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Trans-Dniester Moldovan RepublicPridnestrovskaya Moldavskaya Respublika
Flag Coat of arms
Motto: "For the right to live on this land"
Anthem: Anthem of Transnistria
Capitaland largest city	Tiraspol
Official languages	Russian, Ukrainian, Moldovan
Government	Semi-presidential
• President	Igor Smirnov
Independence from Moldova
• Declared	September 2 1990
• Recognition	unrecognized
• Water (%)	2.35
Population
• 2004 estimate	555,347 (n/a)
• n/a census	n/a
Currency	Transnistrian ruble (TR)
Time zone	UTC+2 (EET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+3 (EEST)
Calling code	373 5 +373 2
Internet TLD	none
Used by central government. .ru and .md sometimes used.

Transnistria (officially Pridnestrovie) is a region of the Republic of Moldova in southeastern Europe which declared its independence on September 2 1990. To date its de facto independence has not been recognized and its sovereignty remains an issue of contention.

Names

Although most commonly known in English as Transnistria, its official name is Pridnestróvskaia Moldávskaia Respública (Moldovan: Република Молдовеняскэ Нистрянэ, Template:Lang-ru, Template:Lang-uk) as per the Constitution of Transnistria. This is abbreviated PMR.

The official short form of the name is Pridnestrovie (transliteration of the Russian "Приднестровье").

Several other names are also in common use, all meaning "beyond the (river) Dniester".

Geography

Transnistria is landlocked and borders Moldova (for 411 km) to the West and Ukraine (for 405 km) to the East. It is a narrow strip stretched in the North-South direction along the banks of the Dniester River, which forms the natural boundary along the most part of the border with Moldova. Some parts of the west bank are controlled by Transnistria, while some parts of the left bank are under the control of Moldova.

Border issues

During the 1992 War of Transnistria some villages from the Dubăsari district which geographically belong to Transnistria rebelled against Transnistrian separatist government and actually are under the control of the central government of the Republic of Moldova. Those villages are: Cocieri (Kochiyery), Molovata Nouă (Novaya Malovata), Coşniţa (Cosnita, Koshnitsa), Pîrîta (Pârâta, Pyryta), Pohrebea (Pogrebya), Doroţcaia (Dorotskoye), Roghi (Rogi) and Vasilievca (Vasilyevka). The village of Corjova (birthplace of Moldavian president Vladimir Voronin) is divided between a Transnistrian controlled area and a Republic of Moldova controlled area.

In 2005 Transnistrian forces entered Vasilievca, which is located over the strategic road linking Tiraspol and Rîbniţa, but withdrew after a few days

At the same time, some areas which geographically belong to Basarabia and not to Transnistria are controlled by the separatist authorities from Tiraspol. Those areas include the city of Tighina (Bendery in Russian) and the villages of Gîsca, Protiagailovca, Chiţcani, Mereneşti, Zagornoe, Cremenciug.

Transnistrian government claim also the village of Varniţa, a suburb of Tighina, but the Republic of Moldova has de facto control in Varniţa.

Political status

Transnistria is internationally considered to be part of the Republic of Moldova, and previously part of the Moldavian SSR, but has declared independence as the Pridnestrovskaya Moldavskaya Respublika or Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic (PMR), with Tiraspol as its capital.

The Russian authorities contributed both militarily and politically to the creation of a separatist government in Transnistria. The PMR remained under the effective authority, or at the very least under the decisive influence, of Russia, and in any event it survived by virtue of the military, economic, financial and political support that Russia gave it. Despite the Istanbul Agreement of 1999, Russia failed to fully withdraw its troops and weapons from Transnistria, although the Russian contingent has been reduced to approximately 1,500 troops, with 360 of them being part of the peacekeeping efforts of the Joint Control Commission created jointly with Moldovan and Transnistrian participation.

Internal politics

Template:Morepolitics

There is disagreement as to whether elections in Transnistria are free and fair. Western countries and organizations, such as the OSCE, have declared that no democratic elections can take place in Transnistria under the present circumstances and have refused to recognize or monitor them. Some parties and publications were banned.

