Political characteristic – Transnitrian Moldovan republic
This work deals with the issue of Transnitrian Moldovan republic and the aim of this study is to describe the essential characteristics of the country in terms of political geografy.
Transnitrian Moldovan republic, Pridnestrovian moldavian republic, Pridnestrovie, war in Transnitria, conflict in Transnitria.
Fundamental characteristics
Transnitrian Moldovan republic, also known in English as „Trans-Dniestr“ or „Transdniestria“ (1) is a separative and breakaway state located between the borders of Moldovan republic and Ukraine. It is a very narrow strip of land located across the river Dniestr on the eastern Moldovan border with Ukraine.
Transnitrian Moldovan republic declared its independence in 1990 and officially titles itself as Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic (PMR, also known as Pridnestrovie), but some sources state that it adopted this title after the short war with Moldovan republic in 1992. (2)
However, this state department cannot be seen as an independent state, because internationally it does not recognize any other state. Transnitrian Moldovan republic is officially recognized as an independent state only by three countries: Naghorno – Karabach, Abkhazia and South Osetia. (3)
But these three countries are not recognized officially as well, so we cannot talk about a „full“ state department or international legal status. Moldovan republic does not have control over this territory and therefore the Transnitrian Moldovan republic is in a legal vakuum. (4) But the truth is that, protecting hand over this state structure holds the Russian Federation.(5)[1]
From the political science perspective, this state can be considered like a dictatorship with presidential system. In the country, there also specially operates own parliament and government.
The capital city of Transnitrian Moldovan republic is Tiraspol. Country has a 500 000 inhabitans approximately
Transnistria became an autonomous political entity in 1924 with the proclamation of the Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialists Republic (Moldavian ASSR), but this autonomy is little, because Moldavian ASSR exist within Ukraine SSR. (6)
After the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact the Moldavian ASSR, it became decision of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on 2 August 1940, that Transnitria will organised like an integral part of Soviet Union.(7)
This territory was captured by German and Romanian troops in 1941 and remained under the control of Romania.
The Romanian-administered territory – called the Transnistria Governorate – with an area of 44.000 km2 and a population of 2,3 million inhabitants, was divided into 13 counties: Ananiev, Balta, Berzovca, Dubasari, Golta, Jugastru, Movilau, Oceacov, Odessa, Ovidiopol, Rîbnița, Tiraspol and Tulcin. This enlarged Transnistria was home to nearly 200,000 Romanian and Moldovan-speaking residents. (8)
After the Red Army reconquered the area in 1944, Soviet authorities executed, exiled or imprisoned hundreds of the Moldavian SSR inhabitants in the following months on charges of collaboration with the „German-fascist occupiers“.(9)
After the repression, followed settlement by the new residents – Russians and Ukrainians and vice versa displacement of indigenous peoples in Siberia or in other Asian union socailist republics. Transnitrian country was under a strong communist influence and remained so to this day.
- Sidney & Beatrice Webb. Soviet Communism: A New Civilisation? I. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. 1936. p. 77. „This exclusively agricultural community… may perhaps be regarded as a lasting embodiment of the protest of the USSR against the northern half of what is claimed to be a single community. With this view, the Moldavian Republic maintains a sovnarkom of People’s Commissars, but is for many purposes dealt with as if it were merely an oblast of the Ukraine.“
- Wettig, Gerhard, Stalin and the Cold War in Europe, Rowman & Littlefield, Landham, Md, 2008, ISBN 0-7425-5542-9, page 20-21
- Dallin, Alexander (1957). „Romanization“. Odessa, 1941-1944: A Case Study of Soviet Territory Under Foreign Rule. Center for Romanian Studies. pp. 87–90. ISBN 9789739839112. Retrieved 2014-03-18.
- Casu, Igor. „Stalinist terror in Soviet Moldavia, by Igor Casu. Usm-md.academia.edu. Retrieved 2013-05-30.
In the 1980s, Mikhail Gorbachev’s policies in the Soviet Union allowed political
liberalization at a regional level. In the Moldovan soviet socialist republic was formed. a national movement, which claimed sovereignty, latin alfabet, etc.
