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Young party leader: Alena Arshinova, head of "Breakthrough"

TIRASPOL (Tiraspol Times) - The civil society youth group Breakthrough, Proriv in Russian, officially became a political party earlier this month. As the December 2006 election date in Pridnestrovie is drawing closer, more and more politicians are joining the fray, with NGO Breakthrough not being the exception.

It was founded in 2005 as political youth organization and quickly rose to become the largest in the country, thanks to a series of protest marches, street happenings and methods modelled on groups like Otpor, Kmara and other participants of colored revolutions in the post-Soviet sphere. On 2 June 2006 it formally registered itself as a political party, enabling its members to stand as candidates in all of Pridnestrovie's elections, local and national.

Breakthrough has a young and mostly female leadership, with Alena Arshinova as president and Olga Paterova, 22, as press secretary. It has been one of the most active forces opposing the border customs conflict with Ukraine, organizing street actions and an "orange"-style tent city protest on the border.

Youth promises changes

Although often critical of Pridnestrovie's leadership, the organization supports the continuation of the republic's independence which was declared on September 2, 1990 and strongly rejects any talk of potential re-unification with Moldova.

Its members promise to shake up the way politics are done in Pridnestrovie, with reform and a stronger emphasis on direct citizen participation in democratic decision-making. Like 9 out of 10 voters, it rejects any talk of unification with Moldova. Strongly pro-Pridnestrovie and slightly left of center, the progressive youth group seeks a green policy with a stronger commitment to ecological protection. In October 2005 it picketed parliament in defense of nature, in an action where environmental activists joined forces with Breakthrough to take a stand for the environment. Local "Earth First!" activists wore anti-pollution masks to make a statement for an end to pollution of the Dniester River which is caused, in large parts, by what the group claimed to be a complete Moldovan disregard for environmental standards on its side of the river bank.

Moldova welcomes new party with derogatory slurs

Instead of celebrating the creation of more political parties in Pridnestrovie, Moldova answered the latest developments by resorting to slurs and name-calling. In one response, former presidential advisor Oazu Nantoi bestowed the epithet "Hitlerjugend" on the Breakthrough activists. The term was given wide media distribution by Moldovan agencies and by the OSCE-funded Conflict.md, but did not sit well with families in Pridnestrovie.

In World War II, the territory - then under the name of Transnistria - was designated "the killing fields" by Nazi Germany and occupied by Moldovan/Romanian fascists. Hundreds of thousands of Jews from the south-east of Europe were moved to the area where they, along with much of the local population at the time, were summarily executed. To tag anyone in Pridnestrovie with comparisons to Hitler or the Nazi horrors which took place on its soil either reveals ignorance of history, or a complete lack of sensitivity to the feelings of the local population, or both.

Pridnestrovie declared independence in 1990. Like a number of post-Soviet states, it has been been criticized for a less than perfect democracy. But ever since a homegrown opposition party took control of parliament in late 2005, political life was energized and Pridnestrovie is today home to an active plurality of different political groups and parties. As the new and emerging country is democratizing, it seeks recognition and integration in the international community.