Friendship of Peoples

RIA Novosti caption: The USA and the USSR youth
XIII meeting in Kishinev participants. Sept. 1, 1984.
[image source]

I found this picture in RIA Novosti's online archive. It reminded me that nine years ago this year I went to Chisinau for a summer that changed my life. When I went there in 1999, of course I knew I wasn't the first American student to spend time there (though it sometimes felt that way), but I didn't realize I'd had predecessors in the 1980s.

Interestingly, on the date this picture was taken, I was taking part in my own US-USSR "youth meeting" in Leningrad - it was the first day of what would be three years of school for me at School No. 232.

Read More...

Summary only...

Voice of Tiraspol

CIMG6523, originally uploaded by lyndonk2.

As has happened more times in the past than I'd care to admit, a few weeks ago a discussion in the comments section of Sean's Russia Blog sent me searching for info on a fairly obscure topic. One result was that I revisited ocity, the LiveJournal community set up by residents of Tiraspol - for those of you who understandably might not follow these things, that's the capital of the unrecognized Transnistrian Moldovan Republic (a.k.a. PMR, Transnistria, Transdniester, Pridnestrovie, etc.), a little strip of land that's been trying to secede from Moldova since the breakup of the USSR.

It seems that some of Tiraspol's netizens are unhappy with some of the initiatives of the territory's de facto government. Here are my translations of a couple of recent posts to the ocity community (which also exists outside of LJ):

Demand and complaint addressed to Evgeny Shevchuk, Chairman of the "Renewal" (Obnovlenie) party (posted by 06_07_1970)

Dear Evgeny Vasil'evich!

We woke up this morning and left our apartments intending to head to the cemetery and honor our dearly departed.

In the entryway of the building where we live, we found a huge quantity of "Renewal" party newspapers - they are strewn on the landing on every floor, in the stairwells, in people's mailboxes (several copies of this spam in each mailbox), and in the elevator. Part of the area in front of the building is already besmirched with your party's newspapers - some of the building's residents have tossed them out of the stairwell.

It should be noted that this is not the first time when the entryway of our residential building has been littered with such trash.

Based on these facts, I request that you organize the cleanup of the stairwells of the building at Zapadnyi Per. 19/1 in Tiraspol as soon as possible.

Otherwise, we will have to go to court with a complaint against the Renewal party and against you personally as the director of that organization.

With respect,

Residents of the besmirched [засранного] building

This complaint was also posted on a more traditional online forum, where it has generated some 25 comments. On LiveJournal, it generated the following comment by verba77:

They say our government is impoverished, but think how much money was spent on this garbage. Our authorities don't do anything useful for the people, instead they rub in the people's faces what good rulers we have.

I should note, in fairness to Obnovlenie and Shevchuk, that it's not unheard of for political parties in the post-Soviet space (and probably elsewhere) to engage in the "dirty trick" of placing their opponents' materials in locations designed to annoy voters. I seem to recall that one example of such "black PR" involved party A sticking party B's stickers on cars parked on the street. In this case, though, if I had to guess, I'd say the offending newspapers were probably left by overzealous "Obnovlentsy."

Here's another assessment of the local government by a resident of Transnistria:

Defense of human rights, Transnistrian-style (posted by verba77 [whose journal is subtitled "life with a 'special' child in a 'special' country"])

Two years ago, on June 7, 2006, Pridnestrovie first appointed a representative on human rights issues. An 10-room office was set up and luxuriously renovated to European standards. Dozens of new computers and other office equipment was purchased, excellent furniture, air conditioners, etc. There are plans to open branch offices of the human rights representative in other cities in Transnistria.

Interruptions in - and later complete denial of - the government's supply of essential medication to disabled children began around the same time.

Is it possible that the funds which had previously been devoted to saving the lives of disabled children are now going toward the human rights representative's office?

From my conversation with Transnistria's human rights representative V. Kol'ko last week:

- Does the non-issue of medications which are legally provided for to disabled children constitute a violation of human rights?
- Yes, of course, but what can I do about it?
- What do you mean, what, you are the human rights representative. Can you defend the rights of a sick child?
- There isn't any money in the budget for those medications, our government is very poor.
- Then why does the government have money for such luxurious facilities for a human rights office which is unable to protect human rights?
- What, it's my fault that the Supreme Soviet decided to create this office?

I might also suggest that our rulers do away with pensions and use the money saved to create an office of the representative of pensioners' rights. Or they could close the hospitals and open an office of the representative for the rights of sick people.

In the comments, verba77 explains that his family pays for a couple of more expensive medications, but is trying to get the government to pay for one cheaper item prescribed for their child which is included in the official list of medications the government is supposed to provide:

This has become a matter of principle, because those animals are buying themselves expensive official cars, building lordly estates, and renovating their offices to European standards using the money of the Transnistrians who break their backs working for them, but they refuse to comply with the law guaranteeing medication to sick children. But they spit on my requests and on all of us put together. The animals have made it to the trough.

And on a more humorous note, here's a comment from the same forum titled "[Customer] Service" (posted by sasha_ethna):

Tiraspol'. The train station. We get on the number 3 minibus, hoping to get to Balka.

...I was already handing the driver my fare when a one-lady orchestra came up to the minibus. She had a guitar on her shoulder, fancy luggage and several musical instruments. She tossed her first bag into the minibus and was getting ready to toss in the second, when the driver spat out "I'M NOT GOING TO BALKA!"

All of the passengers were baffled, the one-lady orchestra quickly retrieved her bags, and many people prepared to get off the minibus.

"But we all want to go to Balka!" said a few people.

"Everything's OK - that's where we're going. I just wanted to avoid all of that baggage," said the driver, revealing the logic behind his trick.

[update July 15]

Incidentally, there used to be a LJ community called Foto_PMR (I reposted one cool photo from that forum here) devoted to photos from Transnistria, but within a couple of months after I discovered and linked to it that forum disappeared, replaced by a LJ error message which reads “This journal has been deleted and purged.”

Read More...

Summary only...

Dreaming of a color revolution vaccine?

Moldova Suverana's website. The cheesy photos and low production values
make it hard to believe this is the largest-circulation newspaper in the country.

Official newspaper Moldova Suverana celebrated the Fourth of July last week in fine fashion by publishing a rather over-the-top attack on two democracy-promoting NGOs operating in Moldova, IRI and NDI. The piece they ran was a first-person account from an aggrieved former IRI employee who seems to have a toolshed full of axes to grind (here are a couple of articles for background), but the most amazing aspect of it was the numerous passages which seemed to have been cobbled together from stale stock phrases as though taken from some do-it-yourself anti-American verbiage kit drafted in Moscow ("now your country, too, can prevent colored revolutions!").

The timing of this article is no accident - Moldova is gearing up for elections next year and President Voronin, who cannot serve another term, would no doubt like to ensure a smooth succession, whether to another representative of the Communist Party or some other designated successor (sound familiar?).

Thus, a full frontal attack on IRI and NDI, which are perceived as proliferators of "colored revolutions" in the post-Soviet space (based perhaps on the eagerness of some of their own people at times in the past to take a bit too much credit for mass political phenomena), could well be an attempt to lay the groundwork for a campaign strategy modeled on the one used by United Russia in the '07-'08 Russian electoral cycle. Under that model, any potential - or even long-shot - challengers are dismissed as foreign agents who - in concert with the "meddling Americans," of course - want to, in the words of this article, "overthrow...the Constitutional regime elected by citizens of the republic through democratic elections."

One Moldovan blogger , who seems to be in a good position to comment on such things, [update: not anymore (see comments below)] wonders whether Marian Bunescu, the ex-IRI employee who has stepped up with this conveniently timed denunciation, is being pulled into political games while trying to defend his rights and press his own (perhaps legitimate) grievances against a former employer, and also notes that Bunescu's screed excoriates both IRI and NDI, when he only had firsthand experience working with IRI.

Personally, I sometimes have mixed feelings about American democracy promotion efforts. I also tend to believe that colored revolutions are impossible without genuine, broad-based discontent within the country with the government, and I'm not sure that exists in Moldova at the moment, so attacking these NGOs may be overkill. In any event, my reservations about an activist democracy agenda are somewhat neutralized when I read passages like these (excerpted from the Moldova Suverana article, a full translation of which is below):

The purpose of those [democracy promotion] specialists was to favor and bring to power at all cost the parties that would undermine the statehood, integrity and sovereignty of the country where I was born and live. [...]

Since there is a lot of time till the Parliamentary elections in the Republic of Moldova and I do not want to be convicted of participation in bringing to power of politicians marionettes, I want to inform that NDI and IRI, under the aegis of USAID, plan to destabilize the situation in the country, as they tried before, but have not succeeded. Yes, yes, namely during the last elections in the Parliament in Chisinau, for the first time, officials of these institutions have made attempts to bring to power corrupt politicians, interested in the disappearance of the Republic of Moldova as a sovereign and independent state.

Parts of these passages could in fact be describing Russia's approach to Moldova - undermining the country's statehood and sovereignty by promoting the continued separation of Transnistria and applying punitive bans on Moldova's major exports to Russia. And Russia's policies probably have to be judged a success on their own terms - after all, Voronin, whether because he thinks it will facilitate a settlement of the Transnistria conflict, or because he has realized (like Uzbekistan's Karimov, who was the first to desert the nascent GUAM coalition) that an alliance with Russia is simpler than building bridges to the West since it requires barely a pretense of democracy and no real reforms, has swung eastward in his orientation of late.

Analyst and blogger Nicu Popescu also excerpted some of the more outrageous language from Bunescu's denunciation and paused make this observation (my translation):

These are not quotations from the press in Russia, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, or Kuchma's Ukraine. They're from the July 4, 2008, issue of Moldova Suverana. An article that is probably the start of a harrassment campaign against [IRI] and [NDI] ahead of the elections, two American NGOs which provide assistance to Moldovan political parties.

Assistance which is made available, it's important to note, to all Moldovan political parties, including the Communists.

Popescu titled his post "Moldovan Putinism vs. IRI and NDI" and marveled at the approach of the Moldovan government:

At the same time as this harassment campaign is being launched against two American NGOs, Moldova is expecting several hundred million dollars from the US under the framework of the Millenium Challenge Account Moldova and is hoping to start talks with the EU concerning a new agreement under conditions where the EU's foreign policy Commissioner has clearly said that the prospects for such an agreement depend on the quality of Moldova's elections. But the harassment of international NGOs is totally inconsistent with democratic elections practices and strikes a blow against the government's hopes to start negotiating a new EU-Moldova agreement.

I don't really have anything else to add except to note that in the comments to his post on this Popescu quite rightly makes a distinction between Bunescu's personal employment beef with IRI, which is being resolved as it should be in the courts, and his rather sweeping and selective allegations (e.g., Bunescu mentions only the Our Moldova Alliance as receiving IRI support, when in fact pretty much all Moldovan political parties receive support from IRI on an equal footing).

I did find a small tidbit online about Mr. Bunescu's work with IRI in happier times (scroll down to the last item), but not much else.

Anyway, as promised, here is a translation of the full article (not by me):

IRI representative makes new disclosures promised at press conference

Pharisaic Democracy

Dear reader, meeting inside the headquarters "Infotag" was dictated by the need to make public some data that I have become aware of thanks to the long-time activity in the representation of the International Republican Institute (IRI), a project funded and administered by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). My name is Marian Bunescu and I worked in the IRI a period of four consecutive years and have to make some clarifications. For a long period of time, I can not ignore anymore the actions and processes taking place with the participation of foreign citizens, especially the U.S., which are conducting on the territory of the Republic of Moldova activities and meetings with opposition political leaders, instructing and financing them in order to overthrow in the spring of 2009, the Constitutional regime elected by citizens of the republic through democratic elections in the Parliament from Chisinau.

