
Transinistria, the Area Between Moldova and Ukraine - atsaloli
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/photography/proof/2017/03/transinistria-moldova-republic-ukraine/?cmpid=org=ngp::mc=crm-email::src=ngp::cmp=editorial::add=SpecialEdition_Escape_20200917&rid=270AC37550F07188CAC5926E6E931E62
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dmurray
It seems like Transnistrians would generally prefer independence to the status
quo. (Whether they would prefer joining Russia even more is a different
question). Moldova would prefer to integrate it into Moldova. Everyone in the
international community - including those aligned with Russia, such as
Belarus, Serbia, and Russia itself - officially opposes independence, and in
practice approves of the current situation even if they occasionally speak in
favour of Moldova's position.

Why is this? It doesn't seem that the EU benefits from keeping the status quo
of heavy Russian influence but _de jure_ Moldovan ownership: if anything, an
independent Transnistria might one day prefer to court the European sphere.
Conversely, Russia should be happy to have an official ally in the region. The
international-law disputes over who signed what treaty, 3 states ago, seem
moot and trivial compared with the principle of self-determination. So why not
give them what they seem to want?

~~~
nsajko
> The international-law disputes over who signed what treaty, 3 states ago,
> seem moot and trivial compared with the principle of self-determination.

Here lies the flaw in your thinking. An obvious issue is that Transnistrian
secession would impinge on Moldovan sovereignty. This is similar to how
Catalonia is not allowed to secede from Spain. Some counterexamples are Kosovo
seceding from Serbia (supported by USA and UN because of Serbia's terrible
international standing at that moment, specifically because of the ethnic
cleansing employed by the Serbian government and army in the war) and Algeria
seceding from France (which the French agreed to to end the Algerian War). So
I think the reason for Transnistria not being recognized is that Moldova is in
relatively good international standing (at least compared to Serbia around the
time of the Kosovo War), thus no internationally recognized country wants to
attack Moldova's sovereignty, for kind of the same reasons that most people
try not to break any laws. (And those that would be willing to "break the law"
presumably have nothing to gain from it.)

Also see [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-
determination](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-determination)

> The principle does not state how the decision is to be made, nor what the
> outcome should be, whether it be independence, federation, protection, some
> form of autonomy or full assimilation. Neither does it state what the
> delimitation between peoples should be—nor what constitutes a people. There
> are conflicting definitions and legal criteria for determining which groups
> may legitimately claim the right to self-determination.

~~~
int_19h
The other difference between Moldova and Serbia is that there's specific
precedent pertaining to the matter.

Transnistria was not Moldova's only ethnic separatism conflict; there was also
Gagauzia, which similarly declared independence, but that conflict was
resolved without shooting. Moldova promised significant autonomy, and, for the
most part, did deliver on those promises.

And then you contrast that with how Serbia treated Albanians in Kosovo when it
was a part of their country...

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ziftface
A very different style of presentation, but if you want to get a more close-up
view of Transdniestria, [this video by bald and bankrupt][1] is worth a watch.

[1]:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kVnrqBb6y4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kVnrqBb6y4)

~~~
starik36
You beat me to it. His channel is just chock full of awesome videos that go
way beyond tourist traps.

~~~
dmitryminkovsky
Woah he seems to speak Russian? And quite well, too. Really admire any non-
native Russian speakers.

------
coretx
The current situation is designed by former sovjet leadership who chose to
draw their internal borders for administrational units or "oblasts" in such a
manner that a eventual secession of said region would naturally result in a
instable faction or nation. Speaking of such happenings we should also not
forget that a large chunk of the soviet small arms industry was concentrated
in Transnistria and for strategical reasons. Even today to occupy that region
coerces military eyes to focus at a tiny gap between Belarus and the Baltic
states in case of a conventional land war. A scenario in favor of Russia due
to their occupation of Koningsberg where they have installed advanced AA
weapon systems, among other things. The Soviet Union was never fully beaten
and the KGB was merely renamed "United Russia".

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rudolfwinestock
The (in)famous hacker & troll, weev, lives in Transnistria, at the moment.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weev#After_prison](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weev#After_prison)

~~~
konjin
>He was sentenced to 41 months in federal prison[34] and ordered to pay
$73,000 in restitution.[49] Just prior to his sentencing, he posted an "Ask Me
Anything" thread on Reddit;[50] his comments, such as "I hope they give me the
maximum, so people will rise up and storm the docks" and "My regret is being
nice enough to give AT&T a chance to patch before dropping the dataset to
Gawker. I won't nearly be as nice next time", were cited by the prosecution
the next day in court as justification for the sentence.[51]

Dear god what did I read?

>On April 11, 2014, the Third Circuit issued an opinion vacating Auernheimer's
conviction, on the basis that the New Jersey venue was improper,[56] since
neither Auernheimer, his co-conspirators, nor AT&T's servers were in New
Jersey at the time of the data breach. While the judges did not address the
substantive question on the legality of the site access, they were skeptical
of the original conviction, noting that no circumvention of passwords had
occurred and that only publicly accessible information was obtained.[59] He
was released from prison on April 11, 2014.[60]

How incompetent do you have to be to arrest someone over something that isn't
a crime, and also screw up the case so badly that you'd have to release him
even if it was?

