Fear Of Russian Troops In A Village Surrounded By Transnistria

MOLOVATA NOUĂ, Moldova – Victor Besleaga remembers well the start of the war that killed his brother. It was dark when Russian troops surrounded the station in Dubăsari, a 20-minute drive from the Ukrainian border, where he worked as a police officer. Less than a year earlier, in 1991, Moldova had declared independence from the Soviet Union – and, according to propaganda that helped spark a conflict that killed hundreds, was now oppressing Russians in what is now known as the Transnistria. . a secessionist democracy aligned with Moscow but not recognized by the international community. A skirmish broke out, leaving one of the soldiers dead. to save their lives, the police soon gave up their weapons and surrendered. Victor remembers being taken to Tiraspol, the self-proclaimed capital of Transnistria, and paraded before the cameras were broadcast in Russia. One night, this Soviet paratrooper, who had trained as a paratrooper in Belarus, became an “invader of the Nazi Romanians.” He spent the next month panting for air in a tiny basement cell filled with 14 others before being released on a prisoner exchange. He went straight to the hospital – and from there, he returned to the police and fought to retake the city where he served. Today, 50-year-old Victor, with salt and pepper hair, gray-blue eyes and a black Champion uniform, lives in the village where he was born, the Molovata Nouă, speaking to the class he attended as a child, now a native. His wife runs a history museum. It is a 15-minute drive (and a Russian military checkpoint) from the city where he once worked as a police officer. There is no bridge in this village, where 10 people lost their lives in the conflict that started in the dark of March 2, 1992 and ended about four months later. Five of the dead were fighters who fought to keep it part of Moldova. They prevailed. But today the village is an isolated enclave surrounded by a hostile entity. The government of Russian President Vladimir Putin insists that residents of Transnistria, next door and around the village, continue to be oppressed. There have been allegations of terrorist attacks there, pinned on Ukrainians. The old fears are back. Victor Besleaga said that even some veterans who fought against Russia in the 1992 Transnistrian war now believe in its propaganda. Charles Davis / Insider

A divided country

Transnistria is mostly located east of the Dniester River as far as the border with Ukraine, while the Moldovan central government in Chisinau mostly controls everything to the west, up to the border with Romania. Molovata Nouă is different. The negotiations that ended the 1992 conflict have led to oddities, such as this community of just 2,100 people flooded by an autonomous region and separated from the rest of the country by a large river. The only way to get to the village directly by road requires driving through an enemy entity, where about 1,500 Russian soldiers act alongside the Transnistrian forces, and a few Moldovans as “pacifists” – and where some 300,000 people have forged a separate ethnic identity. , a generation that has now been falsely taught that its old neighbors tried to carry out a Russian-speaking genocide. Transnistria controls almost everything north and south of the village. It is a space of single-storey houses with white paint and tiled roofs, green meadows. A small flock of goats can be seen fenced behind one of the houses. Outside the village there are agricultural areas, fruits and vegetables are grown. A road connecting northern and southern Transnistria crosses and authorities constantly harass the owners and defy the 1992 peace agreement, seizing crops and even claiming land ownership. Peacekeepers stand near a BTR-70 armored personnel carrier on the road to Dubăsari and the Molovata Nouă in Moldova. Charles Davis / Insider For those who do not want or can not get through the separatist region – where free-flowing Russian-backed oligarchs control politics and where authorities maintain a blacklist of non grata – there is a ferry, free and able to carry both people and cars, departing every two hours during the day. But the ship does not work if it blows a lot or when the river is frozen, as usually happens a few weeks a year. During the pandemic, Transnistria closed its borders to stop the spread of COVID-19, eliminating this travel option for more than a year. The village itself hosts Russian and Transnistrian forces, who greet visitors as they disembark, and an old but regularly maintained BTR-70 armored personnel carrier from Russia, an indecency – foreign usurpers agreed to land to be Moldova – which some now find unbearable. “Emotions for Russian peacekeepers have always been negative, because they live illegally in the village,” Victor said. “After the start of the war, the relationship between local and peacekeeping forces became even worse.” Anger about their presence, and intrusive quests, takes the form of people responding. However, there is a deep fear, given what Russian troops are doing elsewhere: “The so-called peacekeepers could occupy the administration buildings in a matter of minutes, using their armored vehicle and weapons.” Indeed, Russian agents carried out a similar invasion of Crimea in 2014, an invasion that ended before the outside world learned what had happened. That fear has been exacerbated in recent days by a series of 24-hour explosions in Transnistria, including an alleged grenade attack on a building used by security services in Tiraspol, the self-proclaimed capital, and the destruction of radio towers there. . Authorities also said an attack had been launched – from Ukraine – near an ammunition depot guarded by Russian forces and believed to be one of the largest in Eastern Europe. Ukraine has denied it. Transnistrian leaders insist they want nothing to do with the war raging beside them. In Tiraspol, where Russian flags are hung on every government building, there is no public propaganda in support of Russian intervention. it’s like there is no war, just 20 minutes away. But Victor believes the recent bombings in Transnistria are the work of the Russian military intelligence service, which is designed to justify further Moscow intervention there and the expansion of a base that could be used to threaten not only Moldova but also states. in the Balkans, some of which are part of the NATO ALLIANCE. Whatever happens, he does not think it is good. Military experts generally do not believe many of the forces currently in the breakaway democracy. Their equipment consists largely of museum pieces, even though the raw numbers – a combined Russian-Transnistrian force of perhaps 10,000 men – are more than double the Moldovan army. But in Molovata Nouă, locals say they can hear regular combat training. The threat may not be great, especially for Ukraine, but for them it is real. And their fear is that, even if the current Transnistrian cries do not culminate in a total battle, as in 1992, Transnistria, with Russian support, could take advantage of Moldova’s desire to avoid an existential war with Russia. , consolidating control on its side. the river without much battle, providing a delightful victory for the “Russian-speakers” that the Kremlin could trumpet back home. A shrine in the village museum remembers the lives lost in the 1992 Transnistrian war in Molovata Nouă, Moldova. Charles Davis / Insider

