Russia brews trouble in Europe's Cuba
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His shabby blazer lopsided with the weight of a dozen war medals, Ivan Kristinko shuffled towards the giant bust of Lenin outside the hulking Supreme Soviet building. Like thousands of others at the celebrations of the 62nd anniversary of the Red Army's defeat of the Nazis, he stood proudly as a band played pro-Russian songs to a parade of tanks, apparatchiks and goose-stepping soldiers. "The Soviet Union lost 27 million people fighting fascism and at times like this we feel very patriotic towards Russia." said Mr Kristinko, 81, a military intelligence officer during the Second World War. It could have been a choreographed "celebration" from communism's heyday, yet this was not Brezhnev-era Moscow, but eastern Europe's border in 2007. In the tiny, pro-Russian breakaway republic of Transdniester, Soviet-era nostalgia flourishes not just on Victory Day, but all year round. If the name sounds unfamiliar, that is because, officially, Transdniester does not exist. Despite introducing its own currency, stamps, passports and border posts since its war for independence from Moldova in 1991, this strip of country sandwiched between Moldova and Ukraine is recognised as a state by no other country in the world. Now, however, after 16 years of diplomatic limbo, the land sometimes referred to as "Europe's Cuba" is finally achieving prominence on the international stage - as a pawn in Moscow's renewed bid for influence on Europe's old Cold War frontier. With President Vladimir Putin furious at American plans to install missile shields in Poland and the Czech Republic, the Kremlin is anxious to prevent yet more parts of its "near-abroad" following the likes of Bulgaria, Estonia and Latvia into the Nato embrace. Transdniester, along with South Ossetia and Abkhazia in Georgia, Crimea in Ukraine, and Narva in Estonia, is one of the Russian-speaking enclaves where Moscow is now ratcheting historical affinity to Russia into actively separatist, anti-Western zeal. Such sentiment flared up earlier this month when Russian-speaking youths rioted in Estonia over plans to remove a Soviet war memorial. The Kremlin aims to harness it into organised, pro-Russian movements, a Red-hued version of the Orange Revolution that ushered a pro-Western government into power in Ukraine two years ago. Transdniester's population of 550,000 offers a small but willing constituency. While the rest of eastern Europe set about destroying its Soviet-era monuments after communism's collapse in 1990, here they were retained as Transdniester's ethnic Russians, many planted there during the communist-era "Russification", sought a rallying point against growing Moldovan nationalism. On the tree-lined boulevards of the capital, Tiraspol, old USSR and hammer-and-sickle emblems abound. Outside city hall are ageing photos of the "heroes of socialist production", who ran local sewing-machine factories and built the vast swathes of Soviet-era apartment blocks in which most residents live. Among the war memorials that Mr Kristinko visited last week, meanwhile, is a newer one dedicated to the 800 Transdniestrians killed in the war against Moldova. "Of course we want closer ties with Russia," he said. "We have been living for 15 years for this expectation, while Moldova has been very aggressive." Critics, however, say that Transdniester already has far too much in common with Russia - principally its reputation for corruption, crony capitalism and organised crime. The government, run virtually as a family fiefdom for 15 years by its president, Igor Smirnov, a civil war veteran, stands accused of using its diplomatic limbo to facilitate smuggling in drugs, contraband and stolen cars. Mark Galeotti, who has written widely on organised crime and its links with Russia, describes Transdniester as a "criminals' free-enterprise zone". It also has several Soviet-era weapons factories, suspected of selling black-market military hardware, although this has never been proved. To this bizarre Soviet throwback has been added another hero of the old Left, via the "Che Guevara School of Political Leadership", a youth centre in Tiraspol dedicated to enticing youngsters into pro--Moscow activity. "We are trying to channel the energy of youth into campaigning for independence, closer links with Moscow and changing society," said its director, Dmitri Soin, 38. "Technically speaking, we are similar to the Orange Revolution, but with a proper philosophy that their organisations lacked."
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However, Mr Soin is not all funky, Orange-style "youth movement". Despite his ponytail and affable manner, he doubles as a major in the local MGB security service and is often flanked by tough-looking- henchmen. Russia brews trouble in Europe's CubaBy Colin Freeman in Tiraspol, Sunday Telegraph
Last Updated:
11:58pm BST 12/05/2007
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