Transnistria has a multi-party system and a unicameral parliament named Transnistrian Supreme Soviet. Its legislature has 43 members elected by proportional representation. The president is elected to a five year term by popular vote. In the latest parliamentary election in December 2005, the opposition party Renewal won an overall majority and its leader Yevgeni Shevchuk became speaker of parliament.

A list published by the European Union indicates that a majority of the leadership were not born in Transnistria These leaders are banned from traveling to the EU. Most of the members of parliament are not native-born Transnistrians either.

According to official PMR data , 19 members of the parliament out of 43 were born on the territory of Moldova (12 in Transnistria proper, 3 in Basarabian area of Bender-Chiţcani which is controlled by Transnistria, and 4 in Basarabia, part never claimed by Transnistria), 9 were born in the Russian Federation, 8 in Ukraine, 2 in Kazakhstan, 1 in Germany, 1 in Belarus, and 3 did not declare it.

The People's Power Party, led by Supreme Soviet member Alexander Radchenko, was banned in May 2001; after an appeal the ban was lifted but was reintroduced in December 2001, again the ban was lifted to be reintroduced in August 2002 and confirmed by the "Supreme Court" in December 2002..

"Power to the People" Party led by Nicolae Butchatsky was banned in February 2002 .

On November 14, 2001, the Transnistrian customs service banned the distribution or the publication "Glas Naroda", as it contained Radchenko's electoral platform. Radchenko said in a press conference that "Glas Naroda" has been published outside Transnistria because all the printing houses had refused to print it after having discussed the issue with representatives of the Ministry of State Security .

Election results are suspicious, as in 2001 in one region it was reported that Kamchatka-raised former metalworker Igor Smirnov collected 103.6% of the votes. Nevertheless, some organizations, such as CIS-EMO, have participated and have called them democratic.

See also:

• List of political parties in Transnistria

2006 referendum

A referendum was held on 17 September 2006 asking voters:

1. Do you support the course towards the independence of the PMR and the subsequent free association with the Russian Federation?
2. Do you consider it possible to renounce the PMR's independent status and subsequently become part of the Republic of Moldova?

According to Transnistrian government, 78.6 percent of the registered voters of Transnistria voted in the referendum. 97.1 percent of voters supported the first point, while 2.3 percent did not support it. 3.4 percent of voters supported the second point, while 94.6 percent did not support it.

The OSCE and many countries opposed the referendum, refusing to recognize it or its results, and dismissing the poll as illegitimate.

History

The area where Transnistria is now located has been inhabited by Indo-European tribes for millenia, being a borderland between Dacia and Scythia. The Ancient Greek Miletians founded about 600 BC a colony named Tyras, situated on the mouth of the Dniester river (Tyras) near today's Tiraspol.

In the early Middle Ages, the Tivertsy (Slavs), and the Vlachs (Bolohoveni) are mentioned as living in Transnistria. Turkic nomads such as the Petchenegs and Cumans were present in 11th-13th centuries, having controlled the territory especially from the military point of view (see Cumania). Following the Mongol invasion of Europe (1241), for a period of time, the territory was under Mongol control, and later under the Crimean Khanate, one of the five successors of the Golden Horde Empire. Genoese traders opened colonies on the shore of the Dniester around 1300, having to pay tribute for that to the Tartars. From the 15th century, parts of what today consists Transnistria was briefly ceded by the Tartars to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, when they were called Dykra. The territory was conquered by the Ottoman Empire around 1700 , becoming part of the Yedisan province. By that time the population was composed of Moldovans and Tatars

In 1792 the region was ceded by the Ottoman to the Russian Empire as a result of sixth Russo-Turkish War. Until the Russian Revolution, the current Transnistria was divided between imperial guberniyas of Podolia, Kherson, and Bessarabia. The territories which now consist the breakaway republic, were part of the larger New Russia region, hence it witnessed a strong colonization process, with a multitude of ethnies being settled: lands were given to enserfed peasantry from Russia and Ukraine (see also Nova Serbia), and Jews and Germans were brought to facilitate economic development.

