Original Communism
Published by Sorin Ozon on 13-Jul-06 00:00
The Transnistrian socio-political picture is quite strange for a European country. The republic is more like any oh those African countries threaded by wars, where a group of generals rule absolutely. In the Transnistrian case, not all leaders are generals, but most of the “actors” that really count had high ranks in the Russian secret service – KGB or GRU. They founded an oppressive regime organized on the former KGB structure that keeps a strong hand on the political, business, civil and mass-media environment, through a few persons. It is obvious that these persons occupy positions of leaders of control and order groups. At the same time, the life and atmosphere in this republic is the one of the USSR at the peak of its glory. The only really important freedom of the Transnistrians is the fact that they can travel outside the country. For the ones with Transnistrian passport this freedom is limited to the former Sovietic space. The freedom of making business is apparent. All business develops in a semi-legal or completely illegal frame, and all big business relates to the group around the company Sheriff, which is controlled by the family of President Smirnov and by local security agents.
Communism without Communists
Communist symbols are to be seen everywhere in the little republic. The sickle and the hammer, the red star – are the symbols on the Transnistrian coat of arms. In any town, on any magazine or newspaper, these symbols are used obsessively. Statues of Lenin and of Stalin, tanks and other symbols of the Sovietic era are to be found everywhere. And still, in all discussions we had with simple people, they didn't leave the impression to consider they are living in a communist country, but that they are living in a kind of capitalism that they all detest. This is the result of the propaganda machine which claims that Transnistria is an important force in the process of eradicating the communism in the region, and especially in the neighborhood – meaning in the Moldavian republic. Moreover, the communist party from Transnistria and its members began being banished at the end of the 90's because of all connections they had with the party of Vladimir Voronin, the president of Moldova . Secret service then confiscated electoral materials of the Transnistrian communist party. In 2002, an opposition movement was declares illegal because it had supported the Moldavian communist party. Basically, ideology isn't that important in Transnistria. Business interest is important. Governmental propaganda promotes a few leaders, like Igor Smirnov and the brave fighters who defended their country arms in hands. All the rest is just a hotchpotch of symbols promoted all at the same time. Besides the communist symbols, the Sheriff's symbols are well honored. Moreover, we discovered in astonishment a real personality cult for Che Guevarra, an idol of president Smirnov in his young days, nowadays representing a right wing extremist movement in Tiraspol . The founder of this organization, PRORIV (The Piercing Ones) is a high rank officer of the Transnistrian secret service (MGB). A more thoroughly look into the organization and its founder - Dmitri Soin – can shed some light on the modality used by the oppressive and propaganda regime used to interact with additional fields: the non-governmental organizations, press, political environment, economic environment and the organized crime world.
The Transnistrian
“Do you really have journalists' credentials?” asks nervously the taxi
driver who took us from Chisinau to Tiraspol . He relaxes a bit after our affirmative answer,, especially that when crossing the border he hears us mentioning the name of Dmitri Soin as a passing password. Not only has the driver relaxed, but also all customs officers who let us pass with no comments at all. Two days before we were retained and controlled thoroughly by the border guards, who are under the dreaded MGB authority.
We decided to visit Soin after having finalized our undercover journalistic investigation on the Transnistrian territory. We were at the end of the two weeks of research, and after having received a warning from the border guards by being retained and thoroughly searched when entering the country at Bender. Soin helped us to enter the country as journalists by telephone: “I will help you with the permit. At the border, just say that you are to meet me. It will be enough.” It was enough indeed. No other supplementary explanation was asked from us.
From the grey of the Sovietic capital dominated by Lenin, we have entered a Western oasis – the premises of the youth organization Proriv. The organization has 300 permanent members only in Tiraspol and it occupies a wing of the Eilenburg café. The restaurant was opened in the honor of the mayor of the East German town of Eilenburg that accepted to fraternize with Tiraspol in 2002. The relation got colder in the last years though. Thus part of the restaurant transformed into the Eilenburg cultural centre and it hosts a right wing extremist organization. We were greeted by bodyguards at the door. They monitor every corner of the building and the surroundings on several monitors. Soin's black BMW series 7 reigns right in front of the building. The MGB officer is smiling when receiving us, he speaks English but the interview will be done in Russian. The premises are large and modernly furnished. Western musical hits can be heard in the up to date stereo system. All Proriv managers are student girls and they all walk around dressed clubbing
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style. They all wear leather high heels boots, net stockings, and skinny trousers. Ten computers are on one side of the room and all their desktops present a picture of Che Guevarra at several stages of his life. Che also has some sort of a shrine built around the flags of Russia , Transnistria and of Proriv. A few teenage girls are sticking red flower, getting the room ready for the new member acceptance ceremony. This headquarters is the place where people can attend the “High School for Political Leaders – Ernesto Che Guevarra”.
