Federation Council, the upper chamber of the Russian parliament, is backing independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia – Georgia’s two rebel provinces. The vote came after a brief war between Russia and Georgia following Georgia’s assault on the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali Aug. 7. Both countries won de-facto independence in the 1990s after wars with the government in Tbilisi. The road which started from Kosovo UDI seems to continue long because it is estimated that there is about five thousand ethnic groups on globe.
After Georgia’s separatists my bet is that in Europe Transnistria could be the next breakaway province. Let’s look this maybe next new state closer:
Pridnestrovie – also known by the unofficial name, Transnistria – is a new and emerging country in South Eastern Europe, sandwiched between Moldova and Ukraine. Although widely seen as part of Moldova, historically, Pridnestrovie and Moldova were always separate. Throughout 2500 years of history, the Dniester River forming the current border has been a traditional border between Slav lands (Scythia, 450 B.C.) to the East and Romanian lands (Dacia) to the West.
The population is some 550.000. The inhabitants of Pridnestrovie are for the most part Slavic. This is in stark contrast to Moldova, on the other side of the Dniester River, where 4/5ths of the population are of Romanian descent and where ethnic Russians and ethnic Ukrainians only make up 6 to 8 percent, respectively.
Pridnestrovie meets the requirements for sovereign statehood under international law, as it has a defined territory, a population, effective elected authority, and the capability to enter into international relations. It is currently seeking international recognition of its de facto independence and statehood.
The economy of Pridnestrovie is a mixed market-based economy. Following a large scale privatization process, most of the companies in the country are now privately owned. The economy is export-oriented and based on a mix of heavy industry and manufacturing. According to the latest data from the nation’s Customs, Pridnestrovie – which is also known as Transnistria, or Transdniester – now trades with 99 foreign countries.
Source and more info about Transnistria e.g. from The Tiraspol Times
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ari rusila
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Conflicts by Ariel Rusila 
Where’s the explanation why this should happen? For now, it doesn’t look like much is going to change and there is also no military confrontation that could escalate as in Georgia.
The situation that you describe is the same for years now…
Transdniestria has already existed as a ‘de facto’ independent state for close to eighteen years, having declared independence on 2 September 1990. In the historical context, Transdniestria has been unaggressive and peaceful throughout its entire history.
However on 22 May 2008, Moldova’s parliament approved a national security strategy that named Transdniestria a danger to Moldova and squarely identified it as a Moldovan war target. President Vladimir Voronin signed the strategy into law on May 26 and it was officially published and went into effect on May 27.
The move came just a month after Transdniestria (officially, Pridnestrovie) proposed a formal Friendship and Co-operation Treaty between the two sides. Transdniestria’s plan wanted to establish good neighborly relations between Moldova and Transdniestria and bilaterally renounce all kinds of use of force.
In my column I said that Transnistria could be the next breakaway province – I did not claimed that this separation would be made by force or include any violence. However implementation of Moldova’s security strategy could escalate also to that direction. Anyway when Transnistria is developing statehood elements and progressing her economy it can soon ask international recognition.
[…] BalkanBlog has been looking east lately and two of the posts cover Transdniestria. First, Ari asked “Is Transnistria the next follow up of Kosovo UDI?” To ask the question that way is to answer it, and in comments to the post the original author […]
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