No Princes of Thieves
// The price of the question
I was in Transdniestria on May 9. It was not a festive sight for me to see what has become of that territory. Of the 850,000 people who once lived there, 300,000 remain at most. Young people are leaving the republic, the Russian barracks in Tiraspol are practically in ruins, and the soldiers serving there are of no use to anyone. Every other Transdniestrian has a Russian passport, or Moldovan or Ukrainian, or all three.
Local authorities say that the Republic of Transdniestria exists. I would like to know where. The people have scattered in all directions and do not want to return.
When the late Gen. Alexender Lebed halted the bloodbath there 15 years ago, he was the first to see and abhor the scale of Transdniestrian corruption. Counterintelligence provided information on whose pockets were being filled with the money sent as aid by Russia to the postwar region. The trail led to the highest levels of authority, which were and still are controlled by [Transdniestrian President Igor] Smirnov.
That lie could not be hidden for long. Today, finally, they have realized what should have been apparent in 1992: corruption in the unrecognized republic remains undefeated. Its scale boggles the imagination. Who can say where the $1 billion that was not used to pay Russia for its natural gas went? I discussed it with Smirnov personally and showed that accounts were being kept of Transdniestrian officials abroad, and they were reaching gigantic sums.
Now it seems they have begun to understand that in Transdniestria itself. People are asking those involved directly where the gas money went. There is a serial on TV called Police Wars and Transdniestria is facing a gas war. They have already begun reeling in Smirnov's unlimited power.
Beating corruption is not easy and Russia needs to help with it. Tiraspol continually appeals to Russia for help, but Moscow should not support criminal structures. It is a thoroughly corrupt republic and it should be clarified who in Russia finds the status quo profitable.
When I visit Transdniestria, they ask the same question over and over again. What will happen to us now? There is an answer. Gen. Lebed said when he was alive that the phantom republic will never be recognized and the only possible solution was making peace between the two sides of the Dniester. I am convinced that the Moldovan-Transdniestrian conflict can and should be settled peacefully. It cannot go on forever. There has been enough deception. There has been a stable peace there for a long time. People of different nationalities – Russian, Moldovan and Ukrainian – live peacefully in that tiny corner of the Earth. The need broad autonomy as part of Moldova, and that small country needs to be reunited.
There is no other way. Otherwise, it will always be a closed zone isolated from the rest of the world. It will be scorched earth governed by criminals getting fat on gas money.
Mikhail Bergman, military commandant of Transdniestria, 1992-1998
All the Article in Russian as of May 24, 2007
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