The main political goal of important part of the Moldovan politicians was a connection to Romania. (10)
Political demands of the area of Transnitria were much different from the rest of Moldovan SSR. It was caused by the fact, that the area of Transnitria was under the strong Russian influence for very long time and there were Russian-speaking ethnic minorities living in the republic. (11)
The nationalist Popular Front won the first free parliamentary elections in the Moldavian SSR in the spring of 1990 (12) and its agenda slowly started to be implemented.
Conflicts between Moldovan and ethnic Russian inhabitants (who inhabited Transnitria) culminated on 2 September 1990, when the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic was proclaimed a Soviet republic by an ad hoc assembly, the special political organ – „Second Congress of the Peoples‘ Representatives of Transnistria“. (13) On November 5, the words „Soviet Socialist” were dropped from the title, and a rigorous communist, Igor Smirnov, was elected as the president of the country.
While the act of independence of Moldova in the USSR was recognized by the international community, the same act on the part of Moldova on Transnistrian was not.
- Moldova timeline: A chronology of key events. In: BBC news[online]. 2012, 19 March 2012
[cit. 2014-04-18]. Dostupné z:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/country_profiles/1113586.stm
- Andrei Panici. Romanian Nationalism in the Republic of Moldova, Global Review of
Ethnopolitics, vol. 2 no. 2 (January 2003), p.37–51.
- Hare, Paul (1999). „Who are the Moldovans?“. In Paul Hare, Mohammed Ishaq, Judy
Batt. Reconstituting the market: the political economy of microeconomic transformation.
Taylor& Francis. p. 402. ISBN 90-5702-328-8. Retrieved 2009-10-30
- Modern Hatreds: The Symbolic Politics of Ethnic War, Stuart J. Kaufman, Cornell University
Press, 2001, ISBN 0-8014-8736-6, pp. 143
- Census results of 2004 and comparation with census of 1989, by Olvia Press
For two months since proclamation of Pridnestrovian Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic, Moldovan authorities refrained from taking action against this proclamation. Transnistria became one of the „unrecognized republics“ that appeared throughout the USSR.
The first binding problem between the Moldovan government and transnitrian separatists occurred on 3 November 1990 in the city „Dubăsari“.
A police detachment was dispatched to clear a roadblock and barriers placed by the city residents on the bridge over the river Dniester.
The reason for this was that Dniester effectively cut the city off from the central government. In the resulting shootout, three residents of Dubăsari were killed. That was the start of the war and the first casualties of the conflict. (15)
At the same time, the Republic of Moldova did not have its own army. The first attempt to create one took place in early 1992 in response to the escalating conflict. They started recruiting troops for the newly created ministry of defence. (16) In July 1992, Moldovan troop was estimated at 25 000–35 000, but including called-up police officers, conscripts, reservists and volunteers, especially from the Moldavian localities, which were near the conflict zone. It was not an optimal situation for the started war.
Facilities of the Army of Moldovan were not good. Practically, the army owned only the remains of the equipment which the Soviet army left in Moldova, and military assistance, which was granted or donated from Romania. (17)
At the same time, the Russian 14th Guards Army in Moldovan territory numbered about 14,000 professional soldiers on the land of Transnitrian. (18)
- Memorial“ Human Rights Center Report. Books.google.com. Retrieved 2011-09-05.
- Istoria creării Armatei Naţionale (Moldova). Army.gov.md. Retrieved 2011-09-05
- Arms and Ethnic Conflict, John Sislin, Frederic S. Pearson (Rowman & Littlefield, 2001)
- 99, ISBN 0-8476-8855-0
- Vahl, Marius. Borderland Europe: Transforming Transnistria? Centre for European Political
Studies, October 2001.
The Pridnestrovian moldavian republic authorities had 9 000 militiamen trained and armed by officers of the 14th Russian Army and including for example Cossacks came from Russia and Ukraine.
The second Moldovan attempt to cross the river Dniester (specifically over the bridge Lungau took place on 13 December 1991. Due to the fighting, it was killed 27 Pridnestrovian moldavian republic volunteers on the first side, and four Moldovan units were captured on the second side. Moldovan troops could not cross the bridge and take back originally Moldovan territory. (19)
After this second failed attempt, there was a lull in military activity until 2 March 1992, which is considered the official start date of the „War of Transnistria“ – same day when Moldova was admitted as a member of the United nations (received full international recognition of its August 27, 1991 declaration of independence). The armed conflict lasted until 21 July 1992, in the three areas along the Dniester. (20)
This was followed by a series of small clashes, especially on bridge crossings into Pridnestrovian moldavian republic. Big bloodshed prevented, mainly because captivity Pridnestrovian moldavian republic commander of troops on Ukrainian territory and the subsequent negotiation of the Moldovan authorities, who demanded to release the captives Moldovan units. (20)
Ceasefire agreement was signed on July 21. This official document was primarily due to Russian Federation, which from the beginning of the conflict has sought Pridnestrovian moldavian republic as a part of Russia’s sphere of influence. (21)
- Vlad Grecu – „O viziune din focarul conflictului de la Dubăsari“, page 38-39, převzato z:7
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_Transnistria
- Moldovan Forces Seize A Key Town.The New York Times. 21 June 1992.
- William Crowther,“Moldova: caught between nation and empire,“ in New States, New
Politics, Ian Bremmer and Ray Taras, eds., (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997
Ceasefire agreement was signed by the presidents of Russia (Boris Jelzin), and Moldovan republic (Mircea Snegur). Agreement was provided by number of peacekeepers who were responsible for ensuring compliance with agreements on a ceasefire and security.
Peacekeepers were composed of five Russian battalions, three Moldovan battalions and two battalions of Pridnestrovian Moldavian republic. (23)
The key element of the conflict was the involvement of the Soviet 14th Guards army on the Transnitrians side. Pridnestrovian moldavian republic could not exist without this army. It is necessary to add that to this day 14th Guards army has not left the Transnitrian. (24)
You can find plenty of resources that describe the course of this war, and that also vary greatly in the interpretation of historical events on the Internet.
Pridnestrovian moldavian republic still reportedly accuses Moldova of war crimes and the same is true vice versa.
A 1,200 member Russian military contingent is present in Transnistria. The status of this contingent is disputed. The 1992 cease-fire agreement between Moldova and Transnistria established a Russian peace-keeper presence in Transnistria, but Russian troops stationed in Moldova proper since the time of the USSR were fully withdrawn to Russia by January 1993.
In 2011, U.S. Senator John McCain said in a visit to Moldova that Moscow is violating the territorial integrity of Moldova and Georgia and one of the „fundamental norms“ of „international behavior.“
- Russian troops in Transnistria – a threat to the security of the Republic of MoldovaBy Dr.
Mihai Gribincea, Institute of Political and Military Studies, Chişinău, Moldova]
- John Mackinlay and Peter Cross: Regional Peacekeepers, The Paradox of Russian
Peacekeeping. United Nations University Press: New York & Paris, 2003. Pages 140–141]
- Edward Ozhiganov, „The Republic of Moldova: Transdniester and the 14th Army, in
Managing Conflict in the Former Soviet Union: Russian and American Perspectives,
Alexei Arbatov, et al. eds. (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1997), p. 179.
There are only free states which recognize Transnitrian moldovan republic as a sovereign state on the world – Nagorno-Karabakh, Abkhazia, and South Ossetia. All United nations member states consider Transnistria a legal part of the Republic of Moldova. (25)
Although Moldova still considered to Transnitrian moldovan republic as an integral part of own territory and claims that any form of secession from the state without the consent of the central Moldovan government is illegal, there has been a slow change in the legal status in the last year.
On 22 July 2005, Moldovan government passed the „Law on Basic Provisions of the Special Legal Status of Localities from the Left Bank of the Dniester“, which established part of Transnistria (territory of Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic without Bender and without territories, which are under control of Moldova) as an autonomous territorial unit within the Republic of Moldova. (26)
The law was passed without any prior consultation with Transnistrian authorities, who called it a provocation and have since ignored it.
Transnitrians international relationships are so controversial. Official government documents from Transnistria state say that the republic has „established and maintained friendly relations with countries seeking recognition.“
- Vladimir Socor,Frozen Conflicts in the Black Sea-South Caucasus Region, IASPS Policy
Briefings, 1 March 2004
- Janusz Bugajski. Toward an Understanding of Russia: New European Perspectives.
- 102. ISBN 0-87609-310-1.
To this end, it said that relations would continue to develop in a friendly manner with the three states/political entities it has relations with: the Republic of Abkhazia, the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh, and the Republic of South Ossetia, these two republics (Abkhazia and South Osetia) are the only ones who has embassy in this state. (27)
Since 2006 the relations with Ukraine has significantly worsened, which introduced new customs regulations on the importation of goods from Pridnestrovian moldavian republic. This goods permits us to have Moldovan authorities. Pridnestrovian moldavian republic and Russia termed the act an „economic blockade.“ (28)
In reaction Pridnestrovian moldavian republic declared humanitarian catastrophe. From this crisis disturbed by this country until delivery of goods from Russia. (29)
There are unresolved affairs about borders between Transnistria and Moldova – nine villages from the „Dubăsari District“, which geographically belong to Transnistria, have been under the control of the central government of Moldova. During the War of Transnistria, local inhabitants involve on the side of Moldovan forces.
Villages along with Varnița and Copanca, near Bender and Tiraspol (capital city of Transnitria), are claimed by the Pridnestrovian moldavian republic .
One city and six villages on the west bank are controlled by the Pridnestrovian moldavian republic, but are considered by Moldova a separate municipality (Bender and two villages) or a part of the Căușeni District (four villages). (30)
- Oleksandr Pavliuk, Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze. The Black Sea Region: Cooperation and
Security Building. EastWest Institute. ISBN 0-7656-1225-9.
- Olvia Press: „Valeri Litskai: A situation based on pressure and threats cannot be
considered favorable for the revival of contacts. Olvia.idknet.com. Retrieved 2012-06-30.
- Russia’s humanitarian assistance is a planned propagandist action, Chișinău claims.
Politicom.moldova.org. 2006-03-23. Retrieved 2012-06-30.
(Bender and two villages) or part of the Căușeni District (four villages). (30)
As a result of these disputes there are occasional military confrontations between Pridnestrovian moldavian republic and Moldova (last in 2007), but sidestepped without loss. However, there are strong political tensions in this area, there are regularly incidents such as Pridnestrovian moldavian republic by the mayors of these villages are arrested by the police. (31)
Although the country is considered to be a communist dictatorship, exits here a multi-party system. The local parliament is named Supreme council and has 43 members elected by Single-member district plurality. (32)
The head of state is president. The president is elected to a five-year term. The first president of Transnistria was Igor Smirnov (since the declaration of independence in 1990) for four consecutive terms. He ran for president in 2011 also, but was defeated in the first round. In the presidential elections won Yevgeni Shevchuk. (33)
It is very doubtful whether the elections are free and fair in Pridnestrovian moldavian republic. The political regime has been described as one of „super-presidentialism.“ (34)
- Transnistrian Militia Withdrew Its Posts from Vasilievca,Azi (Moldavia), retrieved 2006
Dostupné z: http://www.dw.de/focus/s-10575
- Moldova AZI, Transnistrian Militia Withdrew Its Posts from Vasilievca, Accessed 2006
Dostupné z: http://old.azi.md/news?ID=33404
- PMR Supreme Council (Parliament of Transnistria’s official website). Vspmr.org. 2012-06-
- Retrieved 2012-06-30. Dostupné z: http://www.vspmr.org/?Lang=Eng
- US Department of State, Country Report on Human Rights Practices in Moldova – 2003.
