Romania has made it clear that it is (currently, at least) against an independent Transdniestria - just like it is also against an independent Kosovo.

But on April 17 Romanian President Traian Basescu has said, in a backhanded way, that Transdniestria has better grounds for being with Ukraine than with Moldova.

“If they in Kiev are intending to annex Transdniestria to Ukraine, they must take into account the necessity to bring territories of South Bessarabia and North Bukovina back to Moldova,” Basescu said.

Quick history check:

Transdniestria has been Russian since 1792.

It was part of Ukraine until 1924. In 1924, it became an autonomous republic (ASSR) within the Ukrainian SSR of the Soviet Union.

At the time, Moldova was part of Romania.

In 1940, Stalin invaded Moldova and merged it with Transdniestria in order to bring Moldova into the Soviet Union.

The result was the newly made Moldavian SSR. Moldova, while seeking its freedom and afterwards as well, officially denounced this move as illegal.

Now, Basescu recognizes that Transdniestria was part of Ukraine in the past - and not part of Moldova. He says that if Ukraine wants it back, it must give Moldova back some of the old Moldovan lands which are now part of Ukraine. And BTW, this was never a swap … so don’t even go there. 

This entry was posted on Monday, April 21st, 2008 at 3:46 am and is filed under Transdniestria musings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.