On January, 12 the Transnistrian leader Vadim Krasnoselsky announced that the break-away republic is going to establish a “representation” in Moscow. He also enlisted the key objectives of this institution: mending the relations with Russian State Duma and executive bodies, development of economic contacts with Russia as well as legal and consultative assistance for Transnistrians living in Russia. During his visit to Moscow at the end of the month Krasnoselsky said that the representation is already functioning and will get soon the legal and E-mail address. Besides, it became known that Alexandr Karaman was appointed to the head of this representation.
The Moldovan Ministry for Foreign Affairs and European Integration reacted very emotionally on the initiative of the Transnistrian authorities. In a statement appeared on its web-site on January, 27, the Ministry expressed deep concern about the decision of Tiraspol’s leader and declared that it is illegal and contradicts with the Constitution of Republic of Moldova and the international law. The Ministry voiced hope that Moscow would not support this initiative and confirm its obligation to take care of Moldovan sovereignty according to bilateral treaty of amity and cooperation. Many Moldovan and Romanian media simply reproduced this statement. Some of them also drew attention to the fact that Alexandr Karaman had participated in 2014-2015 in the work of some executive bodies in “Donezk People’s Republic”.
What is this story about? To understand the situation better we need to recall a little the prehistory of Russian-Transnistrian relations in terms of establishing any “representations” of Tiraspol in Moscow. For the first time the position of “special representative of the President of the Transnistrian Moldovan Republic in the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus” appeared due to the executive order of Igor Smirnov in March 2002. Actually Alexandr Karaman, the former vice-president, became the first envoy and he remained in office till 2011.
In 2005 Igor Smirnov decided to open official representations of Transnistria in Ukraine and Russia. It was done in Ukraine first, than in Moscow in April 2006. The purpose was to “break the informational blockade against the republic”. That time after the orange revolution in Kiev the international situation began to worsen dramatically for Tiraspol, so the representations were needed just to lobby for the interests of the unrecognized state. The representation was established on the basis of a non-governmental organization «Center for Cooperation “Transnistria”». It was not an official diplomatic representation (in form of a mission or an embassy) because no official document was signed between Tiraspol and Moscow on that matter. That’s why it was easy for the Russian law enforcement agencies to make a search in the building of the representation in the context of investigation carried out against the Smirnov’s family on the eve of the presidential elections in Transnistria in 2011.
When Evgeny Shevchuk became president, it was decided for fiscal reasons not to prolong the existence of the representation in Moscow. Nevertheless, Shevchuk appointed in 2012 Michail Bergman, the former close associate of General Lebed, to his envoy in Russia. Shevchuk regularly returned to the idea of reopening the representation in Moscow but no concrete steps were taken in this direction. Actually it is one of the indicators that the cooperation with Moscow was quite discrete that time despite intense rhetoric.
Nevertheless, the deep divide in the Transnistrian elites which took place in 2011 led to the creation of a representation of the Supreme Council (Transnistrian parliament) in Moscow in July 2011. Olga Gukalenko became the envoy and is still remaining in office. This institution has also been functioning on the basis of NGO. This time these were “Transnistrian community” (liquidated in 2016) and Creation-Fund. As it was in 2006, both organizations were registered as subjects of Russian jurisdiction.
Vadim Krasnoselsky simply returned to the practice of having a presidential envoy and a presidential representation in Moscow. The choice of Alexandr Karaman took place not due to his activities in Donbass (which he carried out being in opposition to Shevchuk) but first of all due to the inclination of Krasnoselsky to revive some governmental practices and get back some people which were functional in the Smirnov’s era (like Prosecutor-General Anatoly Guretzky). Besides, Alexandr Karaman as the leader of the Transnistrian party “Rodina” used to have good contacts with Dmitry Rogozin and his former homonymous party in Russia. Unfortunately till the Transnistrian conflict remains unresolved, it is not possible for Transnistria to open any representations abroad with an official consent of Chisinau (as it was the case for example with the representation of Gagauz autonomy in Sankt-Petersburg). But the practical objectives of developing foreign economic contacts are acute. To accomplish this task Transnistria needs to have a referral agent on the ground to coordinate the visits of Transnistrian officials to Moscow, to provide document flow which is growing exponentially due to the wish of Transnistrians to participate in Russian procurement system, to be in touch with Russian executive bodies on such issues as non-tariff barriers for Transnistrian goods on the Russian market. Actually even the Transnistrian authorities do not claim the representation in Moscow to be a diplomatic mission (in comparison with Transnistrian missions in South Ossetia and Abkhazia).
Articolul este publicat în cadrul proiectului „Dosarele conflictului transnistrean. Soluții pentru dezvoltarea societății pe cele două maluri ale Nistrului” este finanțat de către Ministerul Afacerilor Externe (MAE) prin programul României de cooperare pentru dezvoltare (RoAid) și implementat cu sprijinul Programului Națiunilor Unite pentru Dezvoltare (UNDP) – Centrul Regional pentru Europa și Asia Centrală.