“We train young people to be able to found their own organization and to make propaganda material. We are into building a post-modern society – we democratize Transnistria and we drive the communists out of Moldova ” declares a smiling security major Soin. “I do work for the secret service as a major and I run the department for the Constitution Defense. But I'm thinking about retiring, I've been working in this department since 1992.” Soin is a character developing a quite diverse activity field: sociologist, sociology professor with the University of Tiraspol , and yoga instructor. He founded a private rehabilitation centre, he owns a publishing company and a construction company and he is to inaugurate a night club and a post modern yoga institute. The gendarme starts playing nervously with his pen when we pull aside the curtains to take a picture of him. Right then, a guard starts patrolling discreetly in front of the window. Soin wears a massive gold watch with a brown leather strap, which matches his leather jacket. He wears long hair, in a pony tail. He is tall, well built, and he wears only designer clothes. His t-shirt reads Roberto Cavalli. A bit later we notice a revolver under his belt. Soin fears being kidnapped. “There were several attempts to kidnap me beginning with 2005. Now I have a strong permanent guarding squad. Three cars in Tiraspol and another two for when leaving town. They are all MGB intervention officers.” When asked about choosing Che Guevarra the symbol of a right wing organization, Soin answers that his organization is neither Stalinist nor right winged. “Che Guevarra is the symbol of the romantic revolution – and that's what we intend to do. Organization wise we are much alike the ones from Pora, the ones responsible for the Orange Revolution in the Ukraine .”
A weird thing was the fact that when opening the school last year, Soin delivered a speech about the danger represented by the Orange Revolutions in the area. This is also the opinion of his superior, Antiufeev. As for the Proriv being a right wing organization, its very actions label it this way. Moreover, the web sites of Proriv are connected in an international network of extreme right wing, while the greeting shared by all members is identical with the one shared by the Nazis, with the exception that the fist is kept tight when rising the hand. Even if when opening the School Che Guevarra Sorin declared that all attendees had to undergo military training, we met no members older than the teenage. The average age, at least at the ceremony for accepting new members, was of 15 years.
British Financing?
Soin doesn't talk too openly about the financing of this organization. He mentions first and foremost the self financing though a fundraising and political consulting department, while Transnistrian companies can't afford to refuse an MGB officer. Then he brings Russia as main financer into discussion. When asked about western financing, Soin says there is not the case for the time being, but he avoids talking about the past. Stef an Uratu from the Moldavian Helsinki Committee says that during a seminary about Transnistria in Brussels , in November 2005, one of the representatives of the British Embassy in Moldova , Margareta Mamaliga, stated that the Embassy was supporting Proriv through its program “ Peace Building ”. Mamaliga denies the information, but refused to show us the list with all NGO's from Transnistria that benefited from this financing.
Soin is also the founder of an NGO, called Strategiya, which us a part of the alliance The Young Patriots - Molodaya Gvardiya. The opponents of the Smirnov regime complain that with the help of these organizations, Soin and implicit the MGB have at their disposal an army made up of young people. This army goes vandal and threatens everyone in Soin's way. The last “accomplishment” of Proriv was (for example) the devastation of the Tiraspol OSCE premises and capturing its flag. “It was just a Fool Day joke, I really can't understand why people took it so seriously” declares Soin. The flag is still at the Proriv headquarters.
”I Should Have Had a Sniper Riffle!”
Soin is closely related to organized crime. He is being accused of committing two murders directly, killing a hitchhiker and money lender. Then he is being accused of plotting other 25 murders in the service of MGB and especially to help Antiufeev (the head MGB) dominating the small local organized crime groups. Among the accusers there is also the former commander of the 14 th Army, Michail Bergman.
