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Chisinau has levied customs duties on companies based in Transnistria in order to bring the region into Romania or under the umbrella of the West, says a separatist deputy, quoted by Russian and pro-Russian media. On this occasion, older narratives related to Transnistria and the conflict in the region have been revived.
NEWS: "The Moldovan authorities want to destroy the Transnistrian economy in order to direct the unrecognized republic towards Romania or under the roof of the EU and NATO, the deputy of the Supreme Council of the unrecognized Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic (PMR), political scientist Andrei Safonov, told RIA Novosti.
"As everybody knows, the pro-Western-pro-Romanian radicals, who took power in the Republic of Moldova in 2020-2021, have launched a systemic attack on Transnistria... The authorities in Chisinau want to destroy the economy of Transnistria in order to bring our republic into Romania or under the roof of the EU and NATO," Safonov said.
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The PMR deputy mentioned that Chisinau is the one that continues to refuse to work in the 5+2 negotiation format. In his opinion, the Moldovan representatives are deliberately sabotaging the negotiations aimed at finding a resolution to the conflict.
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Transnistria, whose inhabitants are 60% Russian and Ukrainian, tried to separate from the Republic of Moldova even before the collapse of the USSR, fearing that on the wave of nationalism, Moldova would unite with Romania. In 1992, after a failed attempt by the Moldovan authorities to solve the problem by force, Transnistria became a territory that practically escaped from the control of Chisinau.
NARRATIVES: 1. Chisinau is destroying Transnistria's economy in order to force it into the sphere of Western influence. 2. Chisinau is blocking the Transnistrian regulation within the "5+2" format. 3. Transnistrian separatism was a response to Moldovan "nationalism" and the danger of the union with Romania. 4. The armed conflict on the Dniester in 1992 was caused by Chisinau.
LOCAL CONTEXT/ETHOS: Transnistria was annexed to the former Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic during the USSR, while territories that had been part of Romania and had been seized by the Soviets, northern Bukovina and southern Bessarabia, were annexed to the Ukrainian SSR.
With the dissolution of the USSR, Transnistria proclaimed its independence, and in 1992 an armed conflict broke out. On the territory of the Moscow-backed separatist enclave there is also an army depot with about 20,000 tons of ammunition, guarded by a Russian military contingent. Its presence is considered one of the main impediments to finding a settlement of the conflict. Russia has not fulfilled its international commitments to evacuate the troops and ammunition.
Since 2005, the negotiations for the settlement of the Transnistrian conflict have been carried out in the so-called "5+2" format, in which Russia, Ukraine and the OSCE participate as negotiators, the EU and the USA - as observers, and Chisinau and Tiraspol - as involved parties. The negotiations have been held with long breaks and without tangible results, especially in the direction of identifying a political solution to the conflict, and with the start of the war in Ukraine, the talks stopped, including because Russia and Ukraine, as mediators, are currently in a state of war.
As of January 1, a new Customs Code is force in the Republic of Moldova, which no longer provides, among other things, a series of fiscal benefits for companies on the left side of the Dniester and obliges them to pay taxes and duties equally with those from the right bank of the Dniester. These provisions triggered reactions from Tiraspol, which introduced taxes for farmers who own land in an area controlled by the separatist regime and announced increases in gas and electricity tariffs for Romanian-language schools in the Transnistrian region. Chisinau has stated that it will not give in to pressure.
PURPOSE: To present the government in Chisinau as obedient to the West and to justify a possible reaction from Moscow to the alleged "pressures" put by Moldova.
WHY THE NARRATIVES ARE FALSE: The new regulations affecting companies on the left side of the Dniester are provided for in the Customs Code that entered into force on January 1. Its purpose is to standardize and harmonize the national customs legislation with that of the European Union. The customs service in Chisinau also states that, in accordance with this document, “ all companies, including those based in the Transnistrian region, shall pay customs taxes in keeping with the general principles".
The representative of the Bureau for Reintegration, Ivan Țurcan, explained on Radio Moldova that no discriminatory elements are introduced against the companies on the left side of the Dniester; the entrepreneurial sector is actually standardized on both banks of the Dniester. In addition, he recalled that the normative acts that provide for a simplified registration regime for companies on the left of the Dniester remain in force.
From the point of view of international legislation, the Republic of Moldova has the right to impose taxes on its own territory, and Transnistria is not recognized internationally. Companies based in Transnistria carry out commercial activities as Moldovan companies, benefiting from commercial agreements signed by the state of the Republic of Moldova (for example, the Association Agreement with the European Union). The perspective is even shared by the Russian Federation, which for decades has supplied significant quantities of gas to the separatist region (and they support the Transnistrian industry, which can thus export at low prices, including to European markets), but imputes to Chisinau the accumulated debt for the respective quantities of gas; it is practically an implicit recognition of the fact that Transnistria belongs, from an economic point of view, to the Republic of Moldova.
The connection between the customs fees charged by the Republic of Moldova and Romania is non-existent: the imposition of taxes is a sovereign decision made by Chisinau, and the money collected goes to the budget of the Republic of Moldova. However, Romania is the usual scarecrow for Transnistria (for example, since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, there has been a long line of fake news and disinformation regarding plans or moves made by Romania/the West/Republic of Moldova/Ukraine to attack and annex the separatist region).
The "danger" of the union of the Republic of Moldova with Romania (the annexation of the Republic of Moldova) is one of the oldest anti-Romanian Soviet narratives taken up in the 90s by the Tiraspol elite to justify the separatist movement against the backdrop of the dissolution of the former USSR. In reality, several historians believe that in fact, this was a reaction of the political and economic elites on the left of the Dniester, subservient to Moscow, in their attempt to maintain the status and privileges that they had created for themselves in the Soviet period. Transnistrian separatism "was not a revolt of the minorities, but of the political and economic elites", according to the American historian Charles King.
The 1992 armed conflict on the Dniester started after an attack by forces controlled by the separatist regime on the headquarters of the police station in Dubăsari, the last station still under the control of Chisinau; therefore, the war was started by the separatists. In May, the Russian military forces deployed to the left of the Dniester intervened on the side of the separatist regime, and the cease-fire agreement, signed by the then presidents of the Republic of Moldova and Russia - Mircea Snegur and Boris Yeltsin, respectively - on July 21, 1992, is proof, in the opinion of many historians and politicians, of Moscow's direct involvement in this war, as well as in fueling Transnistrian separatism.
GRAIN OF TRUTH: The Republic of Moldova’s new Customs Code does cancel some benefits that companies on the left bank of the Dniester used to have.
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