Russian propaganda destroys friendships

The latest military conflict in Moldova has torn the country apart, with family and friends suddenly finding themselves on different sides of a new de facto border and consuming insanely different narratives of what had just happened. Now the …

title: “Fear Of Russian Troops In A Village Surrounded By Transnistria Klmat” ShowToc: true date: “2022-11-05” author: “Frank Chapin”

MOLOVATA NOUĂ, Moldova – Victor Besleaga remembers well the start of the war that killed his brother. It was dark when Russian troops surrounded the station in Dubăsari, a 20-minute drive from the Ukrainian border, where he worked as a police officer. Less than a year earlier, in 1991, Moldova had declared independence from the Soviet Union – and, according to propaganda that helped spark a conflict that killed hundreds, was now oppressing Russians in what is now known as the Transnistria. . a secessionist democracy aligned with Moscow but not recognized by the international community. A skirmish broke out, leaving one of the soldiers dead. to save their lives, the police soon gave up their weapons and surrendered. Victor remembers being taken to Tiraspol, the self-proclaimed capital of Transnistria, and paraded before the cameras were broadcast in Russia. One night, this Soviet paratrooper, who had trained as a paratrooper in Belarus, became an “invader of the Nazi Romanians.” He spent the next month panting for air in a tiny basement cell filled with 14 others before being released on a prisoner exchange. He went straight to the hospital – and from there, he returned to the police and fought to retake the city where he served. Today, 50-year-old Victor, with salt and pepper hair, gray-blue eyes and a black Champion uniform, lives in the village where he was born, the Molovata Nouă, speaking to the class he attended as a child, now a native. His wife runs a history museum. It is a 15-minute drive (and a Russian military checkpoint) from the city where he once worked as a police officer. There is no bridge in this village, where 10 people lost their lives in the conflict that started in the dark of March 2, 1992 and ended about four months later. Five of the dead were fighters who fought to keep it part of Moldova. They prevailed. But today the village is an isolated enclave surrounded by a hostile entity. The government of Russian President Vladimir Putin insists that residents of Transnistria, next door and around the village, continue to be oppressed. There have been allegations of terrorist attacks there, pinned on Ukrainians. The old fears are back. Victor Besleaga said that even some veterans who fought against Russia in the 1992 Transnistrian war now believe in its propaganda. Charles Davis / Insider

