The United Nations headquarters have been discussing some hot issues in recent days. The first and most important is the environmental crisis, lit by the heated speech of Greta Thunberg and her supporters, as well as by the controversial actions or criminal inaction of some state leaders on climate change and the future of the planet. 

In this way, virtually all countries are currently involved in the debate on waste and its impact on the environment, people and the future of humanity. Plastic, carbon emissions, pollutants of all kinds are on the debate agenda of the whole world. We are looking for new technologies and modern, non-toxic and life-saving solutions.

In the midst of these stirrings on the climate and the future, a person came to the U.N. rostrum with a special request: the official recognition of the Transnistrian region of Moldova as a separate state. This speech showed very well how toxic the climate of Moldovan-Russian relations is and how unsustainable their dialogue is.

When the Soviet Union collapsed, the Russian Federation did not withdraw its armies from all the former Soviet republics, leaving military contingents and ammunition depots in the exact areas where separatist units appeared: Georgia, Armenia, Moldova.

At that time, Russia did not deny the fact that those armies were theirs and even made a commitment to withdraw the 14th Army from the Transnistrian region of Moldova in 1993, under an OSCE agreement.

Almost 20 years have passed, but the Army is still there, and there is already an ECtHR decision (the Ilașcu case) confirming its involvement in the 1992 war.

In 2019, when the pro-European coalition with the Socialist Party gave birth to historically unique meetings in Chișinău with several Russian officials, they still declared that they recognize the territorial integrity of Moldova and that the Russian Army should be withdrawn.

A few weeks ago, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that “the Russian Federation does not recognize the Transnistrian region of the Republic of Moldova,” explaining that the Russian Federation is involved in the peacekeeping mission but also in solving this problem. Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration, Nicu Popescu, during his visit to Moscow, even discussed a plan for the withdrawal of the army. 

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And when everyone was inclined to believe in Lavrov’s message, who might be taken as Putin’s spokesperson, another voice from Moscow, spoke from the U.N. Assembly in New York.

On September 23, Leonid Manakov, a member of the Russian delegation to the U.N., said loudly and distinctly that it was time for the world states to recognize the Transnistrian region of Moldova as a separate state. 

Manakov is the representative of the region in Moscow and, this autumn, when Russia’s discourse points out respect for the integrity of Moldova and the withdrawal of the Russian army, Manakov raises the question of creating and recognizing a new state on the tiny Moldovan map, under the aegis of the U.N.

Admittedly, anyone has the right to discuss autonomy. But, you cannot be part of the delegation of the Russian Federation, with a ticket paid by Moscow and say you want an independent state of Transnistria. 

It is as if in Chechnya there were a Moldovan army for 30 years, and a Chechen would go to the U.N. as part of the Moldovan delegation, paid for by Moldova, and said that he wants Chechnya to be recognized, suddenly and immediately, as an independent state.

Of course, Manakov’s voice was not taken seriously and, so far, the states of the world don’t intend to recognize the independence of this region. 

Ironically, the Russian Federation, which paid Manakov’s ticket, did not recognize it either. For the time being, only Abkhazia and Ossetia recognize the Transnistrian region as a state – they being in a long dispute over their own unrecognized statehood.

Winter is coming. The gas problem has already started to bring cold winds from Moscow. Energy independence could, at some point, ensure the territorial integrity of Moldova as well.

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Alina RADU, alina.radu@zdg.md