The Transnistrian secessionist conflict was caused by the Romanianization promoted by Chișinău, and Romanian volunteers participated in the 1992 war, according to an alleged analysis published in the Russian press, which also claims that the Moldovan authorities want to annex Transnistria to Romania.
NEWS: "Transnistria's refusal to follow Chișinău's course towards rapprochement with Romania (including switching to the Latin alphabet and renaming the language Romanian) led to war. In June 1992, Moldovan forces, supported by Romanian volunteers, attempted to take control of the Transnistrian border town of Bender by force."
[...] "Russia's unique peacekeeping mission has remained the main guarantor of peace in the region for 33 years."
[...] "The current course of the Republic of Moldova, under the pro-NATO leadership of President Maia Sandu, does not entail a "separation" but a "return" of the region to Chișinău, through a soft annexation and complete integration into the Romanian legal and economic sphere. The regular participation of the Moldovan army in NATO exercises and the repression of everything Russian are increasing unrest in Tiraspol."
NARRATIVES: 1. Transnistria's secession was caused by Romanianization on the right bank of the Dniester. 2. Volunteers from Romania participated in the 1992 war on the Dniester. 3. The peacekeeping mission on the Dniester, controlled by Russia, is the guarantor of security in the region. 4. Chișinău wants to annex Transnistria to Romania.
PURPOSE: To promote the idea that the 1992 war was a legitimate reaction by the local population to the "identity pressures" of Chisinau, diverting attention from Moscow's direct military and political involvement. To present the conflict as external aggression by Romania against Transnistria and, implicitly, against the Russian-speaking population, in order to justify Russia's "protective" role. Attempting to legitimize the Russian military presence on the territory of the Republic of Moldova and presenting it as indispensable. To fuel the fears of the inhabitants of the left bank of the Dniester regarding the forced integration of the region, including NATO involvement and its annexation to Romania.
LOCAL CONTEXT/ ETHOS: The Transnistrian region in eastern Moldova, known as Transnistria, was annexed to the former Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic during the USSR, while regions in the south and north were transferred to Ukraine.
Between March and July 1992, a military conflict broke out in Transnistria between the separatist regime and the constitutional authorities in Chișinău. Russia was involved in the Transnistrian conflict on the side of the separatists through the military contingent that succeeded the Soviet 14th Army, deployed in the region.
After the 1992 war on the Dniester River, the Agreement on the Principles for a Peaceful Settlement of the Armed Conflict in the Dniester Region of the Republic of Moldova was signed on July 21, 1992 (also known as the Ceasefire Agreement), which provided for the creation of a peacekeeping mission consisting of military personnel from the Russian Federation, the Republic of Moldova, and the secessionist region on the left bank of the Dniester. Initially, it consisted of 4,800 military personnel, but over time their number has been reduced to less than 1400 people , according to the specialized publication zonadesecuritate.md.
Russia also has a military contingent in the region, successor to the Soviet 14th Army, which was involved in the Transnistrian conflict on the side of the separatists; officially, this contingent is responsible for guarding the ammunition depot in Cobasna. Russia promised in 1999 that it would vacate the depot and withdraw its troops, but has not yet fulfilled this commitment. Currently, all of Chisinau's efforts to withdraw its armed forces from the territory of the Republic of Moldova are being described by Moscow and Tiraspol as an attempt to destroy the peacekeeping mission, even though these are two different things.
Another narrative propagated by Russian and left-bank Transnistrian propaganda concerns Romania's alleged intention to annex the territory of the Republic of Moldova, including the region on the left bank of the Dniester. The imminent union of the Republic of Moldova with Romania (the annexation of the Republic of Moldova) is one of the main "bogeymen" for part of the population, especially ethnic minorities. This is associated with one of the oldest anti-Romanian Soviet narratives about the ”Romanian gendarme” (who mistreated, tortured, and mocked the local population), launched shortly after the union of Bessarabia with Romania in 1918.
On September 2, the separatist authorities celebrated, with pomp and a military parade "35 years of independence", while Chisinau described the actions as "provocative and aimed at undermining the sovereignty and integrity of the Republic of Moldova within its internationally recognized borders."
WHY THE NARRATIVES ARE FALSE: The reason given by Tiraspol in 1990 for proclaiming independence, against the backdrop of the collapse of the USSR, was the "danger" of unification with Romania, undermining national minorities and the Russian language. In reality, several historians believe that this was in fact a reaction by the political and economic elites on the left bank of the Dniester, who were loyal to Moscow, in an attempt to maintain the status and privileges they had created for themselves during the Soviet period. Transnistrian separatism “was not a revolt of minorities, , but of political and economic elites," according to American historian Charles King.
One of the tactics of Russian propaganda is to glorify the role of the peacekeeping mission in preventing the escalation of a new conflict on the Dniester, but the mission has lost its relevance, especially in recent years, and, for several years, Chisinau has been calling, at international forums, for its replacement with a civilian mission. The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly has also called for the transformation of the peacekeeping mission.
The peacekeeping mission has often been criticized for its inefficiency , but also for serious incidents, such as the shooting of a young man by a Russian peacekeeper in 2012.
The narrative about the participation of Romanian mercenaries/volunteers in the war on the Dniester River has no factual or documentary basis. Police officers and volunteers participated in that war on the side of Chișinău. Some studies show that narratives about Romania’s involvement in the war were promoted by supporters of the separatist regime in Tiraspol.
Previously, Russian and Tiraspol propaganda had spread alarmist fakes, which Veridica debunked, about attacks being prepared on Transnistria by either Ukraine , or Romania , and Chișinău was accused of imposing taxes that would lead to the annexation of Transnistria by Romania and of causing the energy crisis in Transnistria, even if it was Gazprom that stopped gas supplies to the breakaway region.
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