“OLVIA-PRESS”

THE REPUBLIC IS TWELVE. WHAT FURTHER?

On September 2^nd, the Dniester Moldavian Republic will celebrate the 12^th Anniversary of its foundation. Twelve years is not a ‘round’ date, not a jubilee, but not an ordinary one for our history. On background of those examinations, which Dniestrian had undergone for the last year, it’s a particular stage. It’s the stage in the sense that the republic has again proved its firmness and the right for independent existence.

It was very uneasy to do. The past 2001 brought a custom blockade to the Dniestrian people instead of natural economic growth. The Moldavian government, having invented a legend about the “Dniestrian Mafia”, annulled our custom seals, and established the regime of sanctions against the DMR, having thus violated agreements achieved before. It happened as far as a year ago: September 1^st 2001.

That time, the Moldavian prime minister Vasily Tarlev made a victorious declaration that “no single kilogram of smuggled goods will come out of Dniestria any more”. It’s still unclear what he meant under “smuggling”. Declarations of the prime minister were not testified by facts.

The economic sanctions of Moldova have negatively influenced not upon mythical “smugglers” but industrial enterprises of the DMR, and employees engaged there, and together with them – the whole population of the DMR: pensioners, budget-sphere benefactors, and students.

May it have been the very thing needed by the Moldavian president and government? Looking back, we more and more often to such a conviction, especially when you correlate custom problems with the DMR presidential elections in December 2001. Authority of Moldova did not conceal its desire to destabilize situation in Dniestria and to ‘pass’ their needed candidate to the presidential post. The stake was made on the opposition: the leader of the People’s Power party Alexander Radchenko, and the ex-mayor of Bendery Tom Zenovich.

But soon Kishinev understood that neither Zenovich nor Radchenko would be able to the electoral campaign. According to all polls, they were considerably yielding to Igor Smirnov. Having seen it, Vladimir Voronin and Moldavian secret service started the work directed at break-up of the elections.

As Kishinev political technologists thought, in order to make Dniestrians ignore the electoral process, they needed to cause negative feelings towards the DMR acting authority. For sake of that, Moldavian and Russian journalists took a number of informational actions in the “black PR” style. One of the most famous is the report of the RTR (Russian TV Channel – note of the translator) correspondent Eduard Petrov, who aspired to tell TV-spectators about ‘awful’ truth about the DMR, suggesting about criminal character of Dniestria.

Dniestrians have quickly understood, from where that ‘awful’ truth was coming, by whom it was ordered and paid. One failed to break up the presidential elections. The people of Dniestria again showed to authority of Moldova, that the times of Blitzkriegs and forced pressure, the times of “arranging constitutional order” and lies have gone forever. The only way of resolving problems is the negotiation process. The fact, that it restarted today, is a undoubted consequence of success of the last-year presidential elections, as result of which the DMR legitimacy was once again confirmed.

What is waiting for our republic? This year will obviously pass under sign of discussing the concept of federalization, approved by guarantee countries and mediators in the Moldavian-Dniestrian settlement. The started discussion of the federalization idea on level of experts’ groups is, of course, a turning-point in history of the negotiation process, because till now the Moldavian side was talking exclusively about ‘unitarity’ and ‘indivisibility’ of the RM. Next year, the negotiation process however will not be the only worry of Dniestrians. Priority attention will be paid as usually at issues of economic policy. Enforcement of economy of our state is pledge of its real independence.

A.Mospanov, August 26^th 2002