Transnistria - Europes Last Soviet Republic - The Red Line Podcast

Between Moldova and Ukraine lies the breakaway republic of Transnistria the last nation to hold the hammer and sickle upon its flag, this unrecognized nation doesn't exist on any map but does hold the entire balance of power in Eastern Europe. This is the last barrier between the encroachment of the EU and the heartlands of Russia, so to better understand this breakaway republic we turn to 3 expert witnesses.

The week we speak to 

Tyrone Shaw (University of Northern Vermont)
Dmitri Tokarev (University of Tiraspol)
Kristaps Andrejsons (Host of the Eastern Border)

Follow the show on @TheRedLinePod
or Michael on @MikeHIlliardAus

[vickru]

As a Moldovan i would say give this craphole to Ukraine and just join Romania and forget the crazy past and move on

[CoolGobyFish]

The guy you interview is clueless. He sounds like someone who came in for 1-2 days. He spits out internet info instead of actuall exerience. in 1990 the main slogan in Kishinev was " Russians behind Dniester, Jews in Dniester". Also, the majority of Moldovians do NOT like being called Romanians. Kishenev government had changed alphabet to Latin and pretty much switched to Romanian. This caused Pridnestrovian Moldovians to get really pissed off. Pridnestrovians (Transnitrians) do not all speak Russian. There are actually 4 languages spoken there: Russian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, and Moldovian (that uses Cyrrilics )

[mishcolz]

Transnistria is kept alive artificialy by Russia to serve it's own purpose, not that it actualy cares for the people there. The second person argues that Transnistria can be an independent country by itself. I beg to differ, it's whole economy is based on money given by Russia and free gas. If they had to pay for gas they use, they would collapse. If Moldova stopped buying electricity from Kuchurgan (made with free gas) it would be another big blow for their economy. So no, I don't think Transnistria has the posibility to be an independent country. For example if Moldova joins the EU or unites with Romania, all of the Transnistrian people would apply for Moldovan/Romanian papers in order to travel freely within the EU and in time it will become depleted of population. It's population is already rapidly declining because of lack of future prospects. In my opinion if the status-quo does not change in the next 20 years and it continues in the same trend the Transnistrian conflict would be solved by itself because there will be no Transnistrians left.
Regarding Gagauzia, they were heavily russified during the USSR, they dont even go to school in gagauzian, but in russian. In my opinion it is not normal after 30 years from the fall of the USSR to use russian as the language of inter-ethnic communication. If you are ethnic russian of course you should have the posibility to go to school in russian, but gagauz, ukrainians, bulgarians should also study in their own language. It's not normal that in a country which does not have russian as state language all ethnicities study in russian.