Map of Transnistria and Moldova: this is the situation

A militarized borderin which Moldovan citizens are only allowed to pass after an exhaustive interview, separates Transnistria from the rest of the former Soviet republic of Moldova. Since 1992, this territory of 4,163 kilometers square, inhabited mostly by ethnic russianslives in a regime of independence not recognized internationally, after a war from one year and eight months that caused thousands of deaths and that became the first beloved conflict that broke out in the post-Soviet space after the dissolution of the USSR.

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Entering by car in Transnistria is like taking a trip to the past of between three and four decades. Everywhere two flags wave – the local one and the Russian ensign – while the statues and the busts of Stalin and Lenin are omnipresent. The only coins in circulation are the transnistrian ruble, with bills whose texture resembles plastic, and the Russian ruble. The moldovan leu, on the other hand, is not accepted in any trade or establishment. The place has its own postage stamps and even a telephone prefix own on local phone calls. The vehicles that travel between Chisinauthe capital, and Ukraine and crossing Transnistria are only allowed to transit for a few hours.

known schema

The armed conflict followed a pattern that would later be repeated in places like Georgia and especially Ukraine. An ethnic minority, either Russian speaker, whether it has maintained close ties with Moscow, feels displaced due to the independence of the former Soviet republic to which it is formally attached and rises up against its authority. These rebellions, conveniently incited from the Kremlin, end up generating territories that ‘de facto’ function as independent states and that prevent their respective governments from starting the procedures to join NATO, a military alliance that, from the outset, does not accept new states. members that carry territorial disputes. Of course, the armed conflicts that led to the birth of these territories increased their mortality over time. The 3,000 dead in Transnistria became, a year later, 9,000 in the conflict that pitted the territory of Abkhazia against the state of Georgia, and in 14,000 in the donbas war that exploded in 2014.