Tuesday, August 1, 2006

Tuesday, August 1, 2006: Maintained Legend

by Ştefan Cândea and Sorin Ozon, RCJI

12 April 2006: “My state is so rich now, that it can buy itself international recognition” brags a Transnistrian custom-house officer from Platonovo – Goian. We are three “tourists” packed up in an old Lada, the only persons in that empty customs and we are listening to the lectures of the separatist official. The statement is even more interesting when one would take into consideration the appeals made during that month by Transnistria to Moldova, to help the separatist population, allegedly brought on the verge of a “humanitarian crisis” by the economic blockade imposed by Moldova and the Ukraine.

“Transnistria – Europe’s black hole” is the phrase used by politicians. When looking closely on this separatist republic, the phrase turns into a juicy joke or into the proof of a well maintained myth. Transnistria is not a black hole in any way, but a well drawn network of economic interests and organized crime, strategically managed by Moscow and guarded arm in hand. The criminal groups can be identified behind any major objective bought through the privatization system during the last years, even by doing just a journalistic investigation. Political connections with the Russian authorities are very transparent too. And Moscow’s interest to keep the influence and the possibility to restrain a conflict in the middle of a fortress planted in the European Union’s back is more than transparent. Moreover one can also add the illicit profit made by the corrupted clerks from the Ukraine and Moldova on the republic and one can have a clear picture of the situation in Transnistria in 2006. Smirnov and the minister of the internal security Antiufeev are just middlemen, managers of some organized crime structure in the shape of a state.

Not even Moldova tried to solve the Transnistrian problem. Anatol Ţăranu, the former presidential councilor and the head negotiator with the separatists, has a pertinent question to ask: “Why Moldova didn’t go to international courts to sue President Eltin’s decree from 1992, which stated that the 14 th Army and its entire military arsenal passed under the custody of the Russian federation? The decree is illegal and it is against the founding agreements of CSI, because all the properties belonging to the former Soviet Union should have passed under the jurisdiction of the republics on which territory they were.”

No matter the legends around the separatist republic, its very existence has definite effects, some of them among the most dangerous effects possible. The present situation in Transnistria can affect directly the citizens of the European Union. First of all, through the permanent potential of starting a war less than 200 kilometers away from the future Eastern EU border, which would again lead to a large number of victims and refugees. Strictly related to the stored arsenal situation, an eventual accident in any of the large weapon storage houses allegedly improperly maintained could turn into a regional catastrophe.

The pollution potential in the region is not to be ignored, as long as there is no efficient control on the activities involving radioactive substances and while no one in the country seems to be interested in environmental protection.

Organized crime, at many levels, is a serious reason to be worried about for all European Union countries. First of all it’s all about manufacturing and trafficking weapons which couldn’t be revealed entirely since there is no real or longtime access to all the production units of the military complex. These weapons can be supplied to terrorist groups or criminal organizations in any part of the world. Then all the massive organized smuggling has all the chances to grow once the European Union gets its borders nearer. Counterfeited products, uncontrolled food, cigarettes and alcoholic liquors are just a few examples of tempting goods for all consumers in the European Union, because of the considerable lower prices. All these goods are smuggled even nowadays in huge quantities throughout the separatist republic. Nonetheless there is an intense human trafficking activity, which is managed directly from Transnistria and people could observe the presence as investors of some representatives for insiders with international drug dealing networks. The fact that there is a country so very close to the European Union, a country where they can hide and manage criminal organizations, is another reason to be concerned about.

At least, the issue of human rights breaking seems not to render sensitive the international opinion. On the other hand, in Transnistria, representatives of the Moldavian authorities, of the press and even Transnistrian citizens are detained and abusively interrogated. There is no possibility of an outside intervention. The press and the independent NGO’s are harassed and outlawed.

The USA and the EU are the only factors that could efficiently step in resolving the Transnistrian crisis. So far they did it only formally, showing more like lack of interest. Kind asking and polite invitations sent to Russia to respect its agreements and to leave the region are hilarious. All international discussions, negotiations, and agreements during the last 15 years proved to be entirely futile with regard to both Russia and Transnistria. Meanwhile, good business is being developed between American or European companies and companies belonging to the separatists. As previously shown, banks and companies registered in the Western countries assure the well development of the criminal activities coordinated by the mafia groups in the republic. In the Western countries, Transnistria costs no votes, but it will surely cost some money!

Russia and the 14 th Army form the most redoubtable player of the cold war in Transnistria. Weirdly enough, despite the fact that Russia was not involved in the conflict, it is the neutral pacifying agent.