Intensive activity to suppress the party that legally came to power has its roots even before the elections in the Legislature of the Republic of Moldova. Namely, before the elections, at the request of IRI and NDI leadership, an impressive number of "specialists" in the areas of conducting coup d'états and orange revolutions arrived in Moldova. The purpose of those specialists was to favor and bring to power at all cost the parties that would undermine the statehood, integrity and sovereignty of the country where I was born and live. Namely because of the reported and from the fact that many times, I directly informed the head of IRI Stiven Rader about the illegality of the support of the opposition parties, basically I lost my job, being ousted illegally.

In order of the above, I want to inform you that Constantin Tanase as a lawyer with whom I had discussions last week and the current week and who is actively defending IRI's interests on the territory of the Republic of Moldova warned me, quote: "The communists will lose elections in 2009 and will come to power other political parties and I'll make you very big problems ". Advocate Tanase intimidated me and proposed a sum of money to restrain me from accusing Americans.

In that context, I want to let you know that in my presence Serafim Urecheanu asked from Rader the amount of 1.5 million dollars, to prepare for the election campaign. On this occasion I want to let you know that Mr. Urecheanu came in person several times (about 4-5 times) to the IRI office, once he arrived even at night. In the IRI's office, he held many times confidential negotiations for numerous occasions with the American in the office of Rader, in order to get their support for the parliamentary elections. Namely, because of letting the American know about my position, which does not correspond to the interests of the IRI on the territory of the republic, I can not get employed, as neither was I fired from my position at the institute nor can I come to my work place, as the American stands in the door and behaves like I am a criminal of America.

I want to inform you, that working for IRI, I had the opportunity to directly to know what "democracy", implemented by the U.S. structures, means. And those who declare and speak loudly about political pluralism and democratic values finance and train such political parties as Our Moldova Alliance. Training and preparation for elections in 2009 of political parties, which main interest is their own enrichment, are held by representatives of the IRI and the NDI through the organization of seminars and trainings, where the average citizens of the Republic of Moldova do not have access. The access is limited because they (Americans) do not want to make public the things that they teach participants, like how to take people out on the streets and how to destabilize the situation in the country. It requires an increased attention the fact that the seminars and meetings of Americans with the leaders of the opposition political parties are funded directly by Americans by cash money, money that are not controlled by any state structures in the country. Many times, during the seminars I directly participated in, I had the opportunity to monitor the way in which are financed the seminars conducted by the IRI. The following question seems logical, would Americans allow, on the territory of the U.S., the activity of foreign political organizations, which are not registered anywhere and are practically doing whatever they want under the motto of "democracy development"?

I can not remain indifferent to the way the American "bosses" act and behave towards the Moldovan citizens that work in the institutions funded by them. Thus, I intend to draw your attention that no employee of organizations funded by the Americans on the territory of our state does not pay any taxes, nor to the state budget, or the social fund. In that context, there is a logical question - do they have a similar and identical behavior in U.S. like the one they expose in Moldova? And in cases of resignation, they do not respect the legislation of the Republic of Moldova regarding the payment of due wages. In this context, I would like to mention that in the case of being fired from the organizations funded by Americans, native citizens with great difficulty can get back their work book, in which usually the necessary information and stamps are missing. As a result, the time spent working in such organizations is lost in vain and does not add up to working experience.

Today I wish to give to publicity and some aspects, in my opinion, of illegal activity of IRI and NDI. Since there is a lot of time till the Parliamentary elections in the Republic of Moldova and I do not want to be convicted of participation in bringing to power of politicians marionettes, I want to inform that NDI and IRI, under the aegis of USAID, plan to destabilize the situation in the country, as they tried before, but have not succeeded. Yes, yes, namely during the last elections in the Parliament in Chisinau, for the first time, officials of these institutions have made attempts to bring to power corrupt politicians, interested in the disappearance of the Republic of Moldova as a sovereign and independent state.

Thus, seeing the dirty things that take place under the aegis of "development and propagation of democratic principles" on the territory of my country, I thought well and took the decision to leave IRI. Because I do not want to take part in the dirty things, that are priorities in the plans of the Americans chiefs of IRI and the NDI. Now I want to draw your attention that the democracy being propagated by the people behind these organizations is nothing else than a fiction, well-hidden, which aims at destroying the stability on the territory of Moldova. In proof of these statements, I want to bring to your attention that training of political parties loyal to Americans in Moldova is conducted directly through the involvement of NDI and IRI in their activity, through various forms. Sometimes, to increase efficiency and image of some politicians and political parties, at the initiative of the institution in which I have worked, experts that took part in the revolutions in Ukraine and Georgia are being invited. Thus, recently, at the IRI's initiative famous Serbian experts have been invited to Moldova, who have contributed directly to disorders in Ukraine, and are now familiarizing the AMN leaders with how to get the people out in the streets, in case of failure.

I address the free media for help, to clarify the case of my illegal dismissal and defend my rights provided by law. At the same time, I address to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration, as well as to the State Tax Inspectorate with the request to clarify the situation when citizens of the Republic of Moldova working for the American institutions and their labor rights are being ignored seriously.

I request, in my capacity of a citizen of the Republic of Moldova, who is not indifferent of the future of his country and its people, for the immediate implication of the organs of Prosecutor's Office and Judiciary in the clarification of the activity of the American organizations, above-mentioned. I want to inform you that due to NDI and IRI, in the neighboring countries was possible the overthrow and annihilation of legal interests of the population in favor of some politicians marionettes, who in the end have filled their pockets as a result of undertaken colorful revolutions. Pay special attention that at this moment, those countries are going through processes that influence negatively the life of simple and average people, from the countryside, who no longer have any other options but to leave the country in order to support their families by working abroad. At the moment I can declare with certainty that the main purpose of NDI and IRI is bringing to power in 2009 of the AMN leader, Serafim Urecheanu, who constantly has been seeking help and financial resources from the leadership of IRI, the American Steven Rader. He should be invited and asked if in America he participates in bringing to powers marionettes too? Does Serafim Urecheanu not understand that in the end he is selling his country and its people for some ambitions dictated from outside?

Marian BUNESCU

Read More...

Summary only...

What's in a name?

Valeri, we hardly knew ye!

[image source]

It seems that Valeri Litskai, the native of Tver' who has been de facto foreign minister of the PMR (as Transnistria's de facto government calls the territory) for as long as I can remember has been pushed out, and just at a time when some believe a resolution to the conflict might be in the works. We can only hope that the guy taking his place wasn't chosen because of his name - Владимир Ястребчак (Vladimir Yastrebchak). Ястреб means "hawk" in Russian. Strangely (or perhaps not so strangely), the "Tiraspol Times" (by all indications an online propaganda project funded by someone close to the PMR's powers-that-be) had a story forecasting this turn of events a couple of months ago.

Here is Regnum's article on the story, one-sided as their stories generally are on the post-soviet "frozen" conflicts and quoting extensively a rather tendentious Transnistrian "politologist" (who was, at least a few years ago, "dean of the Law Faculty at Transnistria State University"). And here's another Regnum story, quoting a Transnistrian politician's comment on the change, at a time when Litskai had just eight months left until retirement and (perhaps more importantly) when talks on resolving the conflict are reaching their final phase: "you don't change horses in midstream." We'll see if this change signals a revolution in the PMR's "foreign" policy toward Moldova, but I'm not holding my breath.

[Update July 11]

Here are some additional thoughts from a Moldovan think-tank on the reasons behind the reshuffle at the pinnacle of the PMR's foreign policy apparatus:

Some developments in the second half of June have made observers suppose that the race between Ukraine and Russia to control the Transnistrian regime has intensified. After Russia has refused to recognise Transnistria’s independence despite its promise to extend the "Kosovo precedent" Transnistrian leaders signalled the need to promote a "multi-vector" foreign policy which would replace the one addressing Russia only. The multi-vector foreign policy may consist in oscillations between Russia and Ukraine only, as the existence and the survival of the separatist regime have always depended on willingness of the two countries. [...]

In all likelihood, Russian authorities have decided to get involved in order to prevent the development of Tiraspol’s game with Kiev, given their "friendly" relations with Ukraine.

Litskai has made public the target of playing on contradictions between Chisinau and Kiev, while Chisinau is trying to get in the good graces of Moscow in the detriment of relations with Kiev. [...]

Transnistrian authorities have appointed Deputy foreign minister Vladimir Yastrebchiak as ad-interim minister shortly after the visit by Russian diplomats led by Zubakov to Chisinau and Tiraspol. The news agency Novy Region quoted sources in the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry as saying that Smirnov will fire Litskai soon for the pro-Ukraine policy he has tried to promote in the last months. The eventual dismissal of Litskai is allegedly linked to his alcohol addiction which often turns into public debauches. In these circumstances, one shall see the real reasons why Litskai is disgraced for: promotion of the so-called "multi-vector" foreign policy with oscillations between Russia and Ukraine, serious drunkenness, health, etc. Indeed, all these factors are convergent. [...]

Read More...

Summary only...

"Today's Pioneers"

"Today's Pioneers"

Last month there was some talk about the revival of the Young Pioneer organization in Russia. Russia Today did a talk-show segment asking, "Do Children Need Ideology?" All the fuss coincided with the anniversary of the organization's founding in May, which was marked more widely a year ago on the 85th anniversary of the Pioneers' founding.

RIA Novosti ran a photoset last year to mark the occasion ("День рождения Пионерии") with images from the organization's history, including one from a 2006 Pioneer induction ceremony on Red Square that could have been from 1986 except for the prominent involvement of post-Soviet Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov.

День рождения Пионерии

www.rian.ru

смотреть всю фотоленту >

Here are a few more pictures of that day's ceremony by RIA Novosti's photographer which didn't make it into the photoset linked above.

In May, a friend emailed me this somewhat amazing video clip from a news broadcast by ProTV of Chisinau (which unfortunately can't be embedded), showing a bemused news anchor reporting on the Pioneers' induction ceremony in Moldova's capital last month. The ceremony was timed to mark the 86th anniversary of the Soviet Pioneer organization's founding and involved the induction of around 70 children.

ProTV asked a few of the kids what they were there to celebrate and got responses like "I don't know...Victory Day" and "our teacher told us to come." The TV station titled the report "Pioneers Help Their Elders," which is part of the Pioneer's oath but also no doubt a tongue-in-cheek reference to these children's utility to Moldova's ruling Communist Party.

I pulled a few screen-shots from the video of the ceremony (below), but it's worth watching the video. The ceremony was conducted in Russian, and many of the kids interviewed were not able to answer questions put to them in Romanian, which explains the subtitles in the screen-shots:

[part of the Pioneer's oath]
"...to conscientiously fulfill the duties of a Pioneer..."

"Be faithful to the Pioneer ideal!" says the
elderly man sporting a St. George's ribbon.

One enthusiastic young inductee tried to explain what exactly those ideals meant to her:
"It's very important to be a Pioneer, because [Pioneers]
defend...their city from different...well, how can I put it..."

"...from different enemies and those who damage the environment."

Perhaps she just couldn't think of anything else to say, or perhaps for at least one young member, the ideals of the Pioneer movement in its ninth decade are morphing from red to green.

Read More...

Summary only...

A dog-and-pony show, starring a Bear

From officially approved "democrat" Andrei Bogdanov's wikipedia page:

In the summer of 1992, after a visit to Pridnestrov'e as part of a delegation of the youth union of the DPR [Democratic Party of Russia], he qualified Moldova's actions as "genocide against the people of Pridnestrov'e." The DPR's youth union condemned the position of the Russian government on this issue and called for immediate action by the Russian military "to save the people of Pridnestrov'e." [Bogdanov] blamed the Russian mass media for spreading lies about the events in Pridnestrov'e, and called the Russian government "sellouts." He immediately established a charity, "The Youth Chooses the Future," which collected money, medicine, equipment and food reserves for the defenders of the PMR.

This episode - far from the most bizarre one in Bogdanov's eccentric political career, which also included campaigning for pyramid scheme mastermind Sergei Mavrodi - is also mentioned briefly in his bio on anticompromat.

Amazingly, such a history of dedication to the PMR's cause doesn't seem to have won Bogdanov the support of politicians in this breakaway part of Moldova. Everyone seems to be supporting Medvedev and the continuation of Putin's course. This was the conclusion reached at an "international conference" which took place in Tiraspol last week, titled "Forward with Russia":

The conference was organized by the Patriotic Party of Pridnestrov'e. Participants included representatives of a number of other PMR socio-political organizations, as well as pro-Russian organizations from Ukraine, Abkhazia, and South Ossetia, a representative of St. Petersburg veterans, the president of the "Planet of Children" foundation, and others.

A policy declaration adopted at this conference can be seen here.

Bogdanov also failed to win the support of the politically active youth of Transdniester, who are 100% behind Medvedev:

"PRORYV!": Demonstrations in support of Dmitry Medvedev will be going non-stop
Lenta PMR [reprinted verbatim from the PRORYV! website], Feb. 26, 2008

The week remaining until election day will be filled with many demonstrations organized by the International Youth Corporation / People's Democratic Party [ММК-НДП] "PRORYV!" [trans. - the name of this group means, "Breakthrough"] in support of Dmitry Medvedev's candidacy.

Young people from "PRORYV!" are working simultaneously in practically all of cities and towns in Transdniester. In personal talks with citizens, the "Proryvians" are explaining the importance of participating in the voting [голосовании], providing information about the location of election precincts and giving out calendars with Dmitry Medvedev's picture and an inscription calling on the recipients to come to the ballot boxes on March 2. According to PDP "PRORYV!" leader Aleksandr Gorelkovsky, March 2nd is a genuine national holiday for the 120,000 Russian citizens who reside in Transdniester.

"On this day we can come and vote for the president of our 'Greater Homeland' [«Большой Родины»]. Each of us understands how large Russia's role in Transdniester's existence has been: economic assistance, security guarantees, and the uninterrupted cultural-historical connection which allows us to maintain our national identity. The Russian authorities' attitude toward us in the future depends on voter turnout. That is why 'PRORYV!' is doing everything possible to increase the turnout and is endorsing Dmitry Medvedev. Unlike other parties, we do more than make political statements, and 'go to the people' in the fullest sense of that phrase. I am certain that serious political success can result only from direct interaction with citizens," emphasized Aleksandr Gorelkovsky.

More recently, it seems that one of the people behind PRORYV!, a shady guy named Dmitry Soin, decided to try to manage expectations, at least with respect to turnout:

"Turnout will be above 50%, but it will not be tremendously high. This is because many Russians [residing in Transdniester] are currently outside of Transdniester, and the ones who are here are certain of D. Medvedev's victory. 97 percent of the Russians we surveyed believe he will win. The lack of a sharp battle or intrigues will lower the turnout. From 88 to 92 percent of voters are prepared to vote for the main candidate, depending on the region surveyed. Mr. Bogdanov has the lowest rating, about one percent. V. Zhirinovsky and G. Zyuganov could get from 4 to 7 percent each

[all items translated by me - links to originals in Russian]

Read More...

Summary only...

Putin's Pridnestrovian Partisan

Putin has long been able to count on strong support from the farthest corners of Russia. But now he's got an even more distant amen corner. Backing VVP up at the recent United Russia party congress was a political leader from a patch of land that - while it's a shorter plane ride from Moscow than Primor'e - isn't even part of Russia.

The presence of PMR Parliament Speaker Evgeny Shevchuk at the United Russia congress as an "official guest" is interesting and not entirely illogical given that by some estimates roughly 25% of Transdniester's 550,000 residents are Russian citizens and thus will be entitled to vote in the upcoming Duma and presidential elections. It's also a mild spit in the face of Moldova's assertion of sovereignty over Transdniester. I've translated two articles from Regnum about this.

"Renewal" party of Transdniester to support United Russia in the Duma elections
Regnum.ru, Oct. 1, 2007, 3:35pm

Representatives of the Transdniester republic party Renewal, led by their leader - the chairman of the Supreme Soviet of Pridnestrovie Еvgenii Shevchuk will participate as official guests in the VIII United Russia party congress, which will open on October 1st at 4pm in Gostiny Dvor in Moscow, reports REGNUM's correspondent.

The congress will be in session for two days. During the congress United Russia and Renewal plan to sign an agreement about cooperation between the two political parties. Evgenii Shevchuk told Regnum that Renewal will support United Russia in the December 2007 Russian Duma elections. "We support [United Russia's] campaign platform - the 'Putin Plan' - and will actively participate in campaigning [будем принимать активное участие в агитации] on the territory of the Pridnestrovian Moldovan Republic among citizens who have Russian citizenship and are participating in the Duma elections," said Shevchuk.


Pridnestrovian Parliament Speaker: "Putin's decision is intended to defend the interests of Russian citizens."
Regnum.ru, Oct. 1, 2007, 10:22pm

"The Russian President's decision to head up the federal candidates' list of United Russia suggests that the Russian state will continue to develop in a stable manner," said Pridnestrovie Supreme Soviet Chairman and leader of the Renewal party Evgenii Shevchuk in an interview with a Regnum correspondent on October 1, commenting on Vladimir Putin's agreeing to head United Russia's campaign list.

