
Letter from Transnistria - nols
http://calvertjournal.com/articles/show/4781/letter-from-transnistria-tiraspol-independence-day
======
_bpo
No idea why this is near the top of hackernews, but I've been there. One time
when I was there, there was a huge billboard in front of the old ministry of
culture with the (then) presidents of Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Transnistria
smiling together. The local gag at the time was that this was the
"Commonwealth of Unrecognized States" \- meanwhile Putin was meeting the
Commonwealth of Independent States in Chisnau. [1]

Far be it from me to attempt to summarize a nation in a few sentences, but one
would be remiss without following up that article by saying the obvious....
Transnistria is a place run by gangsters. The hammer and sickle are printed on
their money to appeal to the old folks who long for the days of Soviet
protection, meanwhile everything is for sale - including people. This is a hub
for the trafficking of everything.

I don't say this out of love for the state it broke away from, Moldova, the
poorest country in Europe, the last communist country in Europe, which has all
of the same problems at a different scale.

p.s. no need for endless paperwork - fifteen euros to the border guards will
secure your entry no matter where you come from.

[1] [http://imgur.com/8wf688Y](http://imgur.com/8wf688Y)

 __edited to change: I wrote "fifty" euros when I meant "fifteen" \- I
probably overpaid, but not by that much!!

~~~
Muromec
>edited to change: I wrote "fifty" euros when I meant "fifteen" \- I probably
overpaid, but not by that much!!

You sure overpaid. It costs something like 50 UAH (in 2013 rate) if you pay on
exit and you would not even miss your bus.

~~~
apendleton
Tha UAH is much weaker now than in 2013, but even 100 UAH would be really
cheap. That's crazy.

~~~
Muromec
That would buy a "border guard" few beers. Why would he want more for not
causing some person a trouble on their way?

The other story if you would have some drugs or make some legit reason to
arrest you and demand ransom, but nothing you would not be able to pay anyway.

------
rdtsc
A Vice article on it:

[http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/atlas-hoods-weapons-
smuggling...](http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/atlas-hoods-weapons-smuggling-
youth-cults-in-the-country-that-doesnt-exist)

It is basically a Russian foothold closer to Western Europe. The only reason
that regime exists is because the Russian army is there.

It is a hub of human, weapons and drug trafficking and a nice place to hide if
you want deal in shady things like that. Moldovan police can't go there and
Russian police doesn't care.

Another article:

[http://www.investigatii.md/eng/index.php?art=221](http://www.investigatii.md/eng/index.php?art=221)

~~~
snogglethorpe
Some Romaniams I follow refer to Transnistria as "basically a Russian military
base," and are of the opinion that the Russians are so entrenched that's
likely never to change....

[Shades of the Crimean peninsula...]

~~~
Steko
Transnistria-Moldova might look like Crimea-Ukraine today but in the early 90s
it looked more like Kosovo-Serbia and the Russians that intervened at the time
were probably correct to do so.

~~~
plextoria
You're wrong, the Russians intervened when the rebel forces where losing
ground against constitutional forces of R. of Moldova. And while doing so they
invented stories of a "genocide". Basically, if you follow the Donbass events,
the propaganda is the same.

~~~
Steko
Russia has had 20 years to annex Transnistria if they wanted it, not remotely
the same as Crimea IMHO.

The "constitutional forces of the R. of Moldova" were not a professional army
but a mixture of police and hastily armed militia that included
ultranationalist elements who were encouraging expulsion/cleansing of non-
Moldovans. There were real fears that these "constitutional forces" would do
the same sorts of things as the Serbian "constitutional forces" were doing to
Yugoslavian separatists.

~~~
ajuc
Disclaimer- as a Pole I'm biased against Russia.

IMHO Russia mostly wants influence on politics in all neighboring states. It
only invaded Crimea and put army in Donbas in Ukraine when other ways to exert
influence failed (Ukrainians did 2 revolutions, against all economic odds; it
was clear Russian influence will end).

Russia doesn't invade Belarus, because it already has control.

Russia only invaded Georgia when they got dangerously close to "solve" the
South Ossetia problem (another matter is how Georgians wanted to solve it).

It's also present in Russian diplomatic language - "close abroad" is the term,
and Russian diplomats say they have right to participate in the politics of
the near abroad. Frozen conflicts are a good way to ensure these border states
won't join EU/NATO which are still seen as enemy in Russia.

~~~
Steko
I don't disagree with any of this, I will just point out that "Russia does
lots of bad things" does not imply "Russia only does bad things". I happen to
believe, in this one small instance, Russia action may have minimized loss of
life.

------
xytop
Guys, I live there all my life, in Tiraspol, and I don't agree with you.

Here's no gangsters, no communism. Of course it is not as developed as
Chisinau, but far better place to live than the rest of Moldova and Ukraine.

Pensions are much higher than in Moldova, lots of people from Chisinau when
they get old buy here appartment and move over.

Questions are welcome. Can make proofs if needed

~~~
userulluipeste
"Pensions are much higher than in Moldova, lots of people from Chisinau when
they get old buy here appartment and move over."

Oh, it sounds so better economically! What do you have to say about the fact
that Transnitria did not paid anything for the gas it consumed for over twenty
five years now (and was left on Moldova's bill note)? Or for a lot of other
things for that mater? Now about the immigration, are you serious? There is so
much effort directed at keeping the outsiders out, so much scrutiny over
anyone (even on locals), you understand why the claim that someone can just
come not only for a few hours but indefinitely is just surreal?

~~~
xytop
I wont argue regarding gas, don't know much about it, but this situation
somehow solved as far as Im aware; it never pops up on official discussions.

As about immigration - you can trust me, those are not abstract words as I
know about this not from press but from my living. Prices on appartments are
high due to lots of people from moldova buy appartments here.. and this is due
to low utility fees (water, gas, electricity) comparing to right coast.. Of
course most of people in region try to immigrate to Europe and Russia, but
still there is a bunch of them immigrating to Transnistria, amount may seem
small but for our region it's enough to keep appartment prices high enough

------
dejv
Transnistria was one of the strangest places I ever visited. It still lives in
their old Soviet times and you can find statues of Lenin everywhere. Other
than that there is not much to do in this country.

To illustrate the state of this country, you can take a look on results of
election in 2001: Igor Smirnov won, collecting 103,6% of votes.

~~~
Muromec
It sure is strange, look something out of this space-time, really. I'v been
there in 2013 (cycling from Odessa to Chisinau).

Lenin, communist symbols, Sheriff symbols, billboards advertising 3G and
suddenly every sign written in Russian. Locals are scared to accept hryvnyas
as payment - think it's tax office check or something. Ended up paying the
price in soviet-looking monopoly money and tipping in hryvnyas.

Talks about Russian military are something overestimating. Few bored
"peacemakers" on Bandery bridge and locals that serve in Russian military
because that's no work anywhere.

~~~
Uberphallus
Interesting the amount of HN users have been to that little shithole
(including me!). I did Chisinau to Odessa and back in marshrutki, in 2014,
around the time of Yumorina.

One point is that not _everything_ is written in Russian; some is actually
Romanian written in Cyrillic characters.

I secretly took some pictures of the border control with my DSLR, and when
they were puzzled at my passport my then gf had the brilliant idea of taking
more, like, in the open. They forced us to delete them. Tried undelete tools
later to no avail, unfortunately.

------
qdw
There's an excellent SF novella, Walter Jon Williams' _The Green Leopard
Plague_ , where Transnistrian corruption happens to be a major plot device.
The other characters derisively call the Transnistrian government
"Trashcanistanis." This story was my first encounter with Transnistria, and it
seemed weird enough to be fictional, but later I found out it was real.

------
igonvalue
See also
[http://www.idlewords.com/2009/06/transnistria.htm](http://www.idlewords.com/2009/06/transnistria.htm)

------
jmnicolas
I was there in 2003 and I can confirm that when people realize that you're a
foreigner they just stare at you like you come from an over planet !

It was an interesting experience, people are really nice and are remarkable
hosts (if you don't mind being stared at ;-).