Anatol Taranu

Several Russian politicians are directly involved in supporting the separatists and they were accused of making profit out of the privatization process. On the long list of members of the Russian Chamber of Deputies who make propaganda for Transnistria, Viktor Alksnis and Sergey Baburin, both members of the Rodina party, stand out. Baburin is the vice-president of the Chamber and Alksnis is a deputy, and he is also called “the black colonel” because of the position he had in the Red Army. He was the commander of the army’s Special Forces. Alksnis stood out by officially requesting the Russian Parliament to monitor the presidential elections in the USA. The collapse of the Soviet empire caught Alksnis in Latvia, where he put up a strong opposition to the local movement for independence. It is really interesting that even the Transnistrian minister of the state security, Antiufeev, was outstanding in arms, in Latvia as well, as the commander of the Special Forces OMON. Baburin and Alksnis were involved in the privatization of the power station in Cuciurgan to a Belgian – Russian company. The latter sold then the power station to the public company RAO EES. The press accuses Baburin of having got involved in making the decision to privatize and sell his own legal consulting company, which brought him a profit of 800 thousand dollars. At the time of the privatization, the Transnistrian minister of Justice, Victor Balala, supported the whole affair. All Russian press signaled that after the minister had resigned because of the damaging privatization, he went on to become Baburin’s assistant in Moscow.

Another episode worth mentioning is related to the involvement of GRU in the Transnistrian conflict. During the years before the conflict, the informative files archive of both GRU and KGB were relocated from Chisinau to Tiraspol. The GRU archive was guarded by the 14 th Army, while the KGB archive was guarded by local officers. Some time before the ’92 conflict broke out, the KGB archive was taken over by the separatists, with the help of the paramilitary troops, recently endowed with weapons from the Russian store house in Colbasna. No one knows what happened to the two archives and people speculate that there were some secret transports made to Moscow. Nevertheless, information and details from the local KGB archives were issued in the Tiraspol newspapers, as well as in the Moscow press. They were also used by the Commander of the 14 th Army, Michail Bergman.

It is interesting to mention that during our research we have noticed in Tiraspol, on the 13 th of April, a car with a Romanian diplomatic registration plate, which belonged to the Russian Embassy in Bucharest. After some check up, it came out that the VW vehicle with the registration plate 156147 is used by the no special position Embassy councilor Stepan Schetinkin. He didn’t want to comment in any way his presence in Tiraspol, even though his car went there al least three times during that month, crossing the border of Moldova.

The Russian strategy is worth being followed more closely. Slowly, but categorically, the Russian government takes over important economical objectives, after a well-sketched plan. The companies get into a very bad economical situation, they are privatized to some off-shore companies belonging to cover men, and they are sold afterwards to the Russian public companies. Or, as an alternative, at the first stage, they are privatized to some Russian or Ukrainian oligarchs in close connections with Russian politicians. In the case of some future law suits with Moldova, Russia is in the posture of the well intended buyer, and in the case of a military retreat, all the region is being controlled through economic means.

Moreover, Russia allowed the separatists to develop criminal activities, even if some Russian officials drew attention over the activities developed by Smirnov and his groups. We can only suspect the “auto financing” motivation permitted to the special Russian troops, because maintaining the army in Transnistria is expensive.

The only countries officially acknowledging the existence of Transnistria are Abkhazia and South Osetia, both of them separatist republics as well. The three countries founded a union of the separatist republics, with agreements of mutual support, even military support. No other country officially acknowledges the existence of Transnistria.

The only sanctions ever imposed on Transnistria are: the interdiction to travel from the EU, the USA and Canada, for the 27 most important political leaders in Tiraspol and the obligation to be registered in Chisinau as well for all exports, imposed by the Ukraine to all companies in the separatist republic. The interdiction to travel, valid beginning with 2003 and till present, had an immediate effect. The separatists allowed Rusia to repatriate tons of military technique, but only for a short time.

For the interdiction to travel, Transnistria got its revenge on Moldova, declaring 14 Moldavian officials as “persona non grata”, the country’s president included. For the so-called “economical blockade”, Russia was more than obliged to get the revenge, by forbidding the import of farming products, wine, and other alcohol liquors from Moldova.

While making our research, both President Vladimir Voronin and the separatist leader Igor Smirnov refused to meet the team involved in this project. The journalistic investigation was financed by the Scoop project (through the Danish Investigative Journalists Association – FUJ) and by the organization Small Arms Survey from Geneva

The project "Transdniester - Revealing Europe's black hole" is an investigation of CRJI, financed by SCOOP in Danemark and SAS in Switzerland. The participants in this project are the following journalists: Vitalie Calugareanu (Chisinau), Vlad Lavrov (Kiev), Igor Boldyrev (Odessa), Alexander Bratersky (Moscova) and foto Robert Ghement.