[0]

Yevgeny Shevchuk, the ethnic Ukrainian "Renewal" leader, voting in Rybnitsa. He was not a candidate this year.

TIRASPOL, RYBNITSA (Tiraspol Times) - They don't always agree on politics. But in their hearts, they share the same goal for the future of the country that they live in and whose political life they are part of. Grigore Mărăcuţă, Igor Smirnov, and Yevgeny Shevchuk have all been on the shortlist for the top post in Pridnestrovie at various times and all three agree that now, the next step is international integration.

They dismiss talk of being a "black hole," saying in unison that this is only so much Moldovan propaganda, and explain that international integration means responsible partnerships with other members of the international community. As leaders of the new and emerging country, they are ready to help the world see Pridnestrovie for what it really is: A young, small, democratically evolving state with a burning wish for independence. All three rule out any chance of ever becoming part of Moldova.

We start with an ethnic Moldovan, MP Grigore Mărăcuţă. Ethnic Moldovans represent 177,000 people, or 31,9% of Pridnestrovie's population.

The Moldovan

" - I voted today for maintaining the current policy of the Pridnestrovskaia Moldovskaia Respublica. I believe it to be very important for the further development of the country and its international recognition,” ex-Speaker of the PMR Parliament Grigore Mărăcuţă told a Regnum correspondent on December 10.

" - Besides, to take Transdniester firmly to independence we need people who have already proven that they can do it and know how to do it,” Mr Mărăcuţă said. “On 17 September, our people expressed their will at a referendum and they are now expecting a continuation, some consequent steps from the government in implementing the chosen policy. That policy is is independence and a strengthening of our relations with Russia. It is complicated and detailed work. In the renewal of the status settlement talks with Moldova, nobody will dream about not taking the result of the referendum into account. Our duty is to defend and support our choice.”

Answering a question about relations between Pridnestrovie and Moldova, Mărăcuţă said:

" - It is very hard to understand the Republic of Moldova. For the whole period of our relation, Moldova has been swinging from the one extreme to the next, left and right. And whenever we saw a hint of some light at the end of the tunnel, Moldova's Western partners started to unravel the deal - pulling at threads, and then everything again went sour for both sides.

" - But at the recent Minsk CIS summit, Moldova’s President Vladimir Voronin pledged that he would change his attitude to PMR for the better. I would like to express my confidence once again that the people of Pridnestrovie are making the right choice and we will do our best to achieve international recognition of our young country.”

Moldovans in Pridnestrovie, which is known as Transnistria in Moldovan (a language largely identical to Romanian), are for the most part strong supporters of independence. Like Mr Mărăcuţă, they are not in a rush to unite with the Republic of Moldova, on the other side of the Dniester river. In a 17 September referendum, resident Moldovans voters overwhelmingly casts their ballots in favor of independence and against unification with Moldova.

The Russian

Pridnestrovie's President Igor Smirnov, an ethnic Russian, voted in downtown Tiraspol, the city which for the past 19 years has been his home:

" - This elections will prove once again that the people of Pridnestrovie speak in favor of their independence and the international recognition of Pridnestrovie's statehood," the president told journalists after the vote.

" - We have a plan for international recognition of our republic,” said Smirnov, referring to a referendum in September in which inhabitants of the region voted in favour of independence and integration with Russia.

The term of presidential powers is five years. Pridnestrovie's legislation does not limit the number of presidential terms of office for the same person. Smirnov told reporters on the eve of the elections that he preferred to leave the post only after the international recognition of the republic. "We can't settle other problems without resolving this one," Smirnov said.

He noted that at the September 17, 2006 referendum, “Our voters decided their future: independence and free development alongside Russia. Now, implementation of the referendum results need to be tackled practically,” the Tiraspol leader underlined.

Ethnic Russians represent 168,000 people in Pridnestrovie, equivalent to 30,4% of the population. Most are born in the country and many have family roots that go back to 1792, when the territory officially became part of Russia.

Since 1792, it has always been part of either Russia or the Soviet Union, until it declared independence nearly 200 years later, in 1990, while the Soviet Union was falling apart. Before that time, it was part of Ukraine, and at one point also part of Poland and Lithuania. It has never been part of Moldova at any time in history and reject Moldovan rule on historical and ethnic grounds.

The Ukrainian

According to 2004 census data, ethnic Ukrainians compose 160,000 of the 555,000 strong population of Pridnestrovie, or 28,8%. They are Slavs, just like the Russians, making for a Slavic majority. However, there are no ethnic strife or tensions and Slavs in Pridnestrovie get along fine with the nearly 32%, the Moldovans, who are non-Slavs.

Opposition politician Yevgeny Shevchuk, 38, is an ethnic Ukrainian. Last year, he became Speaker of PMR's Parliament when his party Renewal overtook pro-Smirnov party Respublika in the 2005 parliamentary elections. He voted in his hometown of Rybnitsa:

" - What will follow these elections, we expect first of all the international recognition of the independence of the Pridnestrovskaia Moldavskaia Respublica. Secondly, we want to create conditions so that living standards will improve considerably compared to their current level. This is tied to recognition," said the Speaker.

Pridnestrovie is the official name for the unrecognized country which is also frequently referred to in English as Transdnestr, Transdniestria or Transdniester, and in Romanian as Transnistria. Unlike Moldova, where most of the population speaks Romanian, it has a largely Russian-speaking population of Slavic ethnicity. It declared independence from the Moldavian SSR in 1990 and resisted Moldovan attempts at domination during a bloody war in 1992. Moldova maintains an unsubstantiated territorial claim on the territory. However, in a September 17 plebiscite, more than 97% of Pridnestrovie's population voted in favor of independence, with 94% rejecting any talks aimed at unification with Moldova. (With information from Regnum)

See also:
» No to Bosnia: Ethnic groups agree on democratic independence course [1]