Where's the "Mafyia"?

They warned me before I went to Tiraspol: "Hungry thugs roam the streets and you can be killed for a pair of shoes or a nice watch." But I knew better. I had been there before, and was well aware that the crime rate is extremely low in Pridnestrovie, or Transnistria as the nay-sayers called it. Armed with past experience, I knew that there was nothing in particular to be concerned about. The rumors of drugs / weapons / smuggling / mafia are just that ... rumors.

The new but unrecognized country is also called PMR, short for Pridnestrovskaia Moldavskaia Respublica (its full and official name as per the constitution).

One of the benefits of visiting PMR personally is that you can filter out the unfounded, unproven accusations of crime. You will see for yourself that Pridnestrovie is a quiet, relaxed, and safe country and that crime is virtually absent. As for the scare stories to the contrary, they are unproven accusations only: Attribute them to Moldovan smear propaganda; not to any basis in fact or reality.

After spending a few days or weeks in PMR, you might ask "where is the mafyia that I heard about before I came" or "where are all the weapons traffickers?" The answer: Somewhere else, but not in Pridnestrovie. In fact, you'll be hard pressed to find anyone with a gun, not even a gun kept at home. Crime in Pridnestrovie is lower than most other European countries. Talking to locals, they explain that it is because they understand that to build and grow our young country, everyone has to pull together and work at it, not screw it up.

Today, they are at war with false and misleading information which try to portray their little country as a bandit hideout or "black hole". It is anything but. After failing in its 1992-invasion of Pridnestrovie, Moldova launched a new kind of war: An information war designed to isolate Pridnestrovie by portraying it as an outcast country and, presumably, deter outsiders from visiting.

The tactic works, but only until the facts are examined. Foreign diplomats say reports of smuggling from Pridnestrovie are wildly exaggerated and attribute them to Moldovan pressure. EU and OSCE officials say that there is "not a shred of evidence" to back up the allegations. There is no drug involvement either: Here, too, Western officials rule out Pridnestrovie's participation. And despite persistent allegations, there is no evidence either (unlike in Moldova) of sex slavery or human trafficking.

The author has visited Pridnestrovie on several occasions, starting in 1998. He is a frequent contributor to the travel- and tourism website www.visitPMR.com