government. It is especially hard when blackmails and threats arrive from Moscow: “if this government repels itself from Russia, then of course we will act accordingly, in particular, strengthening our Transnistrian factor,” claimed Head of the State Duma Committee on CIS Affairs, Eurasian Integration and Relations with Compatriots, Leonid Kalashnikov.
It’s not easy to solve the problem, as big black market players are not interested in stopping smuggling through the Transnistrian territory and wouldn’t give up their influence areas so easily. It is also not easy, as long as the Republic of Moldova doesn’t have an alternative for its energy sector.
The Transnistrian problem can’t be solved even though there is political will and functioning institutions. It must be negotiated carefully at international level. Finding a resolution to the Transnistrian conflict could mean significantly higher chances of Moldova to join the EU, but also certain losses Moldova could suffer as a result of negotiations, beside the fact that Russia would not easily accept to lose its influence on Moldova.
It is true that very few real things have been done by the governments of the Republic of Moldova in all these 30 years in order to bring the two banks of the Dniester closer together and, at least, to reintegrate the Transnistrian population. On the contrary, measures were taken by Moldovan authorities to worsen the situation.
At the same time, it could be dangerous to put the foot down and make unilateral decisions. That would not help it at all: the Republic of Moldova already has a breakaway territory with a population that was intentionally relocated there since the time of the Soviet Union, that is living in a media bubble with influences of Russian propaganda, and that is led by loyal to Moscow leaders who are not willing to lose their power.
It is from this premise that discussions must start, or continue. Until the resolution is adopted, the focus on security, free movement, human rights, and economic issues is imperative.
Photo: unknown
Society
“They are not needy, but they need help”. How Moldovan volunteers try to create a safe environment for the Ukrainian refugees
At the Government’s ground floor, the phones ring constantly, the laptop screens never reach standby. In one corner of the room there is a logistics planning meeting, someone has a call on Zoom with partners and donors, someone else finally managed to take a cookie and make some coffee. Everyone is exhausted and have sleepy red eyes, but the volunteers still have a lot of energy and dedication to help in creating a safe place for the Ukrainian refugees.
“It’s like a continuous bustle just so you won’t read the news. You get home sometimes and you don’t have time for news, and that somehow helps. It’s a kind of solidarity and mutual support,” says Vlada Ciobanu, volunteer responsible for communication and fundraising.
The volunteers group was formed from the very first day of war. A Facebook page was created, where all types of messages immediately started to flow: “I offer accommodation”, “I want to help”, “I want to get involved”, “Where can I bring the products?”, “I have a car and I can go to the customs”. Soon, the authorities also started asking for volunteers’ support. Now they all work together, coordinate activities and try to find solutions to the most difficult problems.
Is accommodation needed for 10, 200 or 800 people? Do you need transportation to the customs? Does anyone want to deliver 3 tons of apples and does not know where? Do you need medicine or mobile toilets? All these questions require prompt answers and actions. Blankets, sheets, diapers, hygiene products, food, clothes – people bring everything, and someone needs to quickly find ways of delivering them to those who need them.
Sometimes this collaboration is difficult, involves a lot of bureaucracy, and it can be difficult to get answers on time. “Republic of Moldova has never faced such a large influx of refugees and, probably because nobody thought this could happen, a mechanism of this kind of crisis has not been developed. Due to the absence of such a mechanism that the state should have created, we, the volunteers, intervened and tried to help in a practical way for the spontaneous and on the sport solutions of the problems,” mentions Ecaterina Luțișina, volunteer responsible for the refugees’ accommodation.
Ana Maria Popa, one of the founders of the group “Help Ukrainians in Moldova/SOS Українці Молдовa” says that the toughest thing is to find time and have a clear mind in managing different procedures, although things still happen somehow naturally. Everyone is ready to intervene and help, to take on more responsibilities and to act immediately when needed. The biggest challenges arise when it is necessary to accommodate large families, people with special needs, for which alternative solutions must be identified.
Goods and donations
The volunteers try to cope with the high flow of requests for both accommodation and products of all kinds. “It came to me as a shock and a panic when I found out that both mothers who are now in Ukraine, as well as those who found refuge in our country are losing their milk because of stress. We are trying to fill an enormous need for milk powder, for which the demand is high and the stocks are decreasing”, says Steliana, the volunteer responsible for the distribution of goods from the donation centers.
Several centers have been set up to collect donations in all regions of Chisinau, and volunteers are redirecting the goods to where the refugees are. A system for processing and monitoring donations has already been established, while the volunteer drivers take over the order only according to a unique code.
