Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
08CHISINAU67
2008-01-25 12:29:00
UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
Embassy Chisinau
Cable title:  

MOST TRANSNISTRIANS HOLD MOLDOVAN PASSPORTS

Tags:  PGOV PBTS MD 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO1219
RR RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHDA RUEHDF RUEHFL RUEHIK RUEHKW RUEHLA RUEHLN
RUEHLZ RUEHPOD RUEHROV RUEHSR RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHCH #0067 0251229
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 251229Z JAN 08
FM AMEMBASSY CHISINAU
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 6176
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
UNCLAS CHISINAU 000067 

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

SIPDIS

STATE FOR EUR/UMB

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PBTS MD
SUBJECT: MOST TRANSNISTRIANS HOLD MOLDOVAN PASSPORTS

Sensitive But Unclassified. Please Protect Accordingly.

UNCLAS CHISINAU 000067

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

SIPDIS

STATE FOR EUR/UMB

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PBTS MD
SUBJECT: MOST TRANSNISTRIANS HOLD MOLDOVAN PASSPORTS

Sensitive But Unclassified. Please Protect Accordingly.


1. (SBU) Summary: On January 16 the Government of Moldova adopted a
decree prolonging until July 1 the free issuance of internal
passports for Transnistrian residents. Since free issuance was
introduced in 2005, an additional hundred thousand TN residents have
signed up for citizenship papers. This brings to 385,000 the number
of TN's 515,000 residents that are officially Moldovan citizens,
having received either internal Moldovan passport, birth certificate
or confirmation stamp in their old Soviet-style passport. Some of
these individuals may also have Russian and/or Ukrainian
citizenship. The fact that almost 75 percent of Transnistria's
residents have confirmed their Moldovan citizenship suggests that
popular acceptance of being citizens of Moldova may be a lot easier
than the hard-line TN regime would like us to believe. End Summary.


75 Percent of TN Has Moldovan Citizenship...
--------------


2. (U) In September 2005, the Government of Moldova adopted a decree
providing that TN residents can receive internal passports and birth
certificates for children under 16 free of charge. Until that time
TN residents paid the same fees as ordinary Moldovan citizens. A
number of offices were opened along Dniester River to deal with TN
residents. This decree has been prolonged every six months; the
most recently to July 1, 2008. Over 100,000 new internal passports
and birth certificates were issued between September 2005 and
November 2007. Some 385,000 TN residents are considered Moldovan
citizens having been issued either internal Moldovan passports or a
birth certificate out of the total population of the region of about
515 thousand.

...But Many Have Russian and/or Ukrainian Passports
-------------- --------------


3. (U) As Transnistrian passports are not internationally recognized
as legal travel documents, TN residents need to obtain citizenship
of a recognized state if they wish to travel abroad. Some 130,000
TN residents have Russian citizenship, while about 70-80,000 have
Ukrainian citizenship. Though no official statistics are available,
some TN residents may have double or even multiple citizenship
(predominantly Moldovan, Russian and Ukrainian, though there are
also much smaller numbers of Romanian and Bulgarian citizens).


4. (SBU) Comment: While Smirnov and his hard-line inner circle
would have us believe that the Transnistrian population are all
clamoring for independence and Russian citizenship, in reality the
majority of TN residents have made a more practical decision.
Confronted with the reality of needing citizenship papers issued by
an internationally-recognized state, almost 75 percent have chosen
to register for internal or external Moldovan passports. This
suggests that if 5+2 negotiations are ever successful, acceptance by
residents of Transnistria that they are citizens of Moldova may not
be so difficult to achieve. End Comment.

KIRBY