“Pridnestrovie for Peace”: Accounting for Transnistrian Divergence from the Russian Position vis-à-vis the Russo-Ukrainian War

Abstract

Despite historical and ongoing reliance on Russia and an enduring pro-Russian stance, the official narrative of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic (Transnistria) regarding the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has been surprisingly neutral. This article seeks to establish a typology of the various reasons for this divergence, looking at geographical, demographic, socio-cultural, historical, economic and military factors, as well as the extenuating influence of the preexisting conflict with Moldova. These factors combine to incline the Transnistrian population and leadership toward peace and thus demotivate an overtly negative media treatment of Ukraine in the context of the War. Given limited scholarship on the topic and the opacity of Transnistrian governance, video reports from the state-affiliated channel TSV are employed as primary sources to evidence and exemplify the various factors determining the Transnistrian position on the Russo-Ukrainian War. The article concludes by challenging the view of Transnistria as a passive Russian puppet, and proposes that the region’s unusual status and location, while limiting, also lend it a certain flexibility in its media narratives and foreign policy.

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

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Notes on contributors

Shaun D. Foster

Shaun D. Foster is a recent graduate from the MA in Geopolitics, Resources and Territory at King’s College, London, with an interest in issues of territory, particularly border studies, language, and the politics of the post-Soviet space. His Master’s dissertation was on the Geopolitical Roles of Wartime Linguistic Innovations in the Context of the Russia-Ukraine War. He also holds a BA(Hons) in Modern and Medieval Languages (French, Russian and Ukrainian) from King’s College, Cambridge, for which his integrated Year Abroad was spent living and working as an English teacher in France, Ukraine and Transnistria. E-mail: [email protected]