Transnistria Dog Tag

Dieser Travel Bug will nach Transnistrien (zw. Moldawien & Ukraine) reisen

This Travel Bug wants to travel to Transnistria (between Moldova & Ukraine)

What is Transnistria?

Transnistria is a so-called "breakaway state". Like other countries, Transnistria has it's own Military, Currency, Government, Passports and everything else a country needs. Also, the Government holds control over the area. The difference to "real" countries is, that Transnistria is not recognized by any of the 193 Members of the United Nations. The UN officially views Transnistria as a part of Moldova, even though the moldovan government does not have any control of this area.

The country claimed independence from the Moldovan SSR in September 1990, independance from the Soviet Union in August 1991 and transformed from the "Pridnestrovian Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic" into it's current form in November 1991. The official flag of this country, as you can see in the picture above, is similar to that of the former Soviet Union. That is because Transnistria just re-used the Flag of the Moldovan SSR. The conflict between Moldova and Transnistria was based on ethnicity. Transnistria did not want to be part of Moldova, because the majority of it's population is ethnically russian and not moldovan. This conflict led to the independance of Transnistria and later to the "Transnistria War" (1992).

I visited Transnistria for a few days to celebrate New Years Eve 2019 there. I mainly visited the capital of Transnistria, Tiraspol, but also checked out some places a little outside of the city as well as the city of Bender. Attached to the Travel Bug you can see a coin that I took home from there. The currency it belongs to is the Transnistrian Ruble.

(A photo taken in the end of December 2019 in Tiraspol, the capital of Transnistria)