Volunteers from the collection centers also do the inventory – the donated goods and the distributed goods. The rest is transported to Vatra deposit, from where it is distributed to the placement centers where more than 50 refugees are housed.
When they want to donate goods, but they don’t know what would be needed, people are urged to put themselves in the position of refugees and ask themselves what would they need most if they wake up overnight and have to hurriedly pack their bags and run away. Steliana wants to emphasise that “these people are not needy, but these people need help. They did not choose to end up in this situation.”
Furthermore, the volunteer Cristina Sîrbu seeks to identify producers and negotiate prices for products needed by refugees, thus mediating the procurement process for NGOs with which she collaborates, such as Caritas, World Children’s Fund, Polish Solidarity Fund, Lifting hands, Peace Corps and others.
One of the challenges she is facing now is the identifying a mattress manufacturer in the West, because the Moldovan mattress manufacturer that has been helping so far no longer has polyurethane, a raw material usually imported from Russia and Ukraine.
Cristina also needs to find solutions for the needs of the volunteer groups – phones, laptops, gsm connection and internet for a good carrying out of activities.
Hate messages
The most difficult thing for the communication team is to manage the hate messages on the social networks, which started to appear more often. “Even if there is some sort of dissatisfaction from the Ukrainian refugees and those who offer help, we live now in a very diverse society, there are different kind of people, and we act very differently under stress,” said Vlada Ciobanu.
Translation by Cătălina Bîrsanu
A new football club has earned a leading place in the UEFA Champions League groups and starred in the headlines of worldwide football news yesterday. The Football Club Sheriff Tiraspol claimed a win with the score 2-1 against Real Madrid on the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium in Madrid. That made Sheriff Tiraspol the leader in Group D of the Champions League, including the football club in the groups of the most important European interclub competition for the first time ever.
International media outlets called it a miracle, a shock and a historic event, while strongly emphasizing the origin of the team and the existing political conflict between the two banks of the Dniester. “Football club from a pro-Russian separatist enclave in Moldova pulls off one of the greatest upsets in Champions League history,” claimed the news portals. “Sheriff crushed Real!” they said.
Moldovans made a big fuss out of it on social media, splitting into two groups: those who praised the team and the Republic of Moldova for making history and those who declared that the football club and their merits belong to Transnistria – a problematic breakaway region that claims to be a separate country.
Both groups are right and not right at the same time, as there is a bunch of ethical, political, social and practical matters that need to be considered.
Is it Moldova?
First of all, every Moldovan either from the right or left bank of Dniester (Transnistria) is free to identify himself with this achievement or not to do so, said Vitalie Spranceana, a sociologist, blogger, journalist and urban activist. According to him, boycotting the football club for being a separatist team is wrong.
At the same time, “it’s an illusion to think that territory matters when it comes to football clubs,” Spranceana claimed. “Big teams, the ones included in the Champions League, have long lost their connection both with the countries in which they operate, and with the cities in which they appeared and to which they linked their history. […] In the age of globalized commercial football, teams, including the so-called local ones, are nothing more than global traveling commercial circuses, incidentally linked to cities, but more closely linked to all sorts of dirty, semi-dirty and cleaner cash flows.”
What is more important in this case is the consistency, not so much of citizens, as of politicians from the government who have “no right to celebrate the success of separatism,” as they represent “the national interests, not the personal or collective pleasures of certain segments of the population,” believes the political expert Dionis Cenusa. The victory of FC Sheriff encourages Transnistrian separatism, which receives validation now, he also stated.
“I don’t know how it happens that the “proud Moldovans who chose democracy”, in their enthusiasm for Sheriff Tiraspol’s victory over Real Madrid, forget the need for total and unconditional withdrawal of Russian troops from Transnistria!” declared the journalist Vitalie Ciobanu.
Nowadays, FC Sheriff Tiraspol has no other choice than to represent Moldova internationally. For many years, the team used the Moldovan Football Federation in order to be able to participate in championships, including international ones. That is because the region remains unrecognised by the international community. However, the club’s victory is presented as that of Transnistria within the region, without any reference to the Republic of Moldova, its separatist character being applied in this case especially.
Is it a victory?
In fact, FC Sheriff Tiraspol joining the Champions League is a huge image breakthrough for the Transnistrian region, as the journalist Madalin Necsutu claimed. It is the success of the Tiraspol Club oligarchic patrons. From the practical point of view, FC Sheriff Tiraspol is a sports entity that serves its own interests and the interests of its owners, being dependent on the money invested by Tiraspol (but not only) oligarchs.
