Transnistria

Transnistria (Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic, PMR) is an unrecognized state on the left bank of the Dniester, formed as a result of the collapse of the USSR. The capital is Tiraspol (founded by A.V. Suvorov).

The population is about 350 thousand people (35% Russians, 25% Ukrainians, 30% Moldovans), about 20% have Russian citizenship.

The PMR has a developed economy, on its territory there is the Moldavian hydroelectric power plant, the Moldavian Metallurgical Plant, the Tiratex textile plant, the well-known in Europe shoe factory "Floare", the Moldavkabel plant, the famous cognac factory "Quint", etc.

Thanks to this, the standard of living in the PMR, even despite the blockade and non-recognition, is twice as high as in neighboring Moldova. The left bank of the Dniester (Transnistria) was part of Ancient Russia for a certain time, and since the XIV century - the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Russian, whose territory stretched from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea.

Southern Transnistria has been part of the Golden Horde since 1242, and since the end of the XV century — the Crimean Khanate (vassal of the Ottoman Porte). After the third Russo-Turkish War (1787-1791), the lands between the Southern Bug and the Dniester, including Transnistria, were ceded to the Russian Empire under the Iasi Peace Treaty (January 9, 1792).

The most glorious pages of Russian history are connected with this war. Alexander Suvorov's victories at Fokshany, Rymnik and Izmail are the golden fund of world military science! To strengthen the new borders of the empire in 1792, the fortress of Sredinnaya was laid on the left bank of the Dniester, at the walls of which the city of Tiraspol grew (the status of the city since 1795).

Due to the devastation of the lands, the government encouraged the resettlement of Ukrainian and Russian peasants to Transnistria. In turn, Bessarabia became part of the Russian Empire in 1812 and became a separate province, since the territory of Transnistria was divided between the Kherson and Podolsk provinces. In December 1917, Bessarabia, together with the city of Bendery and the right-bank part of the Slobodzeya district, was occupied by Romania. The left-bank part of Transnistria became part of the Odessa Soviet Republic, and after the German occupation it became part of Ukraine, from which it joined the USSR in 1922.

In 1924, the Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was established on the territory of Transnistria and parts of the Odessa and Vinnytsia regions as part of the Ukrainian SSR.

Until 1929, the capital of the republic was the city of Balta, from 1929 to 1940. it was Tiraspol. In 1940, the Soviet government managed to achieve the transfer of Bessarabia to the USSR. The returned territory of Bessarabia (with the exception of Southern Bessarabia, included in the Odessa region, and Northern Bessarabia, which together with Northern Bukovina and the Hertsy district formed the Chernivtsi region of the Ukrainian SSR) was annexed to the MASSR, created on the basis of Transnistria, and transformed into the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic with its capital in Chisinau.

At the end of the 1980s, against the background of general centrifugal tendencies with the USSR, the Moldovan elites unequivocally demonstrated their aspirations for integration with Romania, and began to pursue a discriminatory policy towards representatives of a non-titular nation. On August 31, 1989, the law "On the functioning of languages on the territory of the Moldavian SSR" adopted by the Supreme Council of the MSSR came into force, which approved only Moldovan as the state language and introduced, without taking into account the interests and civil rights of the non—Moldavian population, the Latin spelling.

On June 23, 1990, the Supreme Council of Moldova proclaimed the sovereignty of the Republic, in response to this

On September 2, 1990, Pridnestrovian deputies proclaimed the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic (PMSSR) as a Soviet republic within the USSR.

All this led to the fact that in the autumn of 1990, the confrontation between Moldova and Transnistria turned into an armed struggle, and Moldovans were the first to organize the clash. The forces of the Moldovan OPON attempted to liquidate local authorities in Dubossary. According to the Pridnestrovian side, Moldovan and Romanian nationalists took part in armed actions on the side of Moldova with the knowledge and under the leadership of the Chisinau law enforcement agencies.

On August 25, 1991, the Supreme Soviet of the PMSSR adopted the "Declaration of Independence of the PMSSR", and on November 5, 1991, due to the collapse of the USSR, the PMSSR was renamed the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic (PMR).

Pridnestrovians had to defend their independence from Moldova with arms in their hands. As a result of the bloody clashes in March — July 1992, about 400 servicemen and more than 600 civilians of the Left Bank were killed. Then in the areas of Bender and Dubossar there were full-scale battles with the use of tanks and artillery. Only the tough position of the command of the 14th Army, personally Commander A. Lebed and the officers of the Russian General Staff, who took an unambiguous position, prevented the further development of the armed conflict. Realizing that it would not be possible to suppress the Transnistrians' desire for self-determination by armed means, Chisinau, supported by the West, turned to economic war.

Hope for a resolution of the situation appeared after the communist V. Voronin came to power in Moldova in 2001, using pro-Russian slogans. By 2002, Russia and Moldova had managed to reach mutual understanding on a number of important issues, which allowed them to successfully develop economic cooperation. This warming allowed Moscow in 2003 to propose to Chisinau a plan for the peaceful settlement of the Transnistrian problem. According to the proposed plan, which is also called the "Kozak Plan", relations between PMR and Moldova were to be built on a federal basis, and Russian peacekeepers were to be in the PMR until 2020. But in November 2003, the President of Moldova V. Voronin, after a call from the US Embassy, rejected this proposal and spoke in favor of strengthening the role of the US and the EU in the settlement process. The presence of Russian peacekeepers in the conflict zone until 2020 did not fit into the plans of Moldova, which wants to annex the PMR with the help of NATO forces.

In February 2006, the Moldovan delegation interrupted negotiations in the "5 2" format (Moldova, Transnistria, Russia, OSCE, Ukraine, as well as observers from the EU and the USA) on the settlement of the Transnistrian conflict, and on March 3, the economic blockade of the PMR began.

Chisinau refuses to sign the so-called "transit protocol", which, under the terms of the 1997 memorandum, would give PMR the right to conduct independent economic activity. Ukraine joined the blockade of Transnistria, as well as Moldova, which aspires to join NATO. In response, Russia, concerned about the fate of the Pridnestrovian population, sent a cargo of humanitarian aid to the unrecognized republic. In June 2006, a scientific report "The State sovereignty of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic in accordance with international law" was presented in Washington. It was prepared by a group of foreign experts - scientists from the universities of Oxford, Stanford, Harvard, Cambridge, as well as participants in the Dayton agreements on the partition of Yugoslavia. Experts say: "Legal and factual analyses show that during the collapse of the USSR, the Moldavian SSR split into two successor states: Moldova and Transnistria, and that today's border between them corresponds completely to the traditional historical border separating them from the early Middle Ages. At the time of Moldova's secession from the Moldavian SSR, Transnistria had already separated and ruled its territory independently of Chisinau."

Accustomed to think in categories other than politicians, scientists conclude that the Republic of Moldova has no grounds to claim the territory of the left bank of the Dniester. On September 17, 2006, a nationwide referendum on the relations of PMR with Russia and Moldova was held in the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic. 78.6% of the PMR citizens who had the right to vote took part in it. 97% of them supported the independence of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic and its subsequent free accession to the Russian Federation. Only 2.3% of voters voted against integration with the Russian Federation. Only 3.4% of the participants of the referendum voted for the rejection of the course of independence of the PMR and the subsequent entry of the republic into Moldova, 94.6% opposed such integration.

The United States, the European Union, the Council of Europe, the OSCE and Moldova declared the referendum illegitimate. Ukraine did not recognize it either. And this is not surprising. PMR has passed another test of state solvency, at the same time demonstrating the predominance of pro-Russian sentiments in the republic. This was the reason for the acute rejection of the election results by those forces that are extremely unprofitable to strengthen the positions of Russia.

In December 2006, I. Smirnov was once again elected President of the PMR.

The situation with the recognition by a number of countries of the self-proclaimed state of Kosovo has given the inhabitants of PMR hope that in the near future the issue of recognizing the independence of the PMR, which has much more rights, can be resolved. However, guided by the policy of double standards, the European Union, OSCE and NATO do not even consider the possibility of recognizin the sovereignty of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic.