Trip Report: Visiting Transnistria, The Country That Doesn't Exist

The Soviet Union collapsed in late 1991 and many of the Soviet socialist countries that made up the Soviet Union declared their independence from Russia. One of those was Moldova which today remains an independent country. However, a far eastern slice of Moldova, an area with many ethnic Russians, was fearful that Moldova was going to try to merge into Romania and they declared their own independence from Moldova. A brief war was fought in 1992 and a ceasefire was declared after a few months of fighting. That eastern slice, known as Transnistria, remains a separate country today almost 35 years later.

They call themselves a separate country except that no other country in the world has recognized them as a country. The world still considers Transnistria to be a part of Moldova. During our visit earlier this month to Chișinău, the capital of Moldova, we took a day trip over to to Tiraspol, the capital of Transnistria. We had our passports checked at the Transnistria border. (Moldova does not check passports on the return because as far as they're concerned, there is no Transnistrian country so why bother.)

 

Welcome to Transnistria, a "country" where the old Soviet Union is revered.

Lots of statues of Lenin abound along with Soviet style architecture.

The red & green flag of Transnistria contains a Soviet hammer & sickle in its upper corner. It stands here beside the Russian flag. (The other flags belong to the cities of Transnistria.)

They have their own currency called the Transnistria Ruble. It's not good anywhere except Transnistria. Western credit cards can't be used because the country is unrecognized anywhere else and they are only tied to the Russian banking system which itself is under sanctions. So to buy anything, you must exchange your Dollars, Euros or Moldovan Leu to Transnistria Rubles. Please note that they themselves call their country Pridnestrovie in the Cyrillic alphabet.

We purchased this Transnistria coin set of plastic coins as a souvenir. They have metal coins now so the plastic coins seem only to be for tourists.

There are up to 1,500 Russian soldiers stationed in Transnistria but with Moldova on one side and a closed border with Ukraine on the other side, they are kind of stuck between the proverbial rock and a hard place. Transnistrians are free to visit Moldova since there are no passport checks and Moldova considers them Moldovans. They can't travel further without a Moldovan passport since their own passport is worthless. For now, things are status quo. Moldova has applied for EU membership and is on track. A merger into Romania is also possible which brings not only EU membership but also membership into NATO. A fascinating little part of the world not many know about. Everyone we met was friendly and we're so glad we got to visit.