Transdniestria Network -

The situation in Transdniestria

Jochen — Sun, 20 May 2007 10:27:45 -0500

Belarus and Transdniestria on travel and visa ban blacklist

Jochen — Sun, 20 May 2007 10:10:29 -0500

The United States has maintained a visa blacklist for Transdniestria, which the European Union joined in 2003. There are only two places in Europe whose leaders are banned from traveling abroad: Belarus and Transdniestria.

In both cases, the visa bans are politically motivated. Both countries have political systems that the United States wants to isolate and then change.
Neither of these two countries are a threat to their neighbors or the rest of the world.

The United States, whose leaders have launched wars and invasions consistently throughout the years, and are guilty of some of the worst human rights violations in the world today, are not on any Visa Ban blacklist.

Transdniestria prevents NATO expansion

Jochen — Sun, 20 May 2007 10:08:45 -0500

Transdniestria prevents NATO expansion

Transdniestria has great value as an "irritant to the US and the EU", said one Western official (quoted in The Sunday Telegraph, London, 12 May 2007).

A US State Department official recently identified it as one of the worst thorns in the side of Europe and NATO (Source: The Sunday Telegraph, 12 May 2007).

As a result, the United States is doing everything it can to prevent Transdniestria's independence. This includes the usual scare tactics and mis-information: On May 2, 2007, the US State Departement announced that “if Transdniester officially becomes independent of Moldova, it could become a potential area for terrorist recruitment."

Economic blockade is a continuation of war by other means

Jochen — Sun, 20 May 2007 09:52:43 -0500

Moldova, like the United States, wants to end Transdniestria's existence as an independent sovereign state. To do so, it has begun an economic blockade by controlling Transdniestria's lifeline - all of its imports and exports.

The 1992 war, which Moldova started, has not ended officially: There is only a cease-fire, but not final settlement yet. By allowing Moldova to control all imports and imports and exports to and from Transdniestria, the war is being continued through economic pressure.

How would the world feel if the United States would not permit Cuba to import or to export anything without its customs documents being cleared first by the Americans?

Democratic socialism for the 21st century

Jochen — Sun, 20 May 2007 09:47:52 -0500

Transdniestria has rejected the neo-liberal economic model imposed by the United States after seeing what it has done to other nearby and once-prosperous ex-Soviet states in the region.

Transdniestria also supports full economic and political sovereignty as well as anti-imperialism. The state promotes in people a national ethic of patriotic service.

Transdniestria supports state control, planned economics, and give a large role to workers' councils as one of the modes of governance.

• Control of markets: Transdniestria controls the market in order to justly distribute wealth more evenly.

Constitution approved in popular referendum

Jochen — Sun, 20 May 2007 09:46:22 -0500

Transdniestria's Constitution is among one of the few constitutions in the world to have been ratified by its people in a popular referendum.

Transdniestria is also one of the few states in the world whose existence as created as the result of a popular referendum among its people before the declaration of independence. Among its two neighbors, Moldova never held such a referendum, and Ukraine only held it as a fait acompli long after the independence had already been declared.

Participatory democracy and popular power

Jochen — Sun, 20 May 2007 09:44:31 -0500

In its short history, Transdniestria has already held over a dozen elections and a total of seven referendums. The political system is based on participatory democracy, with grassroots political participation of the population via popular votes and referenda.

Communism has been replaced with twenty-first century democratic socialism, which emphasizes grassroots democratic participation. Political power is in the hands of the people, through democracy that is both representative and direct.

Moldova is a military ally of USA worldwide expansion

Jochen — Sun, 20 May 2007 09:40:52 -0500

Moldova has military cooperation with the United States. In 2003, Moldova and the US European Command signed a memorandum to establish a US Bureau for Military Cooperation in Moldova.

"The bureau complements the bilateral military cooperation already in place between the United States and Moldova," said Moldova's former ambassador to the United States, Mihail Manoli.

The United States has trained and providing technical assistance to the Moldovan army.

Moldova is part of NATO's Partnership for Peace program.
NATO holds annual training exercises in Moldova.
The United States has given Moldova millions of dollars to upgrade its army to NATO standards.

United States against the sovereign will of the people

Jochen — Sun, 20 May 2007 09:32:35 -0500

The United States gives financial and diplomatic support to groups that want to eradicate Transdniestria's statehood. The biggest campaign against Transdniestria is not in Chisinau (Moldova), but in Washington.

In the face of adversity, the people of Transdniestria have bravely defended the popular will for independence as a sovereign people.

The United States has for years been Moldova’s largest bilateral aid donor. Its embassy in Chisinau is the largest of all foreign embassies in the country, and it has a section which actively provides aid and financial grants to groups that work to end Transdniestria's statehood. This work was increased after Donald Rumsfeld (as US Defense Secretary) personally visited Chisinau in 2004.

Lack of recognition is politically motivated

Jochen — Sun, 20 May 2007 09:29:51 -0500

The only reason Transdniesteria is not recognized as a country internationally is because of political discrimination. There is a history of this: From 1917 to 1933, the Soviet Union was unrecognized by the United States.

This was an attempt by Washington to isolate the largest country in the world (by landmass). Today, Washington is doing the same with Transdniestria. Transdniestria is not recognized because of a "Washington-consensus" which, since 1990, has selectively only recognized those states which are favorable to U.S. hegemony in the world.