Here comes the real dilemma: the Transnistrian team, which is generously funded by money received from corruption schemes and money laundering, is waging an unequal fight with the rest of the Moldovan football clubs, the journalist also declared. The Tiraspol team is about to raise 15.6 million euro for reaching the Champions League groups and the amounts increase depending on their future performance. According to Necsutu, these money will go directly on the account of the club, not to the Moldovan Football Federation, creating an even bigger gab between FC Sheriff and other football clubs from Moldova who have much more modest financial possibilities.
“I do not see anything useful for Moldovan football, not a single Moldovan player is part of FC Sheriff Tiraspol. I do not see anything beneficial for the Moldovan Football Federation or any national team.”
Is it only about football?
FC Sheriff Tiraspol, with a total estimated value of 12.8 million euros, is controlled by Victor Gusan and Ilya Kazmala, being part of Sheriff Holding – a company that controls the trade of wholesale, retail food, fuels and medicine by having monopolies on these markets in Transnistria. The holding carries out car trading activities, but also operates in the field of construction and real estate. Gusan’s people also hold all of the main leadership offices in the breakaway region, from Parliament to the Prime Minister’s seat or the Presidency.
The football club is supported by a holding alleged of smuggling, corruption, money laundering and organised crime. Moldovan media outlets published investigations about the signals regarding the Sheriff’s holding involvement in the vote mobilization and remuneration of citizens on the left bank of the Dniester who participated in the snap parliamentary elections this summer and who were eager to vote for the pro-Russian socialist-communist bloc.
Considering the above, there is a great probability that the Republic of Moldova will still be represented by a football club that is not identified as being Moldovan, being funded from obscure money, growing in power and promoting the Transnistrian conflict in the future as well.
Photo: unknown
Politics
Promo-LEX about Maia Sandu’s UN speech: The president must insist on appointing a rapporteur to monitor the situation of human rights in Transnistria
The President of the Republic of Moldova, Maia Sandu, pays an official visit to New York, USA, between September 21-22. There, she participates in the work of the United Nations General Assembly. According to a press release of the President’s Office, the official will deliver a speech at the tribune of the United Nations.
In this context, the Promo-LEX Association suggested the president to request the appointment of a special rapporteur in order to monitor the situation of human rights in the Transnistrian region. According to Promo-LEX, the responsibility for human rights violations in the Transnistrian region arises as a result of the Russian Federation’s military, economic and political control over the Tiraspol regime.
“We consider it imperative to insist on the observance of the international commitments assumed by the Russian Federation regarding the withdrawal of the armed forces and ammunition from the territory of the country,” the representatives of Promo-LEX stated. They consider the speech before the UN an opportunity “to demand the observance of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the Russian Federation with reference to this territory which is in its full control.”
“It is important to remember about the numerous cases of murder, torture, ill-treatment, forced enlistment in illegal military structures, the application of pseudo-justice in the Transnistrian region, all carried out under the tacit agreement of the Russian Federation. These findings stem from dozens of rulings and decisions issued by the European Court of Human Rights, which found that Russia is responsible for human rights violations in the region.”
The association representatives expressed their hope that the president of the country would give priority to issues related to the human rights situation in the Transnistrian region and would call on relevant international actors to contribute to guaranteeing fundamental human rights and freedoms throughout Moldova.
They asked Maia Sandu to insist on the observance of the obligation to evacuate the ammunition and the military units of the Russian Federation from the territory of the Republic of Moldova, to publicly support the need for the Russian Federation to implement the ECtHR rulings on human rights violations in the Transnistrian region, and to request the appointment of an UN Human Rights Council special rapporteur to monitor the human rights situation in the Transnistrian region of the Republic of Moldova.
**
The Promo-LEX Association concluded that 14 out of 25 actions planned within the National Action Plan for the years 2018–2022 concerning respecting human rights in Transnistria were not carried out by the responsible authorities.
The association expressed its concern and mentioned that there are a large number of delays in the planned results. “There is a lack of communication and coordination between the designated institutions, which do not yet have a common vision of interaction for the implementation of the plan.”
Promo-LEX requested the Government of the Republic of Moldova to re-assess the reported activities and to take urgent measures, “which would exclude superficial implementation of future activities and increase the level of accountability of the authorities.”
Photo: peacekeeping.un.org
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