Acquiring Assets, Debts and Citizens Russia and the Micro–Foundations of Transnistria’S Stalemated Conflict
Acquiring Assets, Debts and Citizens Russia and the Micro–Foundations of Transnistria’s Stalemated Conflict Rebecca Chamberlain-CreangĂ and Lyndon K. Allin Abstract: This article examines how a mix of grassroots socioeconomic and transnational factors perpetuate Transnistria’s de facto separation from right-bank Moldova. The authors seek to push past the scholarly divide in the study of stalemates, which privileges either intergovernmental and nation-state elite power factors or observable, bottom-up elements in explanations of deadlocked conflicts. An interdisciplinary approach is used to demonstrate Russia’s range of soft-power activities in Transnistria: the acquisition of industrial assets, debts and citizens, all of which have bearing on Russian-disposed public sentiment inside the secessionist region. The article ends by suggesting ways in which Russian influence and that of the European Union and Chişinău can pull Transnistria closer toward Moldova for conflict settlement within a territorially integral, sovereign Republic of Moldova. Keywords: citizenship, Moldova, Russia, de facto states, Transnistria n August 2008, the world saw that unresolved conflicts and little-known, unrecog- I nized entities can threaten regional security and potentially shift global power rela- tions. South Ossetia1 and Abkhazia were two of four so-called “frozen conflicts” result- ing from the breakup of the Soviet Union. Another frozen conflict close to Europe’s doorstep is Moldova’s secessionist region of Transnistria.2 Nestled along Moldova’s Rebecca A. Chamberlain-Creangă is currently a Research Scholar at the Kennan Institute of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC. She did participant-observa- tion in urban heavy industry on both of Moldova’s river banks, including in the separatist Transnis- trian region, for almost two years in 2004–2006, PhD (at the London School of Economics) field research supported by several Title VIII/US Department of State academic fellowships.
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