"In my view, this represents a strengthening of United Russia and a continuation of the dynamic course of development not only of Russia itself, but also the defense of Russian interests and citizens regardless of their country of residence. This decision means that the course will be continued in the future and developed in a qualitatively new way and on a new level. I hope that the party [United Russia] will win a majority of votes in the Duma, which will allow the realization of 'Putin's Plan,'" said Shevchuk.

Shevchuk also emphasized that the ideology of the Pridnestrovian Renewal party and the fundamental ideological underpinnings of United Russia are similar: "We have also always supported the programmatic documents of the Russian President and of this party [United Russia]. Naturally, the Renewal party is interested in signing a mutual interparty agreement and will be active in the campaign as one of the consolidating links around the idea of United Russia's victory in the Duma elections. Renewal will support United Russia in the Russian State Duma elections in December 2007."

As Regnum earlier reported, today, October 1, in a speech at the VIII United Russia party congress in Moscow, Vladimir Putin agreed to head up the party's candidates' list.

Yes, the original articles used "VIII United Russia party congress," and I decided to leave it that way - very nostalgia-inducing. One interesting aspect of this is that even as Putin himself was backing away from "Putin's Plan" (according to Lenta.ru, he "disavowed authorship of the plan" in his remarks at the United Russia congress on October 1) people like Shevchuk were lining up to endorse it as the salvation of Russia - and "compatriots" - everywhere.

Shevchuk's bio on the PMR Supreme Soviet website - interestingly, it identifies him as being born locally - in Rybnitsa - whereas Shevchuk's entry in the list of PMR officials banned from travel to the EU lists him as being born in Novosibirsk.

It looks like another politician from Transdniester is even more directly involved - in a way - in the upcoming Duma elections:

Pridnestrovian politician is in the federal lists of candidates to the State Duma of the Russian Federation
PMR News, Sept. 25, 2007

Active Pridnestrovian politician has been included to the list of candidates of the deputies of State Duma of the Federal Council of Russian Federation. Chairman of the Board of Pridnestrovian “Gasprombank”, Marina Smirnova, has found herself in the regional group number 90 of the party “Fair Russia”(“Spravedlivaya Rossiya”). Marina Smirnova is number two in the list. In case if “Fair Russia” gets more votes in this region, Marina Smirnova may become the deputy of the State Duma of Russian Federation

Although this item appeared on the sketchy pridnestrovie.info website, Fair Russia's website confirms that Smirnova is second on their regional list for the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District. Curiouser and curiouser.

[Update Oct 7 - FLB.ru has a list of 122 businesspeople who are on Fair Russia's party list, including Smirnova, and pokes fun at the idea of "bankers for fairness."]

Read More...

Summary only...

Waiting in the PMR

Photo by LJ user nicolas_82, titled
"ожидание
троллейбуса нет и нет..."
("Waiting - but the trolleybus just won't come...")

I have blogged a fair amount about the PMR, the secessionist entity (or de facto state, depending on your preferred terminology) located along Moldova's eastern border on a patch of land called Transnistria, Transdniestria, Transdniester, Transdnestr or Pridnestrovie (again, depending on your preference and politics). AFOE has recently blogged about this troubled territory - not once, but twice - and a couple of Austrian journalists have just published a book on the region that looks like it will be interesting (I've ordered a copy and will try to offer some sort of review once I receive it); but it can be difficult to find voices from the region unfiltered by spinmasters working for or against the PMR's secession.

With that in mind, I decided to poke around in the universe of Russian-language LiveJournals and found a couple of interesting communities. Foto_pmr - the source of the photo above - is an interesting if not very often updated site with a diverse array of photos from the region. The Tiraspol city community ocity also has a wide array of postings - everything from the city's new anthem (picked up from Russian news agency "Novyi Region 2") to photos of "the PMR's Paris Hiltons" and a post about "Electronic music in Pridnestrovie." I decided to translate a couple of posts from the ocity community.

A rhetorical question when the barrel is pointed at your nose
When you go into the recently built IDK [InterDnestrKom] service center, you feel like you're in a European country - everything is so awesome and captivating, and also unusual for this area (mirrored ceilings... I've been waiting to see them for a while, and the wall in the Quake room is cool). Then you go to the passport department at the MVD [Ministry of Internal Affairs] and understand that you're in far-off 1993, and it's the same old sovok, and nothing has changed in all this time - you show up with your own forms/sheets of paper from a notebook and fill them out. Watching this contrast for an hour, you involuntarily start to think, "What sort of a state do we have? A wealthy one or a poor one? And that right there, bro', is a dilemma. Practically a rhetorical question.

And a second post, in response to the first one:

To the post about the poverty and wealth of our republic
Whenever I turn on the TV (although that's only rarely), on the TV PMR "news" I often see clips about the expenditure of budgetary funds on such things, that you can't help but think, "How much money must we have, if we can afford that?"

Today I saw a story about the restoration of the "Druzhba" hotel. Was this the government's idea?! The report talked about how they're going to make this so-called hotel into something beautiful. But literally the day before yesterday I was in the hospital. Probably 70% of the equipment there is older than I am [the poster's profile says he was born in 1987 - trans.]. And this equipment is going to check my health, make me well and keep me alive if something happens! Many operations could be done much more safely and with less pain, if the doctors had decent equipment. They showed my friend that if he got operated on here, they would have to make a hole in him the size of a fist, and if he got it done in Chisinau, then they would make a small incision a centimeter long. Because there they have more modern equipment. There must be thousands of such examples in EVERY ONE of our hospitals.

That's why I want to know, is the hotel's reconstruction really worth the danger posed to the health of the citizens of this republic if they should happen to come down with anything more serious than the flu[?]

I want to see a business plan showing the projected profitability of this hotel and in general all of the expenditures from the government's budget. For example, on the website of the Supreme Soviet.