Nonetheless, by the beginning of the 20th century, the vast majority of the inhabitants was constituted by ethnic Romanians (Moldovans) (See also ).

The large Moldavian presence, had influenced Transnistria to become an autonomous political entity in 1924, with the proclamation of the Moldavian ASSR, which included today's Transnistria as well as part of modern-day Ukraine area around the city of Balta. Another reason for the creation of the Moldavian ASSR was the desire of the Soviet Union to eventually incorporate Bessarabia.

The Moldavian SSR, which was organised by a decision of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on 2 August 1940, was formed from a part of Bessarabia (taken from Romania on 28 June, following the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact), and a part of the Moldavian ASSR which is roughly equivalent to present-day Transnistria.

In 1941, after Axis forces invaded Bessarabia in the course of the Second World War, they cut-off the Soviet troops around Odessa along the river Southern Bug, then advanced over the Dniester river and occupied the region. By March 1943, a total of 185,000 Ukrainian and Romanian Jews had been deported and murdered under Romanian and German occupation of Transnistria. The Soviet Union regained the area in 1944, and the Soviet colonisation of the region was resumed.

Mikhail Gorbachev's policy of perestroika in the Soviet Union allowed the political liberalisation at the regional level in 1980s. On 2 September 1990, the Moldovan Republic of Transnistria was unilaterally proclaimed as a Soviet republic by the "Second Congress of the Peoples' Representatives of Transnistria". On 22 December 1990, Mikhail Gorbachev, the leader of USSR, signed a decree that declared the decisions of this congress legally void. Nevertheless, neither the USSR, nor Moldova, a Soviet Socialist Republic at the time, took any significant practical action, hence the new authorities in Tiraspol slowly got control over the region.

The War of Transnistria involved armed clashes on a limited scale that broke out between the Transnistrian separatists and the Moldovan police as early as November 1990 at Dubăsari. On 2 March 1992, Moldovan President Mircea Snegur authorized concerted military action against rebel forces which had been attacking Moldovan police outposts on the left bank of the Dniester, and on a certain smaller section of the right bank in the southern city of Tighina. The rebels, aided by contingents of Russian Cossacks and the Russian 14th Army, consolidated their control over most of the disputed area, but by no means over all of it, as later testified by Moldovan police and volunteer forces in battles at Tighina and Varniţa, at Cocieri-Dubăsari and Coşniţa-Doroţcaia plateaus. As a result of this civil war, hundreds of people were killed, and thousands were forced to leave Transnistria as refugees. Throughout 1992 fighting intensified, until a ceasefire was signed on 21 July 1992 which has held ever since.

The OSCE is trying to facilitate a negotiated settlement. Under OSCE auspices, on 8 May 1997, the Moldovan President Petru Lucinschi and the Transnistrian president Igor Smirnov, signed the "Memorandum on the principles of normalizations of the relations between the Republic of Moldova and Transnistria", also known as the "Primakov Memorandum", sustaining the establishment of legal and state relations, although the memorandum's provisions had diverging legal and political interpretations in Chişinău and Tiraspol.

In November 2003, Russia has proposed another memorandum, which contained the most detailed to date proposition on the creation of an asymmetric federal Moldovan state. To ensure the implementation of this plan, Russian troops were proposed to be stationed in Moldova for another 20 years . This plan was named "the Kozak memorandum", after its author Dmitry Kozak, a counselor of the Russian president Vladimir Putin. It did not coincide with the Transnistrian position, which demanded equal status for Transnistria and the rest of Moldova. In Moldova, demonstrations took place against the memorandum, when its full text was made public.

Vladimir Voronin, who before its publication was supportive of the plan, refused to sign it without the coordination of OSCE and UE. It is widely believed, although suported only by circumstantial evidence, that this reaction appeared after a high official of the US government phoned Voronin. Putin's official visit to Moldova, that was due within days, was immediately canceled, and the Maastricht union of OSCE in 2003 was deadlocked mainly because of Russian-Western disputes over the Transnistrian issue. The formal refusal of Voronin was motivated as follows: the stationing of foreign troops on Moldovan soil contradicts the state's neutrality stipulated by the Constitution of Moldova. The refusal resulted in the sudden and long-term cooling of relations between Moldova and Russia.