State.gov. 2004-02-25. Retrieved 2012-06-30. Dostupné z:
http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2003/27854.htm
- Moldova and the Dniestr Region: Contest Past, Frozen Present, Speculative
Futures? Herd, Graeme P.; Conflict Studies Research Centre; 2005; Accessed 25 May
2007; Dostupné z: http://www.defac.ac.uk/colleges/csrc/document-listings/cee/
There are four parties which participate regularly in elections and which are either represented in parliament:
Renewal (in Russian, is Obnovleniye which can interchangeably be translated as either Renovation, it is a strongest party in government, from which derives the current president of the country Yevgeni Shevchuk. (35)
Breakthrough (Proriv) also known as „International Youth Corporation and People’s Democratic Party whose methods are allegedly modelled on pro-western organizations. In the last elections has party one chair. (36)
The Pridnestrovian Communist Party is the local successor to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. It was banned for part of the 1990s. In the last elections has party one chair. (37)
Fourth party is non-partisan of which, unfortunately, there is no information, but this party has 16 chairs in Supreme council.
There are represented by another party, such as Republic, Patriotic Party of Pridnestrovie, People’s Will of Pridnestrovie or Social Democratic Party, which are based mostly after 2006.
- Political Crisis around the self-proclaimed republic of Transnistria, Dostupné z:
http://www.bhhrg.org/CountryReport.asp?ChapterID=807&CountryID=16&ReportID=260
- FAWKES, Helen. Trans-Dniester’s surreal life. In: [online]. BBC News, Friday, 2
September 2005 [cit. 2014-04-18].Dostupnéhttp://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4208194.stm
- RIA Novosti – World – Communists rally in Moldova’s breakaway region, Dostupné z:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pridnestrovie_Communist_Party
The existence of Pridnestrovian moldavian republic is a very interesting political-geographic phenomenon that occurs in Europe.
Creation of such a state was undoubtedly supported by the Russian Federation and is still basically its current existence depends on the willingness of Russia to participate in the geopolitical events in Eastern Europe.
In my opinion, the existence of the state department undesirable because their inner nature is to essentially tax-free trade zone with zbraněni and drugs.
On the other hand, it is necessary to take into account the ethnic population sloení Pridnestrovian moldavian republic, which was during the Cold War very hard rusifikováno.
In my opinion, this remains an area for a long time geopolitical focus.
Andrei Panici. Romanian Nationalism in the Republic of Moldova, Global Review of Ethnopolitics, vol. 2 no. 2 (January 2003), p.37–51.
Arms and Ethnic Conflict, John Sislin, Frederic S. Pearson (Rowman & Littlefield, 2001), p. 99, ISBN 0-8476-8855-0
Casu, Igor. „Stalinist terror in Soviet Moldavia, by Igor Casu. Usm-md.academia.edu. Retrieved 2013-05-30.
Census results of 2004 and comparation with census of 1989, by Olvia Press
Dallin, Alexander (1957). „Romanization“. Odessa, 1941-1944: A Case Study of Soviet Territory Under Foreign Rule. Center for Romanian Studies. pp. 87–90. ISBN 9789739839112. Retrieved 2014-03-18.
Edward Ozhiganov, „The Republic of Moldova: Transdniester and the 14th Army, in Managing Conflict in the Former Soviet Union: Russian and American Perspectives, Alexei Arbatov, et al. eds. (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1997), p. 179.
Grand Chamber judgment in the case of Ilașcu and others v. Moldova and Russia, European Court of Human Rights, 349, 8 July 2004
Hare, Paul (1999). „Who are the Moldovans?“. In Paul Hare, Mohammed Ishaq, Judy Batt. Reconstituting the market: the political economy of microeconomic transformation. Taylor& Francis. p. 402. ISBN 90-5702-328-8. Retrieved 2009-10-30
Head of Foreign Ministry of the Republic of South Ossetia congratulated Minister of Foreign Affairs of the PMR with Sixth Anniversary of Creation of Community for Democracy and Rights of Nations. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the PMR. 2012-06-15. Retrieved 2014-03-26.
