Even before the pandemic, we have been living in isolation

Photo: Донор (CC) commons.wikimedia.org

Virus of tensions

The first COVID-19 cases were diagnosed in Transdniestria on March 21st. The virus was first confirmed in a 60-year-old woman who lives in Bender and a 37- year-old man from Rybnitsa. Their tests were sent to Chișinău, Moldova’s capital, for confirmation. Since then, collected samples from Transdniestrians have been regularly sent to a Chișinău-based laboratory. This caused concerns from the Transdniestrian side. The region’s media reported that the first Transdniestrian person died from COVID-19 while her test was still being processed in the laboratory. On April 3rd the Moldovan minister of health, Viorica Dumbrăveanu, reported that the Moldovan Agency of public health trained seven professionals from Tiraspol (the so-called capital of Transdniestria) to be able to conduct tests on their own. According to Igor Dodon, Moldova’s president, around 300 tests from Transdniestria had been processed in Chișinău, and another 500 people from the region had bought medical insurance in order to be treated in Moldovan hospitals during the first month of the pandemic.

A week after the news about the laboratory testing was announced, tensions rose again between Tiraspol and Chișinău. The Moldovan minister of reintegration, Cristina Lesnik, accused Tiraspol of ignoring the dangers of coronavirus. The Moldovan government invited authorities from Tiraspol for a meeting with the health protection committee to discuss joint measures during the pandemic, but the Transdniestrian authorities ignored the invitation. According to Lisnik, they do not have access to reliable data from the region, and access of Moldovan doctors to Transdniestria is blocked. Rhetoric heated up when, in July, the Transdniestrian leader, Vadim Krasnoselsky, called the Moldovan side “toxic” and said they are unable to control the pandemic. He urged the international community to help Chișinău in dealing with “the catastrophe” and claimed that the COVID-19 situation in Moldova has a negative effect on Transdniestria and security in the region.

Pandemic borders  

While the authorities from Tiraspol and Chișinău are disputing who is worse in terms of managing the pandemic, COVID-19 continues to affect people on both sides of the Dniester. Moldovan passport holders have been denied entry to most other countries, and Moldova is currently on the so-called “red list” due to its high number of COVID-19 cases. However, Transdniestrians face a double layer of restrictions, which were imposed on them not only by other countries, but their own authorities. Since March 16th a state of emergency has been declared in the republic, and its borders with Ukraine and Moldova have been closed. Only those with exceptional circumstances, diplomats and farmers, can still travel to Moldova.

Those wishing to leave the region are asked to submit a request to the authorities in Tiraspol. This system might be in place at least until the end of September. One of the founders of the first Transdniestrian Human Rights Cinema Festival Chesnok (“Garlic”), Alexandra Telpis, says that because of the newly introduced system she feels reluctant to visit her parents in Transdniestria. She started to work in one of the EU-based organisations as a volunteer shortly before the pandemic. “I am not sure if I can leave the region once I get there. The criteria upon which the authorities decide whose request to leave is accepted and whose is denied is very unclear,” she says.

On July 2nd Tiraspol suddenly cancelled all permits issued to those who requested to leave the region. According to the authorities, Transdniestrians were visiting Moldova and becoming infected. This has led to the situation when those living in Transdniestria, but traveling to Moldova for work, are no longer able to do so. It has also affected those planning to visit relatives or attend funerals.

The travel restrictions forced Transdniestrians to take an unprecedented step – to go out and protest. On July 2nd dozens of people from the Transdniestrian town of Rybnitsa blocked the bridge between Rybnitsa and the Moldovan town of Rezina. The protesters demanded Tiraspol to renew the freedom to travel to Rezina, where most of them worked.