In May 2005, the Ukrainian government of Viktor Yushchenko proposed a seven-point plan for the settlement of the conflict between Transnistria and Moldova.

Human rights

The Republic of Moldova, as well as other foreign states and non-governmental organizations claim that the separatist government of Transnistria is authoritarian and has a poor human rights record, accusing it of interference with religious freedom and of arbitrary arrest and torture. In the best-known such case, Ilie Ilaşcu, a politician in favour of Moldovan union with Romania, was sentenced to death by Transnistrian authority. The other three politicians were sentenced to terms of 12 to 15 years’ imprisonment with confiscation of their property. Ilaşcu was released in 2001 amid international pressure, but other members of his group remain to this day imprisoned.

It is also alleged that the trafficking of women is a serious problem, although Transnistria denies this, pointing to a lack of solid evidence.

According to OSCE the media climate in Transnistria is restrictive. Authorities continue long-standing campaign to silence independent opposition voices and movements.

Transnistrian local authorities put obstructions to public mother tongue education for ethnic Moldovans in the Latin script, insisting that any public educational institutions teaching the language use the official Cyrillic alphabet. In the summer of 2004, this issue sparked into yet another political conflict between Chisinau and Tiraspol.

See also:

• Russification
• Anti-Romanian discrimination
• Moldovan schools in Transnistria

International relations

Ukraine-Transnistria border customs dispute

On March 3, 2006, Ukraine imposed new customs regulations on its border with Transnistria: Ukraine declared it will only import goods from Transnistria with documents processed by Moldovan customs offices, as part of the implementation of the joint customs protocol between Ukraine and Moldova on December 30, 2005. Transnistria and Russia termed the act "economic blockade". Moldova denies this being described as blockade, claiming it created favorable conditions for registration of Transnistria-based businesses: to obtain a 6-month export license is a half-hour simplified procedure.

Of major mediators of the conflict in the region, the United States, the European Union and OSCE approved the Ukrainian move, while Russia sees it as a means of political pressure and claims that "Russia's interests are directly affected" as well.

On March 4, Tiraspol retaliated by blocking the Moldovan and Ukrainian transport at the borders of Transnistria. The block was lifted on March 18.

Population

At the census of 1989, the population was 679,000. At the time of the 2004 census, the population was 555,347."

Recently, there has been a substantial emigration due to economic hardships and uncertain political situation. This is one of the reasons why a disproportionately large part of the population is past the age of retirement.

Ethnicity

Throughout most of its modern history, Transnistria was home to three major groups, roughly equal in numbers: Russians and Ukrainians as well as a Moldovan plurality. In the latter half of the 20th century, the ethnic proportions have changed in large measure due to industrialization and the immigration of Russian and Ukrainian workers, encouraged by the Soviets. The trend continued after 1991, too, as the Moldovan population decreased between 1989 and 2004 from 39% to 32% of the total population. However, the Moldovans are still the largest single group of the region.

Economy

After WWII, Transnistria was heavily industrialized, to the point that in 1990, it was responsible for 40% of Moldova's GDP and 90% of its electricity despite the fact that it accounted for only 17% of Moldova's population.

The GDP (2005) is about $420 million. GDP per capita, based on the exchange rate, is $756, which is slightly lower than Moldova, the poorest country in Europe.

Transnistria has a number of factories, although some only possess older technology. Its largest company is a steel factory, based in Rîbniţa (Rybnitsa), which brings in about 50% of the republic's revenue and is the main provider of jobs in that city.

Another exporter is the distillery Kvint of Tiraspol, known for its strong spirits, which is also shown on the 5 Transnistrian ruble banknote.

An important company in the republic is Sheriff. Sheriff owns a chain of supermarkets, a chain of petrol stations, a TV channel, the FC Sheriff Tiraspol football team and its newly constructed stadium.

