Romanian Youth Voice

Financial Times: Transdniestria: the country that did not come in from the cold - Always a provincial place, a Russian-speaking corner within Romanian-speaking Moldova

Following the starting of negotiations between Chisinau and Tiraspol on the frozen conflict in Transnistria (so called Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic) , Financial Times (Thomas Escritt) published an article on the situation of this break away region of Moldova.

”Always a provincial place, a Russian-speaking corner within Romanian-speaking Moldova, this tiny break-away region (Transnistria) has had neither the time nor the resources to acquire the outward trappings of a state. With a population of just 150,000, Tiraspol, the capital, is a city of gloomy tower blocks punctuated by modest administrative buildings. Perhaps this is why the government of Igor Smirnov is so keen to emphasise its statehood. Outside the Supreme Soviet, the parliament, is a giant photograph of Smirnov, the strongman who has ruled the province since its secession in 1992, locked in fraternal embrace with the presidents of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, two other misfit enclaves left beached by the receding Soviet Union” Thomas Escritt notes for Financial Times.

Smirnov, a former Red Army officer and a director of Electromash, an engineering company, organised the province’s declaration of independence in 1991, and led it through a shooting war with Moldova that was brought to an end by the intervention of Russia in 1992. Russia maintains a 1,500-strong army presence here to this day, and Moldova has had no control over the territory since.
Since then, Russia continued to make political pressure on Moldova to accept a federalization of the country with Tiraspol equal subject. Actually this federalization would ensure a complete control of Moscow over the entire republic of Moldova many annalists say.

FT reports that many think Smirnov is on the way out. ”There are suggestions that the EU may offer sweeteners to Russia to encourage a resolution. Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, has suggested that Russia could be given a voice in certain EU decision-making forums or a softer visa regime as a reward for progress in the area”.

You can read the article here! FT.com

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27.06.2011. 00:47

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