Comments to the post are interesting and state that the hotel is actually being renovated by its owner, a private investor (but question the demand for a luxury hotel in the city), and that the PMR's budgets are published periodically and available by subscription.

The Hotel Druzhba received a mention in one of Edward Lucas's reports from the PMR earlier this year:

The misnamed Hotel Druzhba (Friendship) used to be the only place to spend the night in Tiraspol. For connoisseurs of truly dismal Soviet-style rudeness, apathy, squalor and clashing shades of muddy pastel, it is still unmissable. As a place to stay, its noisy, draughty rooms, with their nylon sheets, uneven tiles, flimsy locks and eccentric plumbing, leave a lot to be desired.

For other discussions by Tiraspolians and other Transnistrians, you can also check out this online forum.

[Update: this item is now cross-posted at Global Voices.

Also, I'd meant to mention that one of the reasons I liked the above photo so much is that it reminded me of a scene I saw from the Chisinau-Tiraspol marshrutka - an elderly lady sitting on an elevated manhole cover by grazing her cow in front of a bank of unfinished apartment buildings. The collision of urban aspirations with rural realities made for one of those images I wish I'd had the chance to photograph.]

Read More...

Summary only...

Virtual Reports from Virtual NGOs

Nicu Popescu had a post a few weeks ago about an entertaining development, if rather insignificant in the grand scheme of things, titled "Transnistria: a new virtual study."

Another Transnistrian propaganda report - published (according to the report) in Brussels, on the web page [created for the purpose of publishing this report] of a virtual institution called EODE ["Ngo European Observatory for Democracy and Elections"], in (rather broken) English and French, with the bombastic title "The ‘Pridnestrovskaia Moldavskaia Respublika’: Building of an [sic!] European State and Experiment of Direct Democracy." In English this sounds sort of like "cultural leanings of America for make benefit glorious nation of Kazakhstan. The report's author, Luc Michel, is a marginal leftist, a self-declared fighter against American-Zionist imperialism. Apparently he was invited by "Nashi" to Lake Seliger. The other authors (if they even actually contributed anything) are just as bizarre.

This report is almost certainly intended as a counterweight to the fascinating and extensive report (prepared by actual legal specialists, including two professors at good law schools and a US Circuit Court judge) published last year by the Association of the Bar of the City of New York and titled "Thawing a Frozen Conflict: Legal Aspects of the Separatist Crisis in Moldova." As such, it will likely be about as successful as the report promulgated last year about Transnistria by a fake NGO called "ICDISS" (a report which was disavowed by all of the academics and specialists it falsely cited as authors and contributors) which was exposed by Edward Lucas in a series of articles last year:

It seems more likely that the ICDISS is a bunch of lightweight opportunists in Washington DC, paid for by tycoons and goons in Transdniestria, perhaps with the encouragement of sympathisers in Moscow. The same money probably pays for the other websites [tiraspoltimes.com, pridnestrovie.net, visitpmr.com and transdniestria.com], and also subsidises ‘Breakthrough’ [Proryv], a local youth movement that apes similar pro-Kremlin efforts in Russia. Coincidentally or not, similar stunts are being pulled in the Caucasus and the Baltics.

Fake think-tanks, spurious reports and manufactured protest movements were common currency for both sides in the old Cold War; now they are popping up in the new one. Unprecedented money, effort and brainpower are now going into pro-Russian mischief-making in Europe’s backyard, to general indifference.

Whether you see it as merely entertaining, or outright sinister, the information war disguises hard questions for both sides.

Lucas himself posted an example of one of the other bits of disinformation floating around there which was likely organized in support of Russia - the spurious psychiatric assessment of Georgian President Saakashvili.

Of course, both de facto and real countries are capable of doing this without help from Russia or anyone else - all it takes is a bit of money and a good imagination - but more and more, such attempts are being outed, even when undertaken by real professionals.

Unfortunately for the PMR or whoever financed this "EODE" Report, it hardly looks like professionals of any sort were involved, and the final product doesn't pass the laugh test. For one thing (though I admit this is superficial), the organization's logo looks like it was designed by a 1970s-era 10-year-old - and whoever designed it doesn't know that NGOs don't usually include "Ngo" right at the front of their names.


It is littered with misspellings, and it cites publications and organizations that are impossible to take seriously, such as the Tiraspol Times and the "Community for Democracy and Human Rights." Sometimes the passages from the Tiraspol Times are just clumsily inserted without citation or editing, resulting in strange passages like "The outcome was seen on Wednesday in Tiraspol..." Fully half of the 150-page report is taken up by appendixes, which include two Tiraspol Times articles; the full text of the PMR's "Constitution"; two articles by and an interview with the Chairman of the PMR's "Constitutional Court"; and maps taken without citation from both the Economist and the CIA World Factbook.

Even better, two of the esteemed members of the bar who are listed in the report as having assisted in its preparation have bios that don't make them seem like they'd be particularly objective on questions involving the West's relationship with Russia (see page 12): one of them is listed as being "the legal consultant of Russian President Putin, of the State of Belarus and of the Government of Sudan"; another is "In particular lawyer of several Libyan State Bodies, he was also the legal consultant of the 'International Committee to Defend Slobodan Milosevic' (Paris)."

Read More...

Summary only...

Olympic dreams from the past

The Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics will no doubt shower riches (and white elephants) upon the people - and especially the leaders - of Russia's Black Sea coast. However, I doubt they will have the far-reaching and long-lasting influence of the 1980 Moscow Olympics on fences and gates throughout the post-Soviet space:

Veterinary Pharmacy, Floresti, Moldova
Taken on Aug. 1, 2006

Read More...

Summary only...

Alisher Usmanov - Богатые тоже плачут

The world's 142nd-richest person is wounded by a blog.

