Tidbits From the World

I’ve been in Moldova five days already. An English journalist who has lived in the same apartment as I am living in, had been staying in Moldova only three days before he wrote an entire one-page article about this country. After five days of being here, I don’t feel I know enough to write this much about this country, therefore if I rely on my own experience, I guess his article must have been incomplete. Moldova is a country with a very complfex history, it is situated in the European continent, but it does not belong to the European Union. To enter this country you need to go through customs. Moldova uses as a currency the “leu” (plural: lei) and they are far from adopting the euro. In 2001, Moldova became the firfst European country to ever democratically elect a communist party. This country is, therefore, in theory communist. But was does it mean in reality? I guess one must have grown up in this country and seen the transition from the communist economy to the market one to really know. Five days are definitely not sufficient. But what I could say is that, on the surface, Chisinau really looks like a “capitalist” city, well converted to the market economy. Businesses and advertisements are ubiquitious. There still are however, some remnants of the communist era: old messages, apartment buildings, trolleybuses…

^{(Source: John Dutton; http://www.documentaire.com/caucasus/Transdniestria.html )}

Here is the map of Moldova. This country declared its independence from USSR in 1991. Before becoming a SSR (Socialist Sovietic Republic inside USSR), Moldova was the region of a bigger country named Bessarabia, uniting Romania and Moldova. The language spoken in Moldova is Moldovan, but in fact, it is nothing else than Romanian with some differences in the pronounciation and in vocabulary. In the USSR, the central government adopted a politic of russification of Moldova. Many Russians moved to Moldova, which changed the demography of the country in the favor of the Russians. In 1991, when Moldova declared its independence, the russophone region located on the eastern bank of the Dniester River, Transdniestria, declared their independence from Moldova, which resulted in a war between both regions. With the help of the Russian army, Transdniestria won the war and… a country was born. Everything you need in order to get a country was present in Transdniestria: there was a government, a currency, a constitution, laws, armed forces, the police… everything was there except for… the international recognition. Transdniestria is not recognized by any foreign country, and for this reason, it does not appear on any map. The Moldovan government has no control over this area.

It has been a long time since I first got the idea of visiting Transdniestria, for its history, present and past. The website of the Canadian Government advises that no consular protection is provided to the Canadians visiting the breakaway Republic of Transdniestria, because Canada has no diplomatic relations with Transdniestria and Moldova does not have any control over that region. The government therefore advises to “avoid all travel” to that region. All the Romanian people in Bucarest to whom I have told I would visit Transdniestria all said to me the same thing: “don’t be stupid and don’t go there”. But in Chisinau, the Moldavians and the tourists I have met had another vision on the subject. The tourist with whom I am sharing my bedroom has visited many times Transdniestria without having any problems and my guide has crossed the border some 50 times without any problems neither. Knowing that I would regret it my whole life if I didn’t go to Transdniestria, I decided to go take the tour to Tiraspol, the capital city of Transdniestria, with the daughter of the owner of the apartment where I live. Here is what I saw:…

My guide, a tourist from New-Zealand and I went to the bus station in the center of Chisinau and we took a collective taxi that goes everyday to Tiraspol for 75 lei (7,50$). One hour after we left Chisinau, we arrived to the Transdniestrian border. In theory, visiting Transdniestria is free, but in practice, you have to pay if you are a foreigner. Actually you have to bribe the customs officers if you want to be allowed in. My guide, Natasha, knew what to do to get in. After having crossed the border some 50 times she knew the customs officers well and for her, the prices for each tourist that she brings was “only” 15 euros, instead of the habitual 50 euros. 15 euros a tourist, we were two tourists in the car, that gives 30 euros directly to the pocket of the customs officers. If you multiply this figure by the number of tourists who come everyday to Transdniestria and then by the number of days there are in a month, you get a fairly good salary for someone who lives in the poorest place in Europe! I was given this immigration card with the hour I got it written on the top right corner of it: 10:20. The visa was valid only for 4 hours.

And… here I am! In Transdniestria! The hammer and the sickle, the former flag of the Molvovan SSR, and a sign that says “MTR welcomes you to the capital city”. The official name of Transdniestria is MTR (Moldovan Transdniestrian Republic).

This is the main street in Tiraspol. Very wide.

The day I was there, there was some maintenance work going on on the street.

With very old machinery…

On the main square in the main street, Natasha explained to us the meaning of what we were seeing.

A tank on the main plaza. It was used in the Great Patriotic War, against the Nazi forces. (1941-1945).

A memorial to the war in Afghanistan.

A panel remembering the 63rd anniversary of the soviet victory over the nazi forces in 1945.

“USSR… Victory”.

The flag of Transdniestria. It is the same as the one used by the former Moldovan SSR.

The Tiraspol parliament and a statue of Lenin in front of it. It is prohibited to take pictures of the parliament, so I could not go nearer to get a better view.

The House of the Soviets.

The laureates for a contest.

The Dniester River that separates both worlds.

… and the bridge that crosses it.

Che Guevara and Vladimir Putin together.

Y Dmitri Medvedev, el nuevo presidente ruso.

And Dmitri Medvedev, the new Russian president.

Some objects were hidden behind this wall in 1967. In the year 2017, 50 years later, this wall will be destroyed and the hidden objects will be revealed. What do you think is hidden behind this wall?

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A water distributor. For 70 transdniestrian kopecks, you can have a glass of carbonated water…

No tour of Tiraspol is complete without buying some alcohol. Bottles of cognac and of other kinds of alcohols are from 5 to 10 times cheaper in Transdniestria than in Moldova (where the prices are already very low). On the picture you can see a range of prices between 17 and 60 Transdniestrian rubles (between 2 and 7$).

Typical Tirapol apartments.

A Russian soldier. Without the help of Russia, Transdniestria would not be able to keep their independence against Moldova. In Tiraspol you can see lots of Russian Soldiers. There are even offices of the Russian Army with the Russian flag flying on the roof!

The exchange rate of the Transdniestrian ruble against the American, European, Russian, Ukrainian an Moldovian currencies. I find it fascinating that Transdniestrian have created their own currency! But as Transdniestria is not recognized by any foreign country, their currency is not exchangeable anywhere else than in Transdniestria. So if you don’t want to be stuck with worthless money after your trip, better change all your transdniestrian rubles before leaving the country.

Petro station “Sheriff”…

Supermarket « Sheriff »… there is also a Sheriff Stadium. Sheriff is the trademark of a chain of business present all over Transdniestria. The owner of the chain is the president of the country himself, Smirnoff and his associates (in the government). It is said that Transdniestria is governed by mafia and that the president Smirnoff is the boss. His counsellors, ministers, deputies, etc are all his associates. Some of them are even wanted by Interpol, according to some sources… When Transdniestria opened up to the market economy, the government and, the president created the brand Sheriff. Today, it is ubiquitous in the breakaway republic.

This is what I saw in Transdniestria. On the surface, Tiraspol seemed to me very similar to Chisinau, except for the communist emblems that I could see all around Tiraspol. To me, Tiraspol did not look like a city besieged by the army. The soldiers who were walking on the streets were not even armed. Tiraspol is a very calm city. Would this be the calm before the storm? Nobody knows. But one thing is clear : status quo cannot remain for very long in Transdniestria. Smirnoff is the president of the breakaway republic since its independence 17 years ago. When he will step down or die or whatever, what is going to happen in there? Can Transdniestria remain isolated from the rest of the world, without international recognition? To all these fascinating questions we will have an answer… one day… or one year…