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Sheriff (in Cyrillic: Шериф) is the second-largest company based in Transnistria. It owns a chain of petrol stations, a chain of supermarkets, a TV channel, a publishing house, a construction company, a Mercedes-Benz dealer, an advertising agency, a spirits factory, two bread factories, a mobile phone network, the football club FC Sheriff Tiraspol and its newly built stadium and sport complex, at an estimated cost of $200 million including a five-star hotel (the latter still under construction). The name came from the two founders of the company, Viktor Gushan (citizen of Ukraine and Transnistria) and Ilya Kazmaly (citizen of Russia and Transnistria), who were previously Soviet police officers. Viktor Gushan is president and CEO of the company.
The majority of Moldova is ethnically Romanian but the inhabitants of Transdniestr are mostly Russian, with some Ukrainian. Fearing that they would be united with Romania, the Transdniestr ethnic Russians protested and this sparked the brief but extremely vicious civil war. Although Transdniestr is very tiny, it managed to "win" that civil war and declared itself the "Transdniestr Republic" (Pridnestrovye in Russian). I should add that Transdniestr managed to "win" that war because the Russians had enormous amounts of military equipment stationed there, which they permitted the Transdniestrians to use.
While no nation officially recognizes the "Transdniestr Republic" (TDR) as an independent country, for all intents and purposes, it is one. And while it has no land border with Russia, it could not survive without Russia. Russia still maintains a military base in Tiraspol (the "capital" of TDR) and Russia is its largest trading partner, importing goods stamped "Made in TDR". The TDR has its own media (including in English, although delayed), its own "government", its own elections, its own militia, its own customs agents, everything. It is a harshly government "country", run by a man named Igor Smirnof, who uses a company called "Sheriff" to create a mafia monopoly on all the important aspects of industry.
More than half the manufacturing and heavy industry in Moldova is inside the TDR, and as a result the non-TDR part of Moldova is largely agricultural, rural and exceedingly poor. Over half of the ethnic Moldovans work outside the country and it is one of the most destitute places in Europe.
The TDR is a run by the Russian-backed Sheriff mafia/company, and it has no ethics or moral hang-ups. It is a known nexus for drug trafficking, human trafficking and - in terms of world security, far more dangerous - weapons trafficking. The TDR has sold off an unknown number of Soviet-era weapons systems, including missiles. The TDR also manufactures small arms, which are sold off undetected to fuel wars around the planet. Before the Ukraine changed governments at the end of 2004, the TDR also worked with black marketeers in Ukraine to ship out weapon systems via the Black Sea port at Odessa. This year alone it was discovered that the Kuchma gov't of Ukraine sold ballistic missiles to such countries as China and Iran.
There are even reports that as many as 24 missiles stockpiled in TDR before the break-up of the Soviet Union had nuclear warheads. If so, those warheads are now missing and unaccounted for and nobody knows who might have gotten their hands on them. The mafia running TDR has no scruples and would sell them to the highest bidder.
The TDR is a black hole where anything goes and while Moldova, the OSCE (and now Ukraine) have put pressure on the TDR to unite with Moldova, even offering it autonomy, it has steadfastly refused. And it can do this precisely because of the Russian military presence and backing of its "government".
In essence, it is this tiny corner of Europe, mostly unknown and forgotten by the rest of the world, that is the major hold-up for the ratification of one of the most important treaties of our time. It is the activities in this small slice of Europe that pose one of the gravest dangers to peace and stability on the continent, and yet it's mostly forgotten and ignored.
Trans-Dniester, about twice the size of Luxembourg and comprising one-eighth of Moldova, has never stopped yearning for Russia's embrace. Its leader, Igor Smirnov, who has Russian citizenship, hails Russia as the natural home for his people.
Trans-Dniester declared itself independent as the Soviet Union began to show signs of crumbling, fearing Moldova would seek to reunite with Romania. Pro-Western Moldova, backed by the European Union, wants it back. The Kremlin, while at odds with Moldova and sympathetic to the separatists, has reacted coolly to the idea of absorbing the impoverished territory, and says the two sides should negotiate a settlement.
So the Sept. 17 referendum, which voted 97.1 percent yes to the government's goal of union with Russia, is dismissed by political analyst Viorel Cibotaru of Moldova's Institute of Public Policy as a feel-good measure and nothing more.
"It's like a circus: you see something, but it's an illusion. Because the truth is, Trans-Dniester is an empty idea, it's going nowhere,"he says.
Not so, insists Smirnov. Trans-Dniester and Moldova simply have nothing in common, the president declared to his people after the vote."We choose Russia, and they choose the European Union and NATO. All these 16 years, they have tried to impose on us an alien point of view ... but today, that's history."