Moreover, last year, Soin was involved in a weird weapons smuggling case. A British journalist with Sunday Times, posing as a weapons dealer, got in contact with a MGB officer, in order to purchase some Alazan missiles from Transnistria. The Alazan missiles were meteorological, but they had been turned into combat and marking missiles. According to the documents we have, there used to be 38 such missiles on the Transnistrian territory.
The MGB officer passed the British journalist to a middle man, Dmitri Soin, of whom the journalist knew nothing and thought to be a member of the underworld. The journalist met Soin several times, first time in Transnistria and then in a hotel in Chisinau. Their negotiations led to a final quote of 500 thousand dollars for three Alazan missiles, with the option of prior inspection. The missiles were to be delivered on an airport in Southern Ukraine . Sunday Times broke the deal and issued an article on the subject.
Soin denies all accusations. He claims he is the victim of some war on “dirty” information, all set up by the Moldavian secret services. His vocabulary mixes same phrases we heard Antiufeev speaking: the fifth column is being prepared by SIS, they are all Goebbels propaganda techniques, and all people against him are agents. When asked why he is allowed to travel freely, he answered he couldn't go to Moldova , because he would have been arrested. He didn't know whether he was on the Interpol's list and he thought he could travel around other countries. But we have checked that out and Soin is on the Interpol's list, wanted for murder.
Outlawry
“Hide your money!” kindly warns us the bus driver when getting closer to the Transnistrian border point from Bender. After passing the check point, we understand the reason of his warning us: the border guards are looking into pinching the smallest of gifts, the checking is formal anyways. We have not spotted any Transnistria registered vehicle to be checked. The border point has no surveillance cameras, no special technical endowment and not even computers. Information is being kept in huge books, that no one knows where they are stored. The border guards aren't interested in what is in the cars, they are interested only in the financial potential of the people who want to cross the border. But we have seen on the walls of the most useless border point we have ever been to a calendar made by Sheriff.
The main actors of the oppression mechanism are the troops of the Ministry of Interior and the ones of the State Security Ministry (MGB). The border guards are directly subordinated to the latter. An important role in keeping under a strict supervising, especially all economic activities, is being handled by the border authorities. The Interior and the Security are directly subordinated to former Sovietic leaders, born away from the Transnistrian republic and wanted for murders in other countries. The customs are being looked after by president Smirnov's two children. They also have Russian passports.
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A former Russian colonel, Iurevici Vladimir Antiufeev, is the one who keeps an iron hand on the domestic security. The dismemberment of the former USSR catches him in Riga , in the service of the OMON Special Forces. He is not ashamed to admit the fact that he came back to Tiraspol while in mission to organize the domestic security service, when the destabilization actions planned by the Riga government failed. He left behind several corpses, and he is wanted by the authorities in Riga for military actions under the command of the Russian Special Forces.
Vladimir Smirnov is the president of the customs, having the rank of a minister. Oleg Smirnov is his councilor. Vladimir is the oldest son of the president, while Oleg is the youngest. Neither of them was born on Transnistrian territory. They were more than 20 years old when their father was sent from Kamchatka to Tiraspol , in 1997. Besides being a councilor, Oleg Smirnov is also the manager of the most important company in the country, Sheriff. This company has the highest exports incomes, and it is accused by economists from neighboring country of having organized the most profitable smuggling transports.
From information gathered on field and from all statistics figures with relation to all captures made in Moldova and the Ukraine, it can be seen that the security service and the customs in Transnistria are basically forces to protect, organize and tithing the illicit activities. The structure of the army forces in the republic is also very interesting. Basically, the Transnistrian army as well as the 14 th Army and the Russian peace keeping troops are using Transnistrians. Some of them work based on contracts, while some serve in the army.
Spies are hiding among NGO's
Just a month before going to Transnistria, the security minister Antiufeev, declared the region is populated with spies from Moldova , Romania and other Western countries that are preparing the fall of the Tiraspol regime. As an immediate measure any international financing for the NGO's was strictly forbidden.
The oppressive regime led by MGB doesn't avoid any method to keep the Transnistrians under control. Information sources are few and exclusively politically controlled. There's a poor written press, where the weak voice of the opposition can be barely heard due to lack of money and misdistribution. Then there is the audio-video entirely controlled by the government and the company Sheriff, which is coordinated by MGB agents too. The attacks on possible opponents begin with threatening phone calls and they continue with destroying the premises of any targeted organization or with devastating the leaders' apartments. Physical attacks on leaders follow up, and then it's time for confiscating any promotional material or outlawing the very organization. There are also cases of physical elimination.
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In 1999, agents of the feared MGB confiscated the posters of the communist party announcing that all activities of that party were against the law. The headquarters were vandalized by unknown persons. In short time, the communist party was outlawed. The reason for all those actions was the domestic opposition as well as the connections the communists had with the party of the Moldavian president Vladimir Voronin.
In 2000, the leader of the Râbnita branch office of the party The Transnistrian Unity, Victor Voevodin, was checked into hospital in critical conditions after having been attacked by unknown persons when entering his apartment. Voevodin was beaten up with craw bars and bricks. The attack took place little time before the elections, and after the then Minister of Information and Communications, Boris Akulov, banned the printing of any promotional materials for the Transnistrian Unity. Authorities even got to tear up all posters posted into Bender and Tiraspol , threatening to outlaw the party.
In 2002, Oleg Belokameni, the president of the Transnistrian Russians community, was found shot dead near Tiraspol . Belokameni was vice mayor and he had business interests in Râbnita.
Outlawed
The weak opposition existing nowadays in Transnistria is killed before being born. At the same time with the communists, another two parties were outlawed at the beginning of 2000. We mean Partia Narodovlastia (The People Power Party) led by Alexander Radcenko and Vlasti Narodu (The Power of the People) led by Nikolay Buceatki. Both parties were outlawed at the request of the security and of the Minister of Justice. The two parties united and formed the Found for the Human Rights. The president of the organization is Radcenko, while Buceatki is the vice president. They were both members of the Transnistrian parliament but they fell into disgrace. During the last two years, both of them were the target of the secret service and of the youth organizations. They were publicly insulted, threatened in any possible way, their homes were vandalized, and acid was poured under their doors. OSCE had to step in so that the attacks slow down. Now all opposition is only under the supervision of the security service.
Home with the Opposition
Somewhere near the central boulevard of Tiraspol , near the Supreme Soviet, there is the headquarters of the political entity of the two. We met Alexander Radcenko, who shakes our hands strongly, while he is asking us to hurry up if we don't want to be taken in all together during the interview. The same building is the headquarters for the only opposition newspapers:
Novaia Gazeta ,
Dobrii Deni and
Celovek i evo prava (The Man and His Rights) – newspapers edited by Radcenko and Buceatki. There are a few little rooms, in a shattered building in the backyard full of garbage. The entrance is a door sustaining itself in a single joint. “Look, they broke our windows and they set on fire the doors. They constantly threaten our families, they tap our phones. All this building is bugged” The newspapers issue few copies, but they are the only newspapers we could find there against Smirnov. Interestingly enough, the newspapers don't issue any extra information from the inside, related to the activity of the Smirnov regime, they just circulate details already issued in Moldova , the Ukraine or Russia . Another interesting detail is the fact that Radcenko's headquarters in under the same almost “studied” siege for years now, while giving a few interviews during those years. If we add to that the positions the two occupied in the Smirnov regime, we can suspect that this is also a tolerated position – if not created – by the MGB structures. What would be the purpose? To give the impression to OSCE and to other international factors that Transnistria has opposition and a free press. The rest of the NGO's are much more transparently related to the internal security services. Public founds, government vehicles, or even founding members from the secret service. “Transnistria has a low political culture. But the Smirnov government can not arrest all the people who won't submit. That's why they left the newspapers alone (the newspapers belonging to Buceatki and to Radcenko....), they issue very few copies. Moreover, Smirnov can tell anyone that there is opposition in Transnistria” declared Boris Asarov, the president of the NGO “Pro Europe”. Asarov cannot enter Transnistria because he would be arrested for breaking the constitutional order. He has a penal file on his name, after protesting against the Supreme Soviet and the stationary Russian troops. When meeting him in Chisinau, he promised to provide documents to prove Transnistria's recent involvement into weapons trafficking. The following day he conditioned giving the documents with us publishing an exclusive interview with him and a box of R1.
