How unrecognized Transnistria lives and what it hopes for

In telephone conversations with the heads of the United States and Germany, Vladimir Putin drew attention to the economic blockade of Transnistria. "Money" correspondent ALEXEY BOYARSKY went to the unrecognized republic and saw how they live there and what this blockade is like.

Transnistrian Moldovans condemn Moldova for its desire to join Romania

Photo: Kommersant / Gennady Gulyaev / buy photo

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Peacekeepers' checkpoints have been a constant element of the landscape for the last 20 years

Photo: Kommersant / Gennady Gulyaev / buy photo

When Moldova joins the EU, PMR agriculture may not survive

Photo: Kommersant / Gennady Gulyaev / buy photo

Pridnestrovians are now afraid to travel to Ukraine using Russian passports

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Transnistrian Moldovans condemn Moldova for its desire to join Romania

Photo: Kommersant / Gennady Gulyaev / buy photo

Under the hammer and sickle

You can get from Moscow to the capital of the unrecognized Transnistrian Moldavian Republic (PMR), Tiraspol, by bus from the Kievsky station. Or by train Moscow - Chisinau. However, traveling through the territory of Ukraine with a Russian passport is now fraught: on March 21, Ukrainian nationalists robbed Russian passengers on this train at the Vinnitsa station. But the flight from Moscow to Chisinau is only two hours, and from the airport to Tiraspol is another hour. However, due to the tense situation in Ukraine (as they explained to me later), the Moldovan border guard, seeing my Russian passport, literally took my soul out: I had to show a receipt for my luggage, swear my love for Tiraspol cognac and explain for a long time why I went to Kazakhstan two months ago — the girl drew attention to the marks in the passport.

We travel 60 km from the Moldovan airport to Tiraspol by taxi. Most of the border with the unrecognized republic runs along the Dniester: on the left is the PMR, on the right is Moldova. Since Moldova considers Transnistria its part, there are no border and customs posts on its side, except that the traffic police inspect cars leaving the PMR for weapons. The fact that further on there is another state can be understood not only by the cordon looming ahead. A Moldovan taxi driver removes and hides his walkie-talkie: they are prohibited in the PMR. On the way back at the border, his Transnistrian colleague will hide a beacon with checkers in the trunk in the same way: you cannot drive with it without a Moldovan license. And at the same time he will ask us to buckle up, turn on the headlights for daytime driving - in Moldova they ask for this. On the Moldovan side, in a kiosk you can buy Moldovan compulsory motor liability insurance policies - they are not available in the PMR.

There are checkpoints of peacekeeping forces on absolutely all bridges and roads between the two jurisdictions: military personnel from Russia, the PMR and Moldova are on duty. Machine guns with attached horns, full ammunition pouches. Most posts are equipped with firing points and, under a camouflage net, there is an armored personnel carrier with a covered cannon. Transnistrian border guards check passports, but do not mark them - an unrecognized state does not have the right to do this. The time of entry is indicated on the migration card, which is filled out immediately - something like a temporary registration in the PMR.

“Welcome to the Soviet Union,” the Moldovan taxi driver nods to the coat of arms with a hammer and sickle. It turns out that since the proclamation of the Transnistrian Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic (PMSSR) as part of the USSR in 1990, the coat of arms has not changed. Russian speech and inscriptions are in Russian, most of the signs are duplicated in Moldavian and Ukrainian. Officially there are three languages: here there are approximately 30% Russians, Moldovans, Ukrainians and 10% everyone else.

Transnistria is accustomed to living with an uncertain status and unrecognized state symbols
Photo: Gennady Gulyaev, Kommersant

The car park is reminiscent of the Russian one in the 1990s: there are a lot of Muscovites, Lada cars and classics, and there are also Cossacks. Foreign cars are mostly heavily used. Thanks to low import duties in the PMR and the proximity of Europe, used cars are 40% cheaper than in Russia, new cars are 20-30% cheaper than in Russia. It’s a paradox: in private cars with license plates of an unrecognized state, formally fake plates, they freely travel not only to Moldova, but also further abroad - Russian and European police recognize them. But the trucks transporting goods all have Moldovan license plates - this is necessary for inclusion in international transit systems such as TIR.

First of all, we exchange money: the hotel only accepts local currency - PMR rubles with a portrait of Suvorov, who is considered the founder of Tiraspol. Not only is this money not accepted anywhere outside of Transnistria, but it cannot be exchanged even in Moldova. Then we rush to the State Service of Communications, Information and Media for accreditation: in my memory, the PMR is the first country where a journalist simply cannot work without an accreditation card.

“We’re passing through Grigoriopol now, do you want to buy an apartment? Only $5 thousand,” our driver rants on the road from Tiraspol to Dubossary. “Why is it so cheap? And half the windows in the five-story building are dark - the people left a long time ago. It will be more expensive in Dubossary, I I recently sold my two-room apartment there for $19 thousand.” You can rent a one-room apartment in Tiraspol for $100 per month. What can we say when salaries in commercial enterprises here are $300-600, and for state employees even less. True, in neighboring Moldova the standard of living is even lower.

Three passports in one hand

Where did Transnistria come from if such autonomy never existed within the Moldavian SSR? In 1918, most of Bessarabia, which was part of the Russian Empire, was given to Romania, and the remaining part became the Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (with its capital in Tiraspol) within Ukraine. That is why Pridnestrovians consider themselves residents of real Moldova in comparison with citizens of the current Republic of Moldova. In 1939, territories were taken away from Romania and annexed to Transnistria - a single Moldavian SSR was formed with its capital in Chisinau. The national composition, language, mentality and historical memory of the inhabitants of Transnistria and the rest of Moldova turned out to be different. And the Transnistrian conflict itself, which led to the restoration of the erased border and the 1992 war, began with the growth of Moldovan nationalism and the course towards Romanianization. “Now we’ll come to Dubossary, I’ll show you the bridge where I was on duty in the militia with a stick in 1992: Moldovans were breaking through to us from the other side of the Dniester and shouting: “Suitcase, station, Russia,” recalls a colleague, a native of these places . Quite quickly, the sticks were replaced with steel reinforcement, and then both sides seized the weapons of nearby military units. They say that in Tiraspol and most of the PMR the war was not felt - the fighting took place in the border areas of Bendery and Dubossary. Military operations began in the spring and ended in the summer of 1992 thanks to the intervention of the 14th Army of the Russian Armed Forces located on the territory of Moldova and personally General Alexander Lebed. “The army headquarters was not in Chisinau, but in Tiraspol,” recalls a member of the Transnistrian militia. “Lebed then said that if at least one more shell arrived from the other side of the Dniester, he would have breakfast in Tiraspol, lunch in Chisinau, and dinner in Bucharest Lebed helped us with weapons then - I had a brand new grenade launcher with grease.” Roadblocks of the 14th Army stood between the conflicting parties, later replaced by peacekeeping forces. It's been that way for over 20 years. As I understand, in addition to units of peacekeeping forces in the PMR, there are still units of the Russian army that are not peacekeepers. They say they are guarding warehouses, which in Soviet times were supposed to support the combat operations of an entire front for a month.

On one of the main streets of Tiraspol, we pay attention to a soldier rolling a baby stroller at the checkpoint of a military unit. "Cool shot!" — “Money” photographer Gennady Gulyaev rushed to the checkpoint, but the soldier disappeared inside. The disgruntled photojournalist only clicked the gate with the star - and was immediately detained by the same soldier who jumped out of the unit. I walked over and took out a notepad. They detained me too. “We are not spies - we were checked by your Foreign Ministry and the KGB,” we presented our accreditation cards. “Not ours, but theirs,” they corrected me. “The sidewalk area on the street near the gate belongs to a Russian military unit. Maybe in Moscow you can photograph whatever you want, but here we are guided by the rules of serving on foreign territory.” An hour and a half at the checkpoint waiting for the special officer was not in vain. I found out that this unit did not belong to the peacekeeping forces: there were no blue MS chevrons on the sleeves. All officers and half of the contract soldiers are from Russia, and the rest are locals with Russian citizenship. “Yes, we’re all local,” laughed the sergeant guarding us. “You’ve served for a year and you’re already a local. You get married, have children, and you run home.” On the territory of the unit there is something like a family hostel. And in the army of the PMR itself, everything is even simpler: although it is conscript, everyone serves close to home, the most remote part is in Rybnitsa, only 120 km from Tiraspol. In Transnistria, like in Israel, soldiers are allowed to go home for the weekend.

In political isolation, Pridnestrovie managed to maintain its economy
Photo: Gennady Gulyaev, Kommersant

With citizenship, there is a real circus here. Everyone has a Transnistrian passport (or a Soviet one with the appropriate insert). With this document you can live in the PMR and travel within Moldova. However, to cross its border you need a passport of a recognized state. Moldova gives a passport to everyone automatically as its citizens; until recently, it was very easy to obtain Russian citizenship. Now there are about 200 thousand Russian citizens in the PMR. Those who have Ukrainian roots apply for Ukrainian citizenship, and Moldovans can apply for Romanian citizenship. So most people here have two or three passports from different countries. “It’s very convenient,” notes businessman Evgeniy from Tiraspol. “The Russian one has run out—while they’re getting a new one, I’m using the Moldavian one.”

Nikolai Nedelkov is confident that Transnistria would have fed itself if not for the economic blockade
Photo: Gennady Gulyaev, Kommersant

Women's power

The first president of the PMR, Igor Smirnov, headed the republic from 1991 to 2011. The reason for re-election was explained to me simply: I was tired. “Smirnov was 70 years old at the time of his departure, and under him there was a certain age and gender bias: men over 50 years old worked in the government,” noted a local official who asked not to be named. “But the new president, Yevgeny Shevchuk, is now 45 years old. And he is accused of another imbalance: many young women under 40, even under 30, have come to the government, for example, ministers of finance, foreign affairs, and health.”

The next day after this conversation, we went to interview the First Deputy Prime Minister. On the square near the government building, the Deneg photographer takes pictures of the Lenin monument, and immediately, which is no longer surprising, an officer with an SBP (Presidential Security Service) badge hurries towards us. What, we can’t film Lenin anymore? It turns out that it is possible, but the building is not. “Stay here for now, the Prime Minister will come out and leave, then you’ll pass,” the officer softens, having checked the accreditation. A fragile girl in a strict business suit and with a folder in her hands runs down the steps to a parked black Mercedes, which by Russian standards clearly does not reach the level of a government one. “Nice assistant,” I thought. The girl gets into the car and it drives off. We continue to wait. “This was our prime minister, now come in,” the guards smile.

The government shares the building with the Supreme Council. Inside, the doors are cracked in places, and in places there are fresh, but very cheap repairs. First Deputy Prime Minister Maya Parnas, who is responsible for the economic bloc, introduces herself simply as Maya. According to her, the annual budget of the PMR is about $300 million, $30 million of which is assistance from the Russian Federation: for meals in schools, nursing homes, supplements to pensions (all PMR pensioners, regardless of citizenship, are entitled to an additional $15 per month). In addition, today Russia is building and equipping 12 social facilities in the PMR free of charge - schools, hospitals. This program is estimated at $90 million. And of course, Russia is helping with gas. All PMR enterprises pay the republic for gas significantly less than the price supplied from Russia. That is, gas is, as it were, subsidized. They did not say what price for gas Russia set for the PMR, but this is not so important: I already know that for the last five years Transnistria has not been paying for gas at all - everything is recorded as debt. Parnas admits that without Russia's help it will be very difficult for the republic. “The volume of industrial production today is about $0.85 billion, of which 60% comes from four enterprises - the Moldavian Metallurgical Plant, the Rybnitsa Cement Plant, the Tirotex textile plant and the Moldavian Hydroelectric Power Station,” says Parnas. At this moment her phone rings. She looks at the caller’s name and interrupts the interview: “Excuse me, our economy is in manual control - one missed call affects the volume of industrial production.”