History weighs heavy here. Once known as Bessarabia, the entire region has a rich ethnic mix, with parts of it falling under the Lithuanian, Czarist Russian, Romanian and Soviet empires. Today, the scrambled geopolitical jigsaw puzzle left by the Soviet collapse is highlighted by the 109-year-old Kvint distillery in Trans-Dniester's capital, Tiraspol. Caught on a bureaucratic merry-go-round, its wines and cognacs are frozen out of Russia because the Kremlin considers them Moldovan, and has an embargo on Moldovan alcohol. And they were frozen out of Ukraine for two years because they weren't considered Moldovan enough _ the plant didn't have the right Moldovan business registration. Its export certificate is still only temporary.
Critics claim Trans-Dniester is a paradise for smugglers, bandits and traffickers in weapons and drugs."The Trans-Dniester problem is reflecting negatively on the entire criminal situation in Moldova and Ukraine,"Ukraine's interior minister, Yuriy Lutsenko, complained recently.
The EU has deployed border police of its member states to help stem the flow of contraband through the deserted, hilly roads that connect Trans-Dniester to Ukraine.
Trans-Dniester has responded to criticism with a charm offensive on the Web.http://www.pridnestrovie.netoffers"10 things you didn't know about Europe's newest country,"including that it has twice the population of Iceland, 35 national groups and a market economy. It also claims to have made giant inroads into the smuggling problem, and quotes EU and other Western watchdogs as saying"there is no evidence that Pridnestrovie (Trans-Dniester) has ever trafficked arms or nuclear material."
That's a reference to reports that circulated in 2004 claiming Trans-Dniester could be a marketplace for weapons of mass destruction left over from when the Soviets had arms factories here.
Smirnov, the president, has suggested that Trans-Dniester suffers in part because of his unconcealed nostalgia for the Soviet Union.
Trans-Dniester and Moldova both elect their presidents. But while Moldova is on a reformist, pro-Western course, Trans-Dniester keeps its Soviet habits and discipline. The streets are largely empty, but everyone uses crosswalks and waits for the lights to change. Slogans endorsing Soviet-era solidarity and cooperation are freshly painted on walls and buildings.
After school, teenagers gather along the left bank of the Dniester River to strum guitars and talk about what they'll do when they get out _ to Moscow, to Kiev, to Odessa, wherever."Moscow is a big city and that's where the opportunities are,"said Aleksandra Luchkova, 16, in fluent English.
The population has fallen 20 percent in 16 years; in 2004, 5,000 babies were born, down from 12,000 in 1992. The wait for Russian citizenship and a passport can be two years. Meanwhile, to get in and out requires passing through five separate checkpoints.
For the referendum, Dmitry Soin, head of a state security committee, whipped up the youth vote to burn Moldovan flags and ride giant American tractors through Tiraspol's streets under banners of Che Guevara.
"We are waking up Trans-Dniester youth,"said Soin, 37, sipping espresso in a dimly lit cafe."I'm not going to say we don't have a problem with youth migration, but I don't think it's so unusual. Youth, the world over, are very mobile and dream of escaping to somewhere new."
The students set up a tent camp with the help of a pro-Kremlin youth group brought in from Russia. But on referendum day, the tents were empty and blown away by the wind.
Soin, who played a key role in 2004 efforts to close Moldovan-language schools in Trans-Dniester, doesn't leave the territory because he is wanted by Interpol for premeditated murder in connection with two killings in 1994 and 1995 while serving in the Trans-Dniester security service.
He says Moldova is pushing the charge as punishment for his independence efforts. Moldova accuses him of stirring ethnic hatred and creating paramilitary organizations.
Analysts say it's hard to know what is really going on because so little is revealed and business deals are murky. A giant sports complex that reportedly cost around $200 million went up a few years ago on the outskirts of Tiraspol. Its owner, the Sheriff company, also manages supermarkets and gas stations, and is one of the few businesses that are allowed to trade openly in dollars rather than in Trans-Dniester's weaker ruble currency.
The company is reportedly linked to Smirnov's family, an allegation the president and his entourage deny.
Smirnov is driven around in a humble Skoda, and generally, wealth is not flaunted in Trans-Dniester, where many residents survive on $50 a month, though officials insist the average salary is three times higher.
"There has been a big, and not unsuccessful, effort to keep people satisfied with their salaries and pensions,"Cibotaru, the Moldovan analyst, said.
On a bright Sunday afternoon, people packed a main street pizza parlor, 7th Day, and streamed in and out of Mickey's, which advertises 16 types of hamburger toppings.
"It's not correct to say that life here is bleak,"said Valentina Beslar, 45, as she waited for a trolley bus near a monument to fallen soldiers."But, ofcourse, everyone dreams of better _ and for us that means joining Russia, if they'll have us."
See also
- FC Sheriff Tiraspol (football club)