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Moldovans allegedly murdered a Transnistrian militia leader. In response, Transnistrians held 26 Moldovans hostage. Russia started to aid Transnistrian militias and Russia threatened to invade if Moldova did not stop fighting Transnistrians. Russia’s threat led to a ceasefire in July 1992. Though the international community universally recognizes Transnistria to be part of Moldova, Transnistria effectively operates as an autonomous region. The ceasefire has been enforced by Russian military forces. There have been continuous talks facilitated by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) since the ceasefire. In the...

...sovereign State recognises it. The territory occupied by the Transnistrian authorities is located within the internationally recognised borders of Moldova and falls under Moldovan jurisdiction. The Transnistrian authorities are largely supported by the Russian Federation, which maintains a military presence in the region. Moreover, this support was constantly reaffirmed by the European Court of Human Rights in its case-law concerning human rights violations in Transnistria, including by human rights non-governmental organisations. One could add here that the majority of the people living in the Transnistrian region of Moldova have the...

Last month I wrote a series of posts, chained below, concerning the separatist conflict in Moldova. At issue is who should control Transnistria, a strip of land between the Dniestr River and the border of Ukraine. Transnistria contains Moldova’s key industrial infrastructure, power plants, and, importantly, a significant stockpile of Soviet-era arms. Since 1992, it has been under the effective control of a separatist regime that calls itself the Transnistrian Moldovan Republic (“TMR”). I was part of a mission sent by the New York City Bar to assess the legal...

...Transnistrian separatists in their battles with the Moldovan government and since then it has been garrisoned—over the objections of the Moldovan government—in Transnistria. There are also the guns of an aging Soviet-era arms stockpile in Transnistria that Russia has not withdrawn or destroyed. These “guns” issues—along with other actions ranging from energy politics to trade embargoes to providing expert assistance to the separatists—relate to the broader question of whether Russia is improperly influencing the domestic politics in Moldova to the extent that it is violating international law. In other posts...

Following up on my earlier posts on the separatist crisis in Moldova (see chain of links below), here is my summary of the legal issues that we considered in preparing the NY City Bar’s report on the on the Transnistrian conflict. While a blog post can’t go into great detail due to length, I hope this may at least set out the rough outline of the issues we considered. The report focuses on three main questions: (a) whether the so-called Transnistrian Moldovan Republic or “TMR” has a right under international...

...are human rights ‘grey zones’? The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) described ‘grey zones’ as areas where monitoring mechanisms cannot function freely or effectively. Nagorno-Karabakh is one of several  such regions in Europe. This heterogeneous group of territories includes legacy post-conflict regions such as Transnistria, non-member de facto states including Kosovo and Abkhazia, and other contested territories like Crimea. In all cases a political conflict brings the status of each territory into dispute which has serious implications for the effectiveness of international human rights systems. Blind spots...

With all this talk of Kosovo (and Transnistria), I would be remiss not to note the following. According to CNN: Tensions were rising in Bolivia on Saturday as members of the country’s four highest natural gas-producing regions declared autonomy from the central government. Thousands waved the Santa Cruz region’s green-and-white flags in the streets as council members of the Santa Cruz, Tarija, Beni and Pando districts made the public announcement. The officials displayed a green-bound document containing a set of statutes paving the way to a permanent separation from the...

...Various maps of Novorossiya are said to be circulating in Moscow. Some include Kharkov and Dnipropetrovsk, cities that are still hundreds of miles away from the fighting. Some place Novorossiya along the coast, so that it connects Russia to Crimea and eventually to Transnistria, the Russian-occupied province of Moldova. Even if it starts out as an unrecognized rump state—Abkhazia and South Ossetia, “states” that Russia carved out of Georgia, are the models here—Novorossiya can grow larger over time. Applebaum notes that for Novorossiya to move from Putin’s rhetoric to political...

...began in Kiev. Those were followed by Yanukovich fleeing, Russia’s intervention in and annexation of Crimea, and the ongoing tensions over the future of Ukraine. Moldova and Georgia have also faced threats of economic and/or energy embargoes as well as the ongoing Russia-backed separatist issues in Transnistria, South Ossetia, and Abkhazia. After the diplomatic disputes and the pipeline politics, the secessionist movements and Russian military incursions, Maidan Square and Crimean annexation, the signing of these treaties are a significant milestone, and hopefully a turning point. Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia are...

Even though my recent posts on the “frozen conflicts” have actually been on the not-so-frozen conflict in South Ossetia, we should not forget the ongoing situation in Moldova. In fact, the new issue of The Economist has a short piece reminding its readers of the ongoing Transnistrian separatist dispute. The quick update is this: while not as heated as the South Ossetian crisis, the conflict over Transnistria is mired in irresolution. However, the situation in Moldova may play an important part in stability in the region spanning from the Western...

I contributed a chapter focusing on Moldova. (Long-time readers of this blog may have read my analyses–such as this post–concerning the Transnistrian conflict.) In preparation of the report, we met in June 2012 in Istanbul and in Northern Cyprus with policy experts and representatives of various parties. In September 2012 we reconvened and had meetings and interviews in Chisinau (Moldova’s capital) and in Transnistria. The final report, Managing Intractable Conflicts: Lessons from Moldova and Cyprus, was recently published by GPoT and is available as a .pdf via this link.  ...