~~~
dragonwriter
> How incompetent do you have to be to arrest someone over something that
> isn't a crime, and also screw up the case so badly that you'd have to
> release him even if it was?

I don't know, indicting, charging, and convicting someone in a federal court
without proper venue when the charged act probably isn't a crime would seem
like it would take an extraordinary combination of both _competence_ and
_malfeasance_ from the prosecutor. _In_ competence would lead you to fail even
without the impediments of “not a crime” and “not a court in which venue is
proper”.

~~~
konjin
The US system is set up to arrest everyone and keep them locked up
indefinitely as slave labor (literally true - the 13th amendment allows for
slavery in prisons).

I'd say that you have to be pretty incompetent to still lose with that system
in place.

------
pydry
I visited in 2018. The weirdest experience was getting drunk on vodka with 4
locals and listening to them rant. They wanted #1 an end to local corruption
(a common complaint all over the world) and #2 they wanted Putin to nuke the
US.

I'm not really sure how serious they were about the nuke part but they
_really_ didn't like America.

~~~
notdang
I am from the same region and until now I did not get used to this. People
live surrounded by dirt and corruption but they still don't like America as
thou America is making that dirt and corruption. Also online, if someone
points to something negative passing in Russia, Belarus, Transnistria, the
usual response will be: "But look what is passing in US"

~~~
dole
This has been happening for decades, not just online.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/And_you_are_lynching_Negroes](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/And_you_are_lynching_Negroes)

~~~
notdang
Yes, however in the past it was state propaganda as a response to criticisms
of human rights violations

Now it's the response of normal people to someone also local criticising a
local event, state of afairs, etc.

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mxcrossb
This article has a real nauseating “I went to document the primitive natives”
feel to it. Lines like:

> But when he was out on the street with his camera, something struck him
> about the way people reacted.

Make it sound like they’ve never seen a camera before. And surely there is
more to the story than pictures of tanks and people in military uniforms?

~~~
d_silin
> “It was strange,” he says. “Nobody was happy. But nobody was pissed off.”

More of general Eastern European mood :)

~~~
viraptor
I don't get this to be honest. It did strike me as a weird line a well. In any
country I've been it's not like I've seen people react in any specific way to
me taking photos. A person uses a camera while the rest of the world goes on
seems... extremely normal?

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piranha
It’s a Russia-backed puppet state, the same as Abkhazia (same period of time),
South Ossetia (2008), or a newer DNR/LNR (2014). It’s not people that decided
to do something, it’s that big pile of shit country making life worse for
them.

~~~
d_silin
As someone who lived in proximity to this region, the issue is not exactly as
black and white as you may feel.

~~~
1024core
Please enlighten us. You seem to know something about the subject; why stop at
a 1-line dismissive comment?

~~~
rabite
Because slavic politics is a powder keg and you have to be extremely
conservative about what you say for fear of angering somebody who might want
to kill you for saying it.

Most of the people in Transnistria very much value their independent status,
it allows them a degree of practical freedom in commerce that they would not
have otherwise. They also typically are not limited by the nation's
independent status as they also nearly universally hold Ukrainian or Moldovan
citizenship in addition to Transnistrian.

Furthermore, the practical matter of it is that the PMR (Transnistria)
military cannot hope to withstand say, a prolonged assault with the Ukrainian
military. Though both Ukraine and Moldova officially declare Transnistria
illegitimate and their rightful clay, extremely prominent and well connected
people in both countries also greatly benefit from its existence. Lots of
border and jurisdictional games to play. Nobody seriously wants it to go away.

~~~
chrisweekly
Thank you for your helpful comment; in the spirit of reciprocity, by "their
rightful clay," I _think_ you meant "their rightful soil" \-- in which case,
FYI, "soil" in particular is occasionally used to refer to "land" as in
"native soil", ie "homeland". But "clay" doesn't work there, the idiom is
strictly "soil". HTH! :)

~~~
unmole
I'm pretty sure _rightful clay_ was a polandball reference.

~~~
rabite
You would be correct, and also clay rhymed easy with play and away and thus
made the text have a nice, soft flow to it.

------
rasz
Russia (FSB) is really good at sowing dissent. We had a big Anti Covid protest
in Poland last week. By Anti Covid they meant something totally different from
what you might expect. Main slogan:

"Covid-19 - global lie! turn off TV - turn on thinking! Learn facts! take off
your mask!"

[https://oko.press/skrajna-prawica-organizuje-bunt-
przeciwko-...](https://oko.press/skrajna-prawica-organizuje-bunt-przeciwko-
pandemii/)

Organized by far rights, religious fringes, alternative medicine enthusiasts,
conspiracy nuts, and a Russian 'psychic healer'.

Berlin had similar protest last month, organized with the help of their neo
nazi party (AfD).