[Image source]

Thanks to a web host's fear of the UK's plaintiff-friendly libel laws, Uzbek/Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov was able to temporarily suppress some interesting material posted about him at Craig Murray's website. Notably, Usmanov has not taken Murray to court, presumably because his lawyers don't think he would win, even with the UK libel laws which put the burden of proof on the defendant. Based on material available elsewhere on the internet (for example, see Anticompromat's extensive bio and other information on Usmanov), it looks like at least some of what Murray claims may be true. More on Usmanov, including his interests in Transnistria (a topic not discussed by Murray), below the cut.

Murray, of course, was the UK's Ambassador to Uzbekistan who was sacked, according to him for being an opponent of the West's policy of tolerating Uzbek President Islam Karimov's human rights abuses. Murray has now reposted the article that drew the letter from Usmanov's lawyers, which is titled "Alisher Usmanov, potential Arsenal chairman, is a Vicious Thug, Criminal, Racketeer, Heroin Trafficker and Accused Rapist," at a newly created Blogger blog - alisherusmanov.blogspot.com. The bit about Arsenal relates to Usmanov's ownership of a stake in the British football (soccer) club.

Usmanov may be learning a difficult lesson about using heavy-handed tactics to go after speech you don't like - often (at least in an open society), such tactics just get more people talking about the material you find offensive. Perhaps if Murray's blog was hosted in Russia, Usmanov would have had success getting his friends in the Kremlin (Usmanov, you'll recall, was the tycoon who recently pre-empted the auction of Rostropovich's art collection and declared his plans to donate the collection to the Russian state - he's identified by one study as belonging to the "liberal-technocratic" camp of Russian elites, as opposed to the siloviki - page 33 of this pdf) to deploy the new "anti-extremism" law against him. Another advantage he would have on his home-field media space is that he's the owner of the Kommersant publishing house.

But instead of anything resembling such a result, the case - well, actually, there's no legal case - the story has become a cause celebre for bloggers the world over, it appears. Nathan has an interesting post about the brouhaha at Registan, with interesting comments. The Moscow Times also had an article about the story yesterday, noting that part of the reason it's become such a big story is that the website of at least one other politician aside from Murray, hosted on the same server, was also shut down for "technical reasons." We'll see if Usmanov gets to be Arsenal Chairman, regardless of the size of his ownership stake. For the moment, it looks like he fought the blogs, and the blogs won.



Interestingly enough, I had been reading just a few days ago about Mr. Usmanov's ownership of a controlling stake in the crown jewel of Transdniester's industrial sector - Moldova Steel Works, better known as MMZ, which is the abbreviation its Russian name, Молдавский металлургический завод, at Rîbniţa (also spelled Râbniţa or Rybnitsa, or Рыбница in Russian):

The metallurgic production unit in Rabnita is by far one of the most important objectives in Transnistria. 4,000 people are employed in this factory and the whole Northern part of the separatist republic depends on this factory. At maximum capacity, the factory can produce up to one million tons of steel and one million tons of laminated products a year.

Several groups benefited of this production unit. First it was the Russian group Itera, which at the end of '98 bought 75% of the shares. Once the group fell into the disgrace of president Putin, Itera had to sell in 2004. The shares were bought by the companies from Liechtenstein , which at this moment control 90% of MMZ. The two companies are called Rumney Trust Reg and EIM Energy Investment & Management Corporation. Both companies used to belong to the Itera Group. The buyers hurried up to certify with documents the new property, while the only ones who admitted being part of the Itera group, were Youssouf Hares and Alisher Usmanov, a Syrian businessman also active in the Ukraine, and of Uzbek origin. [...] Hares declared to us that the factory cost 100 million dollars and that the exclusive manager of MMZ is Alisher Usmanov. [source]

Organizational chart compiled by the Romanian Center for Investigative Journalism,
showing the ownership structure of the MMZ steel plant in Rybnitsa .
[image source]

According to a report published last year by the Association of the Bar of the City of New York on various legal aspects of the situation in Transdniester (which the report refers to as "the TMR"), economic influence is one of the levers Russia uses to maintain its outsized role as a third party to the secessionist conflict between Moldova and the PMR authorities:

Besides direct economic assistance by Russia, the fortunes of Russian economic elites have become intertwined with a successful secession of the TMR. The TMR’s economy is highly reliant on Russia. “Just over 50% of [the TMR’s] officially registered exports are direct towards two key markets—Russia and Russian companies registered in North Cyprus.” To pick just one example, the ECHR found credible evidence that “from 1993 onwards Transdniestrian arms firms began to specialize in the production of high-tech weapons, using funds and orders from various Russian companies.”

More generally, though, the risk of the TMR’s privatizations—which were largely bought by Russian and Ukrainian companies—being unwound or otherwise jeopardized leads to a substantial interest on the part of some of Russia’s business elite. This is redoubled with the substantial interest that Gazprom now has in the proper transfer of shares in Moldova-Gas from the TMR to Gazprom as a valid means of paying off debt.

Or consider as another example the story of the Moldovan Metallurgical Plant (MMZ) in Ribnita. The Ribnita plant was built in 1984 using German technology and is widely considered to still be the most advanced steel works in the former Soviet Union. The Ribnita plant also generates between 40 percent and 66 percent of the TMR’s tax revenues. The TMR sold the Ribnita plant, despite the protests of the government of Moldova, to the Russian company Itera.

Then, in April 2004, Itera sold 75 percent of the plant to the Hares Group, an Austrian company, which purchased another 15 percent from other co-owners. Some have argued that the Hares Group is a “political buffer” which purchases assets in former Soviet republics and then re-sells them to the actual intended owners. In the summer of 2004, Hares allegedly sold 30 percent of the MMZ shares to Alisher Usmanov, one of the “metal tycoons” of Russia, who then announced a plan to consolidate MMZ with five other enterprises from Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan making the new enterprise the fourth largest ore mining and processing company in the world. Such high economic stakes may well play a part in driving Russia’s political agenda, regardless of the requirements of international law.

[source: