TRANSNISTRIA: 24 Hours Inside a Russian Proxy State

TRANSNISTRIA: 24 Hours Inside a Russian Proxy State

Do you, do you think that
the majority of people here want to be part of Russia? Yes. So this is a Russian tank. It’s open, bro! It’s open,
we’re going on the roof. Oh my god. When do you think
this was built? It was built 70 years ago. Actually? In the Soviet Union. Yeah, it’s a Gypsy hood. For you, going alone, for
you, a little bit dangerous. We’re out here somewhere,
I don’t really know. Thank you guys for everything. Hello everybody, and welcome
to Chisinau, Moldova. Another place, a few years ago
I never really thought I would have ever found myself, but
here we are, former Soviet Republic of Moldova. The capital city, Chisinau.
But in this video, we are headed to a forbidden land, another place on the U.S.
State Department website that they say do not
go here, and if you’re here, depart immediately. We’re going to Transnistria. More on that later. Right now we’re hopping on the
mashrutka and heading out to Transnistria, to Tiraspol. Alright, here it is. You can see Tiraspol,
Chisinau, and even the license plate is a Transnistrian
license plate, not Moldovan. There’s the Moldovan
one for comparison. We’re out of here in
a few minutes, and the adventure begins. Alright guys, so
we’re at the border. I want to be careful with
filming here because it’s kind of a touchy situation. But here is the border post,
and we’re going to get out, go through passport control
here on this internationally unrecognized border, and then
if all goes well, we will be heading into Transnistria. Alrighty guys, and we have
made it to Transnistria. I am here in the capital
of this breakaway region called Tiraspol. I made it through the
border without any issues. They don’t stamp your
passport, they just give you a little like kind of receipt
piece of paper that you have to keep with you, because
you’re going to need to present that when you
exit the region at the end of your stay. So it is the next day now. Yesterday I took care of
some things I needed to do like getting a sim
card and exchanging money. But then yesterday afternoon
I just went out to walk around and explore a little bit and
I ended up meeting some local kids who were kind enough
to show me around a bit. Hello! Where are we? From Russia. From Russia and
Transnistria, anybody? All Russian? Yes. Tiraspol. Okay, very good. So this is a Russian tank
that they pulled out of the river apparently,
some time ago, and I think it’s from World War II. Oh, yeah? Okay. Yeah. How is it down there? All good? Yes! Very nice, guys. Can you go inside? Oh, yeah, you can. Yes! There’s a hole under there. Yes, yes! Are you gonna go in? That looks comfortable. Oh my gosh. Give him the camera. Oh yeah,
ok. Ok Vanya, here’s the camera. Alright, he’s
going to show the inside. Tank, tank, tank. Thank you! So before we continue, I
just want to give you guys a quick rundown of what
exactly Transnistria is, for anyone who’s unfamiliar. Transnistria is
internationally recognized as a part of the country of
Moldova, which used to be a part of the Soviet Union. During the fall of the Soviet
Union in the early 90s, conflict broke out inside
Moldova between the majority ethnic Romanian Moldovans,
who wanted independence, and ethnic Russians,
who wanted to maintain closer ties with Russia. We’ll get more into what
happened there later, but for now, what you need to know
is that ever since the end of that conflict, the
region of Transnistria has been functioning as a de
facto independent state. It’s still internationally
recognized as a part of Moldova, but it has its own
borders, flag, currency, armed forces, and even passport,
though that’s not recognized anywhere outside of here. Transnistria is also widely
considered a Russian proxy state because it relies
heavily on Russia for security and economic support. So anyway, I met up with my
new friend Vladimir, who I met on my bus from Chisinau,
and his two buddies Max and Alexander to explore Tiraspol
and learn more about this strange, sort of, almost
country of Transnistria. It’s USSR dinner room. USSR! Oh boy. And there’s the
Transnistrian flag. Yeah. Wow. It’s like a little
underground bunker. It’s all USSR stuff. This is all? Yeah, TV… It’s from the time of USSR. This place is like, it’s
like an underground bunker. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Now it’s a dinner
room, but first it’s an underground bunker. Was it a bunker? Yeah. For the war? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Wow. We can take borscht. It’s all menu of USSR menu. Yeah? Same. ….Communism under
the leadership of the Communist Party…. ….Forward to the
victory of Communism! I don’t know how
to open this door. Alright guys, so we’re heading
into this apartment block to see if we can get up to the
roof. It looks like a random building, and we’re gonna
see if we can get up to the rooftop for a view of the city. Who are you calling? Because we don’t know the
password for this door, we call any room, and say… And
see if they open? Yeah, yeah. We’ll try. So it’s just
an apartment building? He said, “We forgot our key.” “If you open for us…” Good day, can you
open the door, please? Can you open the door, please? Thank you. Amazing. Nicely done. Good job, good job! Oh! Wow, yeah, we’re high up. We’ll try to go on the roof. Oh, there’s more? It’s open, bro! It’s open,
we’re going on the roof. We’re in! Wow. Do you guys know how many
people live in this city? In Tiraspol, uh, 100,000. 100,000? Yeah, 100,000 in the capital. Wow. And in all of Transnistria,
it’s like 200,000 or 300,000? All of Transnistria,
it’s a half million. Because all are
leaving, you know why. Economy is shit. Oh, they’re leaving. So you guys can see here,
basically, there’s a little bit of the river, I don’t know
if you can see right there. And then on the other side
of that, basically, it’s not exact, but basically on the
other side of the river, all that land over
there is Moldova, and all of this is Tiraspol,
the capital of Transnistria. And now the rain is coming,
it’s turning very gray, it’s very Soviet vibes.
What we think of as Soviet vibes, anyway. Alright, so here’s the
parliament, and you can see Lenin right there, a bust of
his head. So you guys still have a lot of, like, Soviet
stuff around here, right? Yeah, yeah, all over the
place, but the name of this house is “Soviet Home”.
“Home of the Soviets”. Soviet home? Yeah. So this, that name is
original from the Soviet times. Yeah, yeah, yeah. These are heroes for us for
Soviet Union. We have military guys who did anything for the
Soviet Union, we have factory directors, we have people who
did anything for science… It’s great people for us. Smirnov Igor Nikolaevich.
He’s first president from transnistria After the collapse of
the USSR, he is first president, in this place. So Transnistria broke off,
like, immediately from Moldova, right after the
Soviet Union collapse? Yeah, because we speak
only Russian here. Moldavan Romanians have another
culture, another language. And we have what we have. Yeah. So, was there a
war between the Moldovans and the Transnistrians? 30 years ago. 30 years ago a war started,
and the Russian military helped us to finish this war. And so then the Russian
military has stayed ever since then, right? Yeah. Okay. These 30 years Russian
military stayed for peace now, to help us. Gotcha. So, do you guys all have… Transnistrian and
Moldovan passports? And Russian? Yeah, yeah, yeah. We have minimum
three passports. Okay. If you want to go to
Moldova, you take only a Transnistrian passport. And if you’re going out
of Moldova – See this car? Oh, wow. I’ve never seen a
car made of carpet. It’s very nice. Nice soft car. We take another passport for
going outside Moldova. If you if you want to go to Europe
and uh… For Russia, I take a Russian passport, and for
Europe, a Moldovan passport. So the, the Transnistrian
passport is only used here and in Moldova. Yeah,
only used here and Moldova. Does everybody here
get a Russian passport automatically? Uh, not
automatic. If you want. Like, Moldova’s government
considers all of this part of Moldova, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so they consider
you Moldovan citizen? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because at first, in USSR,
we had the Moldovan SSR. The Moldovan Soviet
Socialist Republic. The Moldovan Republic was part
of the Soviet Union, right? Yeah, yeah. And Transnistria was part
of Moldovan Republic. Yeah, yeah. How do all you guys
think it’s gonna resolve? Like, do you think that
there’s ever a chance that Trasnsnistria would become
fully part of Moldova again, or do you think it will
stay the same, or become independent, or join Russia? I think we’ll join Russia,
but it’s been a problem for 30 years, you know?
But it’s political. And now we don’t know, because
it’s a time of madness. Yeah. We want! You want to join with Russia? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do you think that the
majority of people here want to be part of Russia? Mmm… yes. Uh, young people maybe want
to go in Europe. You know, in European, uh… European
Union. But uh, old people want to be with Russia, because they were born in the
Soviet Union. The Soviet Union is Russia. Because we have
same culture, same language with Russia, you know? What about you guys? Do you want to be
part of Russia or stay independent Transnistria? It’s a situation question now. Because this time,
it’s not normal. You mean, like,
because of the war? Yes. Because of the war,
because we have a problem with other parts of Moldova,
Romania… And uh… old people want to join Russia. But we don’t have, uh, with
Russia we don’t have a… Direct connection. Yeah, direct connection. That’s the problem. So it’s like, there’s
no clear answer. Yeah, there’s no clear answer,
but uh, if you ask me, I say my position. I want… to be
with Russia, but uh… other guys will maybe tell you
they would prefer to be with Europe. Because Moldova
is going with Europe now. Yes. Uh… People who are born
in this city who want to go to Moldova, it’s not a problem.
They all go to Moldova. Oh, you can go live there? If you want to live in another
part, it’s not a problem. You take the Moldovan passport. People who live here, they
want maybe something else. Not with Europe, not with Moldova,
Romania, they’re with Russia. So it kind of like, self sorts
itself, because obviously if you want to be part of Europe
then you can easily go move to another part of Moldova, and
if you are more pro-Russian, then you probably stay
here or move to Russia. Yeah, yeah, it’s not a problem. So Parka Pobeda? Yes, it’s Parka Pobeda, if
you translate it’s “Park of Victory” in World War II. Is this where you
guys are bringing me? This is like
Soviet Disney World! You know, this cartoon
is for children, this cartoon, a new cartoon,
“Masha and the Bear” it’s name, yeah. It’s a Russian cartoon. The
most popular. