Chairman of the Russian State Duma and leader of the United Russia Party Boris Gryzlov
Photo: Valery Melnikov
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Crumbs for the Children
// The price of the question
A convoy of Russian trucks has reached Transdniestria and the Russian media are heralding the salvation of the republic from humanitarian disaster. The fact that the Russian trucks brought 25 tons of baby food to Tiraspol is especially touching. And it is doubly precious baby food because it is from the United Russia Party. Besides food, those trucks were delivering priceless political support for the Russian ruling party, which is much more important than the tons of dehydrated food products. United Russia leader expressed his hope that “Ukrainian authorities won't stop the advance of the convoy,” a clear hint to Kiev that we have their number, but they ought to show just a little conscience. Enough of your politics! Let the shipment through – there are children there!
Lenin did say, “All the best for the children!” The tragicomic thing is that there are no starving children in Transdniestria. I doubt that there are any starving adults there either. There shouldn't be, in any case, because the new customs rules (otherwise known as the “blockade”) affect exports from Transdniestria, not imports to it. That means that there should be all the same goods of mass consumption and groceries from Ukraine as ever. Nothing about their import changed with the imposition of the new export rules. Before anyone will starve there, Transdniestria will have to subject itself to an act of self-denial by rejecting the possibility of the unimpeded purchase of goods in Ukraine for import as before. And then turn to its ally Russia for help. But they won't say on Russian TV that the Transdniestrians could have gotten by without the help of United Russia.
What we have is a PR stunt, turning a good deed into a calculated game. Bluntly speaking, the convoy of humanitarian aid for Transdniestria was a political gesture made against the background of an artificially created problem, without a whit of concern for feeding people. Tiraspol's mean neighbors, the starving children and those nice men in the State Duma – it's all meant to create a chain of associations in the minds of Russian citizens to clear away any remaining doubts about how to treat Moldovan President Voronin and Ukrainian President Yushchenko.
But can this tactic, intended by Moscow to separate Transdniestria from Moldova once and for all, succeed? Gestures to scare Moldova might be effective if Moscow is sure that it has the leverage necessary to carry though its threats. But Moscow is not sure of that. And Moscow's actions will not go unnoticed in the West. It will not be surprising if there are new reports published in Washington this year expressing concern over Moscow's behavior in the former Soviet Union. Do we need that? Is it worth it?
Sergey Strokan
All the Article in Russian as of Mar. 23, 2006
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