Introducing Transdniestr

One of the most patently curious regions in Europe, the self-declared republic of Transdniestr (Pridnestrovskaya Moldavskaya Respublika, or PMR in Russian; population 555, 500) is nevertheless a largely unknown enigma. The street credibility of being one of the world’s last surviving communist bastions is wearing thin, however, as the illusion of a worker’s paradise is being swiftly eclipsed by sweet, sweet capitalism! Monuments to Lenin and other Soviet heroes share high-profile street corners with expensive shops, while swanky hotels and stadiums pop up around Tiraspol, betraying a firm bling-centric platform on the part of business and political leaders. Meanwhile, simple folk struggle to get by in a land that the rest of the world knows nothing about.

Transdniestr defiantly occupies a narrow strip of land covering only 3567 sq km on the eastern bank of the Dniestr River, the scene of a bloody civil war in the early 1990s when the movement for independence from Moldova began. Independent in all but name, Transdniestr has its own currency, police force, army and borders, which are controlled by Transdniestran border guards. The predominantly Russian-speaking region boycotts the Moldovan Independence Day and celebrates its own independence day on 2 September.

On 6 July 2006, a bomb blast on a local bus in Tiraspol killed eight people. Transdniestran politicians were quick to blame ‘Moldovan provocateurs’. Popular opinion in Moldova is that a would-be arms dealer probably lost control of his merchandise.

See http://geo.ya.com/travelimages/transdniestr.html for some excellent photos of the region.