The Russian Federation does not want the independence of the Transnistrian region to be recognized because the Kremlin’s stake is higher. Moscow wants to take over the entire Republic of Moldova through the separatist region from the left bank of the Nistru, historian Octavian Țîcu stated inn a public debate hosted by IPN News Agency. According to him, all conflicts in the former Soviet space have similarities and Moscow aims to take control over the conflicting states and prevent their development.
The historian said the evolution of the Transnistrian conflict is similar to that of the conflict in Abkhazia. By starting wars in the two states, Russia wanted to install pro-Kremlin politicians in power.
“The Transnistrian conflict is a war of aggression waged by the Russian Federation against the Republic of Moldova. The Transnistrian region is a territory occupied by the Russian army. There is a similarity between the Transnistrian conflict and Abkhazia because an identity against Georgians, who were the majority in this region, just as Romanians were the majority in the Transnistrian region, has been cultivated in time in Abkhazia. A war started in these regions together with the ending of the national renaissance movements. These wars brought to power Moscow-inspired neo-communist nomenklaturas. Shevardnadze – in Georgia, Lucinschi – in the Republic of Moldova. The same thing happened in Azerbaijan, after the splendid national renaissance movement, which wanted Azerbaijan to reunite with Turkey, just as the union of the Republic of Moldova with Romania was wanted, and a process of “Azerbaijanization” started. Heydar Aliyev was the promoter of the independent state,” stated Octavian Țîcu.
He noted hat despite all the similarities between the conflicts in the post-Soviet space, the approach of politicians in Chisinau to the phenomenon of separatism differs from the approach of politicians from other states. For 30 years, the political class in Chisinau has tolerated the phenomenon of separatism, pursuing personal interests, to the detriment of the national interest.
“What is different, however, is how the parties in this conflict behave. The Georgians, Azeris, Armenians, Ukrainians have a very clear position in relation to separatism, whereas the Transnistrian conflict is one of frozen solutions. It is not a frozen conflict. We cannot even imagine a leader from Donbas passing through the VIP area of the Kiev airport. Chisinau, however, for 30 years has had a tolerant approach to Transnistrian separatism because it had elites that represented the interests of the Russian Federation and these elites were in power only to perpetuate their own interests. Gazprom’s gas tap passes through Chisinau. No one in Chisinau thought to negotiate with Russia and ask for money for gas transit and that the Transnistrian region should pay its gas debt on its own, not at the expense of the Republic of Moldova,” said Octavian Țîcu.
He also said that Russia will not recognize the independence of the Transnistrian region, as it happened in the case of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, because Moscow aims to control the entire republic, not only the region on the left side of the Nistru.
“In 1940, Bessarabia was Transnistrized because it was under the control of Tiraspol elites that were transferred to Bessarabia after 1940. In exactly the same way, the “Kozak plan” wants to Transnistrize the Republic of Moldova by imposing cultural, territorial or other kinds of autonomous units, blocking the political process in Chisinau and establishing Russian as an official language, Russian military presence. It is clear that Russia has no interest in recognizing these entities. Russia does not want the Transnistria to be recognized as it wants more – to take over the entire Republic of Moldova through the Transnistrian region,” explained the historian.
The public debate entitled “Frozen conflicts: genesis, dangers, settlement” was the 26th installment of IPN’s project “Impact of the Past on Confidence and Peace Building Processes” which is supported by the Hanns Seidel Foundation of Germany.