Tiraspol based journalist Vitalii Shmakov believes that the travel restrictions are among the measures which have had the worst effect on Transdniestrians. “This impacts you psychologically. Even before the pandemic we have been living in the so-called isolation. Now it became even more obvious. Many people used to occasionally travel to Odesa or Chișinău and suddenly they found themselves locked inside,” he says. Border closures have also impacted Shmakov’s life. He planned to spend a few months in Georgia and the Czech Republic for professional reasons, just as the restrictions were suddenly announced. Stuck in Tiraspol, he found himself more focused on the work of the NGO called Art pohod – which he and a few other Transdniestrian-based journalists registered in Tiraspol at the beginning of the year. However, to his surprise, many of the Transdniestrians he spoke with agreed on the necessity of the border restrictions and even proposed to suspend transportation between Transdniestrian towns.

According to Shmakov, the border closures have hit local businesses who have ties with Ukraine or Moldova. “Many Transdniestrian businessmen tried to re-orient their business into the local market, but not everyone succeeded. Some started to invest their efforts into local Transdniestrian tourism.” Shmakov, at the same time, mentions that migrant workers from Transdniestria, who came back to the region during the pandemic from Russia and the EU, are now trying to return to the countries where they previously worked.

Impact on civil liberties

The lockdown has led to a shrinking of space available for Transdniestrians, not only in geographical terms but also in terms of civil liberties. During the pandemic an unprecedented number of criminal cases have been opened on the grounds of extremism. On March 20th Krasnoselsky approved a new strategy on countering extremism in Transdniestria for 2020-2026. According to him, for the past few years the number of threats in Transdniestria has significantly increased.

Evgheni Dunaev, the leader of the Tiraspol-based NGO Apriori, says that the strategy was adopted without any public consultations. In an online live stream, arranged by Dunaev, he highlighted that his organisation submitted a request to the authorities to organise a public debate around the strategy, but it did not succeed. As reported by the Moldovan online media NewsMaker.Md, since the adoption of the strategy at least three “extremism” cases have been initiated against local journalists and opposition activists. One of the cases involves a young journalist, Larisa Kalik, who published a book titled Year of Youth containing anonymous interviews with ex-soldiers of the Transdniestrian army. Printed in a very limited number, the book was also published online. It was presented in Tiraspol at the end of last year, but at the beginning of this year the Transdniestrian security forces started to show an increasing interest in Kalik’s work. After she has fled the country, she learnt that she potentially faces five years of prison because her book is considered extremist by the authorities.

According to NewsMaker, another case was initiated at the beginning of June against a member of the opposition Communist Party of Transdniestria, Alexandr Samonia. He is accused of writing anonymous Facebook posts, which instigated social hatred, and for insulting Krasonselsky, the Transdniestrian leader. He has also fled the region. This happened at a time when his party colleague, Oleg Horjan, is still imprisoned. Horjan was arrested in 2018 after organising a protest in Tiraspol.

The last known “extremism” case relates to protests organised in Rybnitsa following the cancelation of travel permits during the pandemic. The day after the protest, the opposition activist Gennady Chorba was arrested. Tiraspol suspected him to be the main organiser of the protest. Soon afterwards he was accused of extremism, and the region’s media, controlled by the authorities, started to actively portray him as dangerous. “The first Transdniestrian” TV channel called him a “pro-Chișinău activist” in one of its reports. The growing number of extremism-related accusations raises serious concerns among the remaining critical voices in the region.

Vulnerable groups

COVID-19 has seriously impacted the well-being of those from vulnerable groups in Transdniestria. This includes women suffering from domestic violence, as cases dramatically increased globally during the lock-down period. While there is no law which protects victims of domestic violence in Transdniestria, Rezonans, a local NGO, began running services for women at risk of domestic violence during the pandemic. They set up a helpline and provided shelter and counselling. Moreover, in a commentary for NewsMaker, representatives from Rezonans highlighted an enhanced collaboration with the Transdniestrian police force. According to them, local police were helping to spread posters and were very receptive to checking on cases of presumed domestic violence. Apparently the pandemic also brought about some positive outcomes.

When asked about the pandemic’s influence on those with disabilities, Tiraspol-based activist for disability rights, Alexandr Kovalchuk, smiles ironically: “We have a living experience of such critical situations. I feel myself as a fish in water”. Kovalchuk, who himself uses a wheelchair and is a journalism student as Tiraspol State University, says that due to the pandemic many activist and educational activities have transferred to online, which makes it easier for him to explore his potential. “Thanks to the remote character of work, I can travel anywhere. If not for the pandemic, I would not have had a chance to take part in so many international forms of training” he says. However, according to Kovalchuk, the lockdown has had a negative impact on residents of closed psychiatric institutions of the region, who have not always had the access to personal protection equipment and the means to follow social distancing rules. These places have imposed strict rules on movement and some of their residents do not leave the institution at all. Both in Moldova and Transdniestria psychiatric institutions became hotspots for COVID-19 outbreaks. For example, 72 people from the psychiatric institution in Bender were infected in May.

While many people lost their job due to the pandemic, Kovalchuk is also afraid that it will be even harder for those with disabilities to find employment and to reintegrate themselves into society. He recalls that after an accident where he lost his ability to walk and spent the next 10 years in isolation, he feared going out because of society’s negative attitudes towards those with disabilities. He says that participation in human rights training offered by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Tiraspol has changed his life. However, Kovalchuk fears that empowering Transdniestrian people with disabilities still living in isolation as a result of common prejudices remains on hold: “I hoped that the quarantine would make everyone more sensitive to the everyday realities of people with disabilities who are cut off from the outside world. Unfortunately, from what I can see, the quarantine made people even more angry and selfish. I know cases when vulnerable people were receiving humanitarian assistance during the pandemic, and their neighbours were envious because of this,” he recalls.

Room for hope

Despite uncertainty and hardships brought on by COVID-19, there is hope among the people of Transdniestria. Transdniestria is not an exception – this is truly a worldwide phenomenon. Tiraspol State University student, Alexandr Tolochenko, recalls that he joined a movement of volunteers who helped elderly people during the crisis. Around this time he was also taking his final exams online. “To my surprise, I even enjoyed the distance learning,” he admits. Prior to the pandemic, he made a decision to stay in Tiraspol instead of moving to Moscow as a postgraduate. Tolchenko says that the lockdown made him feel like he has made the right decision. “The pandemic showed how important it is to live near your relatives.”

Alexandra Telpis shares her hope that even though the Human Rights Documentary Film Festival, Chesnok, did not take place this spring as expected, it will still be possible to organise it in the autumn. She is inspired by the fact that the Moldovan documentary film festival, Moldox, will take place offline in September. However, as Telpis admits, “the Moldox Festival has access to public spaces which we do not have in our region.” Moreover, the Chesnok festival is supported by the Apriori NGO, which is in danger of being shut down by the Transdniestrian authorities after a new law on NGOs was adopted in 2018. According to Telpis, the Chesnok festival sent numerous, unsuccessful requests to the authorities asking permission to organise screenings in public spaces.

On the other hand, Kovalchuk says that he is motivated to launch a production in which Transdniestrian based people with disabilities will reflect upon the meaning of happiness in their life. Kovalchuk is determined to amplify the voices of people with disabilities and to encourage them to leave their “isolation” after the pandemic.

Storytelling, focused on the region, excites Vitalii Shmakov as well. During the pandemic he and his colleagues from the newly established NGO, Art Pohod, were informed that their media project application was approved by donors. Now the team plans to produce a documentary series about significant historical landmarks from both banks of the Dniester River. While Shmakov acknowledges that he has had to cancel his plans to organise an exchange project among citizen journalists from Transdniestria and Moldova, he feels enthusiastic about his new project, which “could help people from both sides to look at their joint history from a new perspective”.

Marina Shupac is a human rights journalist with NewsMaker.md, an online Moldova-based publication. She is a former minority rights fellow at the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and a former European Parliament Sakharov Fellow.

coronavirus, COVID-19, Moldova, Transdniestria, Transnistria