Crime

Smuggling

Transnistria has a reputation of being a heaven for smuggling weapons, women, as well and as smuggling various products into the Republic of Moldova or to eastern states through the Ukrainian border. This view is supported by the Moldovan government, the EU and various NGOs. In 2002, the European Parliament's delegation to Moldova named Transnistria "a black hole in which illegal trade in arms, the trafficking in human beings and the laundering of criminal finance was carried on". In 2005, The Wall Street Journal called Transnistria "a major haven for smuggling weapons and women". However, OSCE and European Union diplomats cited by Radio Free Europe called the smuggling claims "wildly exaggerated".

The Transnistrian government also denies any such allegations and has instead claimed that the Moldovan police is involved in drug smuggling. In May 2006 a Moldovan police officer was arrested in Transnistria for his role in a drug operation.

The government of Ukraine, which had long been seen as assisting in this illegal trade, has recently taken steps to prevent smuggling along its border by opening new customs posts and by stipulating that the goods passing from Transnistria through Ukraine must first obtain clearance from Moldovan authorities.

Weapons trade

Analysts have also identified the dangers presented by the region due to its large deposits of weapons and the potential of their unauthorized sale. However, foreign experts working on behalf of the United Nations confirm that there is currently transparency and good levels of co-operation with Transnistria in the field of weapons control . A 2004 newspaper article claimed that a cache of surface-to-air missile launchers as well as other weapons may have disappeared from a former Soviet stockpile and that officials were at the time unable to account for their whereabouts. The OSCE and European Union officials state that there is no evidence that Transnistria has ever, at any time in the past, trafficked arms or nuclear material, although they pointed out that a lack of evidence does not mean that dangerous activities are not taking place. Lawlessness in Transdniester alone constitutes a threat to stability.

The latest survey published by the United Nations Development Programme UNDP states that the territory under the control of Transnistrian authorities is highly militarised, number of illicit weapons in the region is unknown however the evidence for the illicit production and trafficking of weapons into and from Transnistria has in the past been exaggerated, while trafficking of weapons is likely to have occurred prior to 2001, there is no reliable evidence that this still occurs. It also states that the same holds true for the production of such weapons, which is likely to have been carried out in the 1990s primarily to equip Transnistrian forces.

Domestic terrorism

There has been some domestic terrorism in Transnistria:

• in May 2004, there was an attempt by a Russian neo-Nazi organization to set on fire a synagogue in Tiraspol, using a Molotov Cocktail and a flammable liquid near a gas pipe.
• in July 2006, a bomb killed eight in a Tiraspol minibus.
• in August 2006, a grenade explosion in a Tiraspol trolley bus killed two and injured ten.

Administrative regions

Russian names are listed in parentheses.

• Camenca (Каменка), also Kamenka
• Dubăsari (Дубоссары), also Dubossary
• Grigoriopol (Григориополь)
• Rîbniţa (Рыбница), also Rybnitsa
• Slobozia (Слободзея)
• Tiraspol (Тирасполь)
• Tighina (Бендеры), also Bender or Bendery

References

1. Pridnestrovie.net: "Pridnestrovie" vs "Transnistria"
2. Moldova AZI, Transnistrian Militia Withdrew Its Posts from Vasilievca, Accessed 2006-10-18
3. (Some) international observers call elections free, democratic
4. Transnistria 2006: Is Regime Change Underway?
5. Info taken from the official site of the European Union.
6. Official website: Biographies of all PMR Members of Parliament
7. Official website: Biographies of all PMR Members of Parliament
8. Mihai Grecu, Anatol Ţăranu - The policy of linguistic cleansing in Transnistria, page 26-27
9. Mihai Grecu, Anatol Ţăranu - The policy of linguistic cleansing in Transnistria, page 27
10. Mihai Grecu, Anatol Ţăranu - The policy of linguistic cleansing in Transnistria, page 27
11. Landslide win for independence vote in Pridnestrovie's referendum
12. PMR CEC announces final referendum results Template:Ru icon
13. Moldova, the United States, the European Union, Ukraine, Turkey, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Iceland, Albania, Norway
14. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5355338.stm
15. De Administrando Imperio
17. George Reichersdorf: "Moldaviæ quæ olim Daciæ pers, chorographia, Georgio a Reichersdorf Transilvano auctore", Viennæ 1541.
18. Bronovius and Georg Werner: "Transylvania, Moldavia and Chersonesus Tauricæ'". Published by Arnold Mylius, Cologne, 1595.
19. Antonio Bonfini (1434 - 1503): "Rerum Ungaricarum decades quatuor cum dimidia"
20. Giovanni Botero (1540-1617): "Relazioni universali", Venice, 1591
21. Giovanni Antonio Magini (1555-1617): "Geographie universae", Venice, 1596.
22. Charles Upson Clark: “Russia and Roumania on the Black Sea”: “Frequent mention has been made of the Moldavian Soviet Republic. It is not generally known that the lower Dniester is an almost purely Roumanian stream. The villages along its left bank, from Movilau down to Ovidiopol, opposite Akkerman, are as Moldavian as those on the Bessarabian bank. And this Moldavian peasantry stretches as far east as the Bug, beyond Elisavetgrad, and down to within a few miles of Odessa (see Draghicesco). This is due to a very early immigration of Roumanian shepherds and traders along the streams of the black-earth district east of the Dniester-so early that we find here some Roumanian place-names on the Reichersdorf map of 1541. Further extensive colonization took place in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the Polish princes of Podolia encouraging the creation of large farms by Moldavian boyars; and in the eighteenth century, Russian generals took back with them from their campaigns against the Turks, enormous numbers of Roumanian peasants. In 1739, Gen. Munnich carried back with him 100,000 Roumanian peasants, according to the memoirs of Trenck, his companion; and_ in 1792, another great immigration took place. As a result, it is reckoned that there are probably half a million Roumanian peasants in Russia east of the Dniester.” Ch. XXIX
23. ibidem
24. OSCE - Media in Transdniestria
25. Official data from 2004 census and comparison with the 1989 census, by Olvia Press
26. Pridnestrovie.net: The Multiethnic Republic
27. John Mackinlay and Peter Cross (editors), Regional Peacekeepers: The Paradox of Russian Peacekeeping, United Nations University Press, 2003, ISBN 92-808-1079-0 p. 135
28. RosBusiness: Transnistria announces GDP forecast
29. European Parliament, "Chairman's Report—Ad Hoc Delegation to Moldova", 5–6 June 2002
30. The Wall Street Journal, "Moldova's Ruling Communists Are Leading a Swing to the West, Marc Champion in London and Alan Cullison in Moscow. March 4 2005. pg. A.13
31. RFE/RL: Western Diplomats Say Reports Of Smuggling From Transdniester Likely Exaggerated
32. PMR Customs: Channel of narcotics delivery from Moldova is revealed
33. Western officials: No drug smuggling in Pridnestrovie
34. Vladimir Socor: Kyiv decides to enforce customs regulations with Moldova
35. UNDP: 2006 Small arms and light weapons survey of Moldova
36. Cite error: The named reference washtimes was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
37. RFE/RL: Western Diplomats Say Reports Of Smuggling From Transdniester Likely Exaggerated
38. UNDP: 2006 Small arms and light weapons survey of Moldova
39. A Molotov Cocktail Thrown at a Synagogue in Tiraspol
40. Trans-Dniester blast kills eight BBC
41. Grenade exploded in Tiraspol trolley bus

External links

• Profile of Trans-Dniester from the BBC
• OSCE Mission to Moldova OSCE
• Transdniester in Cyberspace Radio Free Europe
• Disinformation The Economist

Transnistrian side

• PMR Presidential website
• Pridnestrovie.net (Official English site)
• VisitPMR.com (Official tourist information)
• Tiraspol Times & Weekly Review (English language news)

Moldovan side

• Moldova Azi: News from Moldova
• Moldova.org non-governmental country portal
• Transnistrian Conflict
• Transnistria.md

Template:Dependent and other territories of Europe

• Transnistria
• Moldova
• Unrecognized or largely-unrecognized states