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The only annalist we have been recommended as an independent and living in Tiraspol is Andrei Safonov. Because of security reasons, he refused to meet us in Transnistria and he insisted on visiting us to the apartment where we lived: “Basically, I would appreciate the situation in Transnistria as more bearable than the one in Belarus .”
PRESS
In Transnistria we have identified 114 journalists, registered in an official organization, 14 newspapers and four TV channels. We couldn't find all newspapers at the stands; the smaller the town, the fewer are the newspapers for sale. Besides the three newspapers we mentioned above, and belonging to the opposition, the rest of the media products are divided into the ones owned by the government and the one owned by Sheriff. There is also a publication issued by Proriv, whose founding member is a MGB officer. The same Sheriff owns the only cable TV operator in Transnistria, where no one can watch channels also watched in Moldova . The internet communication is the monopoly of the Smirnovs, who took over through Sheriff the former public company Interdnestrcom, using for mobile communication the 3G – CDMA – standard brought in by the American company Lucent Technologies. Thus, everything that means access to information is made through the provider Interdnestrcom.
As a foreign journalist, it is almost impossible to work openly, because MGB might refuse access to any journalist or might decide to get him monitored while working. Once one declares to be a journalist, even taxi drivers know that you must get credentials from officials and they ask for it. On the other hand, there were registered many cases where foreign journalists caught working without credentials, were got into custody and all the material obtained was confiscated. Generally speaking, Romanian journalists are considered to be spies.
The Elite
Connections between the internal security, business environment and the political elite are more and more obvious. A handful of people took positions, then made fortunes, and won places in the Supreme Soviet. A good example is Oleg Voronin that besides being head of customs and manager of Sheriff has also become deputy in the Supreme Soviet.
Basically, nowadays there are two political forces in Transnistria: The Respublica movement, a pro-presidential structure and the Obnovlenie (Renewal) movement, a structure where all main economic actors belong to, beginning with the business men of Sheriff. But a closer look at he resumes of the political elite shows that basically we are to deal with a family affair. For example, in the presidential structure we can also find the wife of the security minister, Galina Antiufeeva. Ironically, she is a member of the amnesty presidential committee. Moreover, Antiufeeva is the president of the Supreme Soviet Committee for Law, Rights and Freedom of the Citizens.
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Ilya Kazmaly (or Ilie Cazmalii) is deputy manager with Sheriff and at the same time, he is a deputy in the Supreme Soviet. He is a former Tiraspol Militia officer; he participated in arresting Ilie Ilascu and other fighters against the separatists. Cazmalii was the right hand of Victor Gusan, who is now the manager of Sheriff. They both worked for the Ministry of Interior in Tiraspol . Gusan had a more important position, and he directly participated in arresting Ilascu. They both served under the MGB, and in the years following the conflict they participated in creating and developing the Sheriff empire, in the name of the Smirnovs.
Oleg Baev, manager of the Wine and alcohol liquors factory KVINT, got to the position of Parliament member. The same happened to Anatoli Belitchenko and to Andrei Iudin, both managers of MMZ from Râbnita. Elena Chernenko, the minister of privatization, takes the job of chief accountant to an Italian - Transnistrian company right after graduating. The press accuses the minister of privatization of being involved between '96 and '98 in a tax dodging case of 7 billion Transnistrian rubles, when she was the chief accountant of with Tirpa. The file was quickly closed and the former chief accountant was promoted to the position of minister of economy, where she started a long run of suspicious privatizations. And the list could go on. To this entire list, one can add the wives and children of all the above-mentioned, who slowly enter the new Transnistrian elite, receiving official governmental positions.
The project "Transdniester - Revealing Europe's black hole" is an investigation of CRJI, financed by SCOOP in Danemark and SAS in Switzerland. The participants in this project are the following journalists: Vitalie Calugareanu (Chisinau), Vlad Lavrov (Kiev), Igor Boldyrev (Odessa), Alexander Bratersky (Moscova) and foto Robert Ghement.
by ªtefan Cândea and Sorin Ozon, RCJI
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