Transnistria

Two banks of the Dniester

Most of today’s Moldova lies west of the Dniester, in the region the Russian empire took from the Ottomans in 1812 and called Bessarabia.^[1] A Moldovan republic was proclaimed there on 7 February 1918, and the next year its parliament decided to join Romania.^[1]

The Soviet Union never accepted that. In 1924 it made a narrow strip of Ukrainian land on the Dniester’s left (east) bank into a Moldovan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, as a step towards taking Bessarabia back.^[1] Soviet troops annexed Bessarabia on 28 June 1940, and on 2 August it and the left-bank strip were proclaimed the Moldavian SSR.^[1]

A language law and a breakaway republic

On 31 August 1989 Moldova made Romanian, written in the Latin alphabet, its official language. The law brought mass demonstrations in favour in the capital and protest strikes by minorities across the country.^[1] On the left bank, where most people were not ethnic Moldovans, the fear was that an independent Moldova would reunite with Romania.^[1]

On 2 September 1990 a “Transdniestrian Moldovan Republic” (in Russian, Pridnestrovskaya Moldavskaya Respublika, or PMR) was proclaimed in Tiraspol.^[1] The first armed clashes, between separatists and Moldovan police in Dubossary (Dubăsari), came on 2 November 1990 and left three civilians dead.^[1] Moldova declared independence on 27 August 1991.^[1]

The war of 1992

Fighting flared again in March 1992, and Moldova declared a state of emergency on 28 March.^[1] On 19 June a battle broke out for Tighina (Bender), a city on the right bank that the PMR claimed, and on 21 June Moldovan units were driven out.^[1] Russia’s 14th Army, based on the left bank, intervened on the separatists’ side under General Lebed.^[4]

In 1994 the OSCE’s forerunner counted several hundred dead and some 100,000 refugees.^[1] A 2021 study puts the toll at 1,132 dead, 310 of them civilians, and about 130,000 displaced inside Moldova.^[2]

On 21 July 1992 the presidents of Moldova and Russia signed a ceasefire in Moscow. It created a demilitarised security zone 10 km either side of the Dniester, including Tighina/Bender.^[1] A Joint Control Commission of Moldovan, Russian and PMR delegations oversees peacekeepers from five Russian, three Moldovan and two Transnistrian battalions, who began deploying on 29 July.^[1]

“The contingents of the 14th Army of the Russian Federation stationing in the Republic of Moldova will strongly observe neutrality.”^[2]

Troops, talks and a referendum

An OSCE mission has worked in Moldova since 4 February 1993. The OSCE’s member states back a settlement that keeps Moldova whole, with a special status for Transnistria.^[5] At its 1999 Istanbul summit the OSCE welcomed Russia’s commitment to withdraw its forces from Moldova by the end of 2002.^[2] More than 20,000 tonnes of ammunition and weapons were removed in 2001–03, but about as much again remains at Cobasna, guarded by about 1,500 Russian soldiers.^[2]

In November 2003 Russia proposed the Kozak Memorandum, which would have made Moldova a federation in which Transnistria had in effect a veto. Moldova pulled out at the last minute.^[2] Talks since 2005 have run in a “5+2” format: Moldova and Transnistria, with the OSCE, Russia and Ukraine as mediators and the US and EU as observers.^[2] On 17 September 2006 the Transnistrian authorities said 97.2% had voted in a referendum for independence and union with Russia. Moldova did not recognise the result.^[2]

Between Moldova, Ukraine and Russia

Transnistria has its own bank, currency (the ruble), customs service, flag and anthem.^[3] By 2022 its exports to the EU, mostly electricity, steel and textiles, were worth about four times its exports to Russia.^[6]

On 28 February 2024 a congress in Tiraspol asked Russia’s parliament to “protect” the region against what it called an economic war by Moldova. Moldova’s government called the move an attempt to create hysteria.^[7] On 1 January 2025 Russian gas stopped flowing after Ukraine ended its transit, and all industry except food production shut down. About 220,000 of the region’s roughly 350,000 people hold Russian passports.^[8]