Officially, the PMR has about 500 thousand inhabitants. How much is real is unknown. Almost everyone will say that less than a quarter of his classmates remained in the PMR. It is believed that the most accurate statistics from bakeries are based on the number of loaves sold. One of my interlocutors studied this data - it turned out that the PMR has no more than 350 thousand inhabitants. If we abstract from the status of the state and compare, for example, with some city of the same size, then the economy of the PMR does not seem like a toy at all.

Blocked economy

The Tirotex plant in Tiraspol is one of the last in the post-Soviet space that carries out the full production cycle, from raw cotton to the finished product. In 2005, the enterprise was privatized, now it belongs to the local Sheriff group of companies. In the workshops they show me the latest Italian and German equipment. However, for comparison they are also deployed to areas where machines from the 1970s still remain.

Once there were 12 thousand workers here, now there are 3.2 thousand. “We produce 5.6 million linear meters of cotton fabric per month - there are no enterprises with such capacity in Russia,” the craftswoman in the workshop is proud. Annual sales volume is over $100 million: 60% of products go to Western Europe, 20% to Russia, 20% goes to Moldova, Ukraine and the domestic market. “Italian bed linen, which is sold in Moscow, is often made here, the Italians only put their own brand,” notes Sergei Obolonik, deputy director of Tirotex.

There are several shoe factories in the PMR that produce primitive footwear like slippers. Much is commissioned from foreign brands. For example, the Bendery shoe factory, according to Maya Parnas, fulfills orders from the Russian Center-Obuv chain.

Many brands that are associated with Moldova are actually Transnistrian. For example, the vermouth “Bouquet of Moldova” is produced in Dubossary.

In the courtyard of the famous cognac factory KVINT (Cognacs, Wines and Drinks of Tiraspol) there is new, not yet unpacked equipment for the bottling line. In 2006, the Sheriff Group of Companies privatized the enterprise and then invested €40 million in its modernization. In 2013, the plant reached the Soviet production volume of 20 million bottles per year. “After the collapse of the USSR and until 2005, products were more or less produced from purchased raw materials; in the 2000s, the creation of our own raw material base began. The area of our vineyards by the fall of 2014 will be 2 thousand hectares,” says Anna Kozyrina, employee KVINT Marketing Department.

GC "Sheriff" is the largest taxpayer in the PMR. She not only privatized and modernized half of the liquid enterprises, but also built a lot - a huge network of gas stations, a chain of supermarkets, a sports complex with stadiums. It also owns a TV channel, local cellular and landline operators and a number of other enterprises. The owner of "Sheriff" is called the president of the holding, Victor Gushan, but they note that the ownership structure of the Group of Companies is complicated, many officials are affiliated with it. Foreigners do not risk investing in the assets of an unrecognized state. Moldova does not recognize the privatization of enterprises, in particular Tirotex, and still considers them its own, state-owned.

Petr Dobryansky sees the future of his village Dorotskoye not in the European Union, but in the Customs Union
Photo: Gennady Gulyaev, Kommersant

Although the industry of the Moldavian SSR was concentrated specifically in Transnistria, in general the PMR is an agricultural country. Every piece of land is carefully plowed along the roads, just like in Kuban. We came across the Hall Park enterprise in the Bulgarian village of Parcani, not far from Tiraspol, by accident - we were just driving past and saw the greenhouses. Nikolai Nedelkov, the founder of the company, says that in 2004 he bought an old greenhouse plant and restored it. “Russia allocated money to the government of the PMR for lending to agriculture at 5% per annum,” recalls Nedelkov. “I took $300 thousand and bought a new irrigation system for greenhouses, it saved me, otherwise I would still be digging in the open ground.” Today his farm grows 800 tons of cucumbers per year alone, and there are also strawberries, zucchini, and lettuce. Next to the greenhouses is a conservation workshop. Nedelkov takes us to a warehouse where they are just loading a truck for shipment to Russia: the jars of pickled cucumbers bear the familiar Zakuson brand - sold in our supermarkets. Canned food is also brought to Israel, but under the brand name “Vkusno-Zakusno”.