A divided country

Transnistria is mostly located east of the Dniester River as far as the border with Ukraine, while the Moldovan central government in Chisinau mostly controls everything to the west, up to the border with Romania. Molovata Nouă is different. The negotiations that ended the 1992 conflict have led to oddities, such as this community of just 2,100 people flooded by an autonomous region and separated from the rest of the country by a large river. The only way to get to the village directly by road requires driving through an enemy entity, where about 1,500 Russian soldiers act alongside the Transnistrian forces, and a few Moldovans as “pacifists” – and where some 300,000 people have forged a separate ethnic identity. , a generation that has now been falsely taught that its old neighbors tried to carry out a Russian-speaking genocide. Transnistria controls almost everything north and south of the village. It is a space of single-storey houses with white paint and tiled roofs, green meadows. A small flock of goats can be seen fenced behind one of the houses. Outside the village there are agricultural areas, fruits and vegetables are grown. A road connecting northern and southern Transnistria crosses and authorities constantly harass the owners and defy the 1992 peace agreement, seizing crops and even claiming land ownership. Peacekeepers stand near a BTR-70 armored personnel carrier on the road to Dubăsari and the Molovata Nouă in Moldova. Charles Davis / Insider For those who do not want or can not get through the separatist region – where free-flowing Russian-backed oligarchs control politics and where authorities maintain a blacklist of non grata – there is a ferry, free and able to carry both people and cars, departing every two hours during the day. But the ship does not work if it blows a lot or when the river is frozen, as usually happens a few weeks a year. During the pandemic, Transnistria closed its borders to stop the spread of COVID-19, eliminating this travel option for more than a year. The village itself hosts Russian and Transnistrian forces, who greet visitors as they disembark, and an old but regularly maintained BTR-70 armored personnel carrier from Russia, an indecency – foreign usurpers agreed to land to be Moldova – which some now find unbearable. “Emotions for Russian peacekeepers have always been negative, because they live illegally in the village,” Victor said. “After the start of the war, the relationship between local and peacekeeping forces became even worse.” Anger about their presence, and intrusive quests, takes the form of people responding. However, there is a deep fear, given what Russian troops are doing elsewhere: “The so-called peacekeepers could occupy the administration buildings in a matter of minutes, using their armored vehicle and weapons.” Indeed, Russian agents carried out a similar invasion of Crimea in 2014, an invasion that ended before the outside world learned what had happened. That fear has been exacerbated in recent days by a series of 24-hour explosions in Transnistria, including an alleged grenade attack on a building used by security services in Tiraspol, the self-proclaimed capital, and the destruction of radio towers there. . Authorities also said an attack had been launched – from Ukraine – near an ammunition depot guarded by Russian forces and believed to be one of the largest in Eastern Europe. Ukraine has denied it. Transnistrian leaders insist they want nothing to do with the war raging beside them. In Tiraspol, where Russian flags are hung on every government building, there is no public propaganda in support of Russian intervention. it’s like there is no war, just 20 minutes away. But Victor believes the recent bombings in Transnistria are the work of the Russian military intelligence service, which is designed to justify further Moscow intervention there and the expansion of a base that could be used to threaten not only Moldova but also states. in the Balkans, some of which are part of the NATO ALLIANCE. Whatever happens, he does not think it is good. Military experts generally do not believe many of the forces currently in the breakaway democracy. Their equipment consists largely of museum pieces, even though the raw numbers – a combined Russian-Transnistrian force of perhaps 10,000 men – are more than double the Moldovan army. But in Molovata Nouă, locals say they can hear regular combat training. The threat may not be great, especially for Ukraine, but for them it is real. And their fear is that, even if the current Transnistrian cries do not culminate in a total battle, as in 1992, Transnistria, with Russian support, could take advantage of Moldova’s desire to avoid an existential war with Russia. , consolidating control on its side. the river without much battle, providing a delightful victory for the “Russian-speakers” that the Kremlin could trumpet back home. A shrine in the village museum remembers the lives lost in the 1992 Transnistrian war in Molovata Nouă, Moldova. Charles Davis / Insider

Russian propaganda destroys friendships

The latest military conflict in Moldova has torn the country apart, with family and friends suddenly finding themselves on different sides of a new de facto border and consuming insanely different narratives of what had just happened. Now the …