Istoria creării Armatei Naţionale (Moldova). Army.gov.md. Retrieved 2011-09-05
Janusz Bugajski. Toward an Understanding of Russia: New European Perspectives. p. 102. ISBN 0-87609-310-1.
John Mackinlay and Peter Cross: Regional Peacekeepers, The Paradox of Russian Peacekeeping. United Nations University Press: New York & Paris, 2003. Pages 140–141]
Law 173 from 22.07.2005 „About main notes about special legal status of settlements of left bank of Dnestr (Transnistria)
Memorial“ Human Rights Center Report. Books.google.com. Retrieved 2011-09-05.
Modern Hatreds: The Symbolic Politics of Ethnic War, Stuart J. Kaufman, Cornell University Press, 2001, ISBN 0-8014-8736-6, pp. 143
Moldova timeline: A chronology of key events. In: BBC news [online]. 2012, 19 March 2012 [cit. 2014-04-18]. Dostupné z: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/country_profiles/1113586.stm
Moldovan Forces Seize A Key Town. The New York Times. 21 June 1992.
Oleksandr Pavliuk, Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze. The Black Sea Region: Cooperation and Security Building. EastWest Institute. ISBN 0-7656-1225-9.
Olvia Press: „Valeri Litskai: A situation based on pressure and threats cannot be considered favorable for the revival of contacts. Olvia.idknet.com. Retrieved 2012-06-30.
Russian troops in Transnistria – a threat to the security of the Republic of Moldova By Dr. Mihai Gribincea, Institute of Political and Military Studies, Chişinău, Moldova]
Russia’s humanitarian assistance is a planned propagandist action, Chișinău claims. Politicom.moldova.org. 2006-03-23. Retrieved 2012-06-30.
Sidney & Beatrice Webb. Soviet Communism: A New Civilisation? Vol. I. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. 1936. p. 77. „This exclusively agricultural community… may perhaps be regarded as a lasting embodiment of the protest of the USSR against the Roumanian seizure of Bessarabia, which, it is hoped, may one day be enabled, as South Moldavia, to unite with the northern half of what is claimed to be a single community. With this view, the Moldavian Republic maintains a sovnarkom of People’s Commissars, but is for many purposes dealt with as if it were merely an oblast of the Ukraine.“
The black hole that ate Moldova: A glimpse inside Transdniestria, Economist, 3 May 2007
Union of Moldavians in Transnistria: We have no grounds to distrust Smirnov“. Strategiya-pmr.ru. Retrieved 2013-05-30.
Vahl, Marius. Borderland Europe: Transforming Transnistria? Centre for European Political Studies, October 2001.
Vlad Grecu – „O viziune din focarul conflictului de la Dubăsari“, page 38-39, převzato z: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_Transnistria
Vladimir Socor, Frozen Conflicts in the Black Sea-South Caucasus Region, IASPS Policy Briefings, 1 March 2004
Wettig, Gerhard, Stalin and the Cold War in Europe, Rowman & Littlefield, Landham, Md, 2008, ISBN 0-7425-5542-9, page 20-21
William Crowther,“Moldova: caught between nation and empire,“ in New States, New Politics, Ian Bremmer and Ray Taras, eds., (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997
- The black hole that ate Moldova: A glimpse inside Transdniestria,Economist, 3 May 2007
- Union of Moldavians in Transnistria: We have no grounds to distrust Smirnov“. Strategiya-pmr.ru. Retrieved 2013-05-30.
- Head of Foreign Ministry of the Republic of South Ossetia congratulated Minister of Foreign Affairs of the PMR with Sixth Anniversary of Creation of Community for Democracy and Rights of Nations. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the PMR. 2012-06-15. Retrieved 2014-03-26.
- Law 173 from 22.07.2005 „About main notes about special legal status of settlements of left bank of Dnestr (Transnistria)
- Grand Chamber judgment in the case of Ilașcu and others v. Moldova and Russia,European Court of Human Rights, 349, 8 July 2004