Moldovan investigative journalists, together with Ukrainian counterparts, determined that all the political leaders in Transnistria, either formal or informal, have passports of Ukrainian citizens, IPN reports, quoting a series of crossborder investigations published by two investigation centers RISE Moldova and Slidstvo.Info.

“For the leaders in Transnistria, the citizenship of Ukraine is like a lucky tickets that enables them to travel freely outside the region controlled by the Kremlin to Ukraine, the European Union and travel destinations,” said the authors of the investigation “Ukrainian “ticket” in Europe of leaders of the Russian occupation zone”.

“The new list of holders of “lucky tickets” with a triden, besides the so-called prime minister  Aleksandr Rosenberg and his whole family and the head of the Foreign Affairs Ministry of Transnistria Vitally Ignatiev, also includes the incumbent self-styled president of the self-proclaimed MTR Vadim Krasnoselsky, the informal “owner” of the Transnistrian region Viktor Gușan, the top managers of his business empire “Sheriff” Sergey Ganja, Viktor Ukrainetsi,” says the international journalistic story.

According to the investigation, based on Ukrainian identities, they sell companies between them, start businesses in Ukraine and the European Union, purchase real estate in Odessa Oblast or simply travel freely with their families outside the Russian-controlled region.

“The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and the European Court of Human Rights admitted that the self-proclaimed MTR is occupied and controlled by Russia. Meanwhile, the evidently pro-Kremlin leaders of Transnistria during many years have hidden behind passports of Ukraine whose towns are whipped out by order of the Moscow patrons of the Transnistrian administration,” the co-author of the investigation and editor of the Russian language department of RISE Moldova Vladimir Tkhorik has told IPN.

The investigative journalist noted that the Moldovan authorities haven’t yet responded to their inquiries about the Ukrainian identities of the Transnistrian leaders.

Earlier, in an interview with Newsmaker, the adviser to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Mykhailo Podolyak stated that Zelensky’s company is considering imposing sanctions on those Transnistrian accomplices of the Kremlin from the region’s administration who have Ukrainian passports.