Next to the greenhouse is the Parkansky meat processing plant. “Meat is tight: of the five Pridnestrovian meat processing plants, ours is the only one with a raw material base in Rybnitsa for pigs and cattle,” says Valentin Cojocaru, executive director of the plant. Of all the meat processing plants, only the largest, Bendery, exports products. Parkansky in volume in second place, but so far only prepares documents for international certification, without which export is impossible.

Export here is generally the most important and most sick question. As an independent state, the PMR has its own customs - collects duties and customs fees. Moldova does not recognize this - it requires everything to arrange everything at his customs. However, you can import anything directly across the border with Ukraine, because in the PMR and imported duties that are different from Moldova. True, now in Ukraine the situation is intense. And when it comes to exporting goods from the PMR, Ukraine requires Moldovan seals on the documents. As a result, the export scheme is such: the PMR enterprise is additionally registered in Moldova and draws up documents for export repeatedly as a Moldavian enterprise-Moldova is indicated on all labels of export goods as a manufacturer. By this criterion, by the way, in 2008, Quint's products were also banned for importing to Russia along with all other alcohol from Moldova, but then made an exception. "Every year, we spend more than $ 400 thousand on the customs clearance of the PMR, and then another $ 700 thousand - for Moldavian," says Sergey Obolonik from Titrichecs. But the point is not only in double expenses. “Fresh vegetables are a perishable product,” says Nikolai Nedelkov. “If there were no blockade, I would immediately send the car to Ukraine, and from there to Russia. And so I need to send it to Moldova, there will shut up, which will take time, plus The hook is 500 km. Almost all PMR enterprises are exported. According to Nedelekov, only one of his farm can feed all Transnistria with vegetables. “Now I have 10 tons of cucumbers in the warehouse - there is no one to eat them here, but I can’t take them out,” he shrugs. “If we have no problems with the export, we will provide ourselves without any help.”

For 20 years, a generation has grown in the PMR that does not know life in a different state
Photo: Gennady Gulyaev, Kommersant

Dorotsk separatists

The headquarters of the Black Sea Cossack army is located in Tiraspol directly in the KGB building (there were no renaming). Here, the Cossacks are part of the armed forces - a separate reserve border Cossack regiment as part of the security authorities. The military ataman Igor Nezhelovo on his chest among other awards “For the defense of Transnistria” and “For the Merbs of the PMR”. He leads us to the museum and demonstrates an aluminum shank from a mortar mine. “In the USSR, aluminum in mines was not used - this is Western ammunition,” explains Nebelovo. “On the other side, both the Romanians fought and the military men of other countries helped.”

But most clearly the consequences of the war are not presented in the museum. The left part of the facade of the building of the administration of the Dubossarsky district and the city of Dubossary PMR is all in the traces of the fragments of the shell. Nearby stands a memorial stone: "At this place on 06/06/92, the leaders died at the shelling ..." There are eight people on the list, among them the then mayor of Dubossar. “They went out into the courtyard, well, then they covered them,” the participant of that war Egor shrugs. “They would be through the reverse, and they over there through the ceremonial ... civilians, what to take from them ...” We are going with Yegor along to the city - he shows fences with traces of bullets, broken by shells and already restored walls of buildings. “The war was mostly positional,” he says. “They shot from the other side of the Dniester, we and I and I.” I told me a lot of military stories here: about how, from boredom, a water tower was smashed from a grenade launcher, and how drunk drove for wine under mortar fire on the "Lada". About 1 thousand died on both sides, about 5 thousand were injured. We are traveling for Dubossars: here in the villages around the city near the houses or right by the roads there are wreaths - the memory of the deceased in this place. We drive a little further, we pass the checkpoint on the country road and somehow we suddenly get into Moldova: here is already introducing the Moldavian territories on the left side of the Dniester. And the same wreaths.

We have a business here. I heard that the inhabitants of the Moldavian village of Dorotskoy want to hold a referendum on joining the PMR, and I am going to talk about this with the chairman of the village council.

Remember the film "The Law is the Law" in which the border between France and Italy passed through the restaurant? In the Dubossarsky district, similar stories at every step. Many residents of Moldova go to work in Dubossars. Moldovan children attend Russian schools in the PMR, PMR pensioners are treated in Moldovan clinics (Medapolis is laid automatically to them). At one time, many received two pensions at once - in the PMR and Moldova - until the two pension departments began to exchange databases.

“The very village of Dorotskoye is under our control, and the former collective farm lands, which are now owned by residents, are in the territory controlled by unconstitutional bodies,” Maria Zhumbey, deputy head of the administration of the Dubossary district (this is Moldovan jurisdiction). She does not pronounce the phrase "Transnistrian Republic" in principle. In fact, Dorotsk and a couple of villages are a controversial territory, something like a buffer zone. “We constantly transfer the barrier here: they will shift it, then we will return it to the place,” they tell me in the Moldovan administration. And there is dual power. There is power from Moldova - elected mayors, and there are Transnistrian chairmen appointed from the PMR. “Then the cow's cow disappeared, so the Moldovan police officers and our police officers footballed her to each other - no one wanted to accept a statement,” our guide Oleg laughs. In order to once and for all getting rid of problems with the design of tractors to pass to their lands and harvesting, the inhabitants of Dorotsky decided to officially go under the jurisdiction of Transnistria.

"Where does the Transnistrian Chairman live?" - I ask the men at the bus stop on the outskirts of Dorotsky. Judging by the accent, these are Moldavians. I ask what they think about the referendum. “I was born here, raised, I do not want to Romania,” answered the older one. Near the house of the chairman there is a purely shaved man of about fifty in a camouflage jacket and slippers. “Petya’s name is, Dobryansky,” he appears. “I am the chairman.” According to the chairman of Petit, 75% of the villagers between two barriers have PMR passports. “For the first time in ten years, the general meeting of the village will be, people themselves decided so,” says Dobryansky. “People watch TV, see what is happening. They don’t want to go to the European Union, but they want to go to the Customs Union.”

The Transnistrian Black Sea Cossacks have official status in the structure of state security organs and their automobile numbers
Photo: Gennady Gulyaev, Kommersant

With who

As a sovereign state of the PMR is recognized only by Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Nagorno -Karabakh. In 20 years, a new generation has grown here, which does not know any other order. In 2006, a referendum was held in the PMR: 97.1% voted for joining Russia. However, Russia did not accept. In March, the press was extended by the news of the alleged appeal of the PMR leadership to the Russian Federation with a request for accession. In fact, these were just comments in the framework of the inter -parliamentary consultations of the State Duma of the Russian Federation and the Armed Forces of the PMR to the draft law on the accession of parts of other states, which was removed as a result from the agenda.

“The only thing I can say: we definitely cannot imagine our future as part of Moldova in any form,” Maya Parnas told me. In 2014, Moldova plans to sign an association agreement with the EU. For the PMR, this may no longer mean difficulties with export, but its full ban. “The PMR enterprises are simply not ready for re -certification according to the European certification system,” says Maya Parnassus. “Moldova was preparing for this, grants were obtained for this certification. We will have to change all the legislation in order to get European certification. We always focused on Russian standards. Moreover, last year the PMR President introduced a bill - an amendment to the Constitution "On the application of the legislation of the Russian Federation in the PMR" ". PMR manufacturers fear not only the prohibition of export. “It is logical that Moldova will require the distribution of the contract with the EU and the territory of the PMR, that is, to open the duty -free import of European goods,” Nikolai Nedelkov argues. “My business will kill this: we will not withstand competition with Polish and German products. They will achieve it as it will be achieved as it is. We used to finish Bulgaria. "

Fatherland Limited Liability

Sergei Shirokov, director of the Bureau of Political Research and Information Technologies "Mediator", does not exclude that Moldova can use the requirements of the Association of Association with the EU as a reason to close the PMR, the ability to export and import goods. "Russia will have to climb again between the recognition of the PMR again, which implies the capture of all accompanying expenses for the maintenance of the republic, and the need to look for intermediate political decisions arranging the EU and the United States," says the Transnistrian political scientist.

In general, Transnistria is again on a historical fork, on which, however, he no longer get used to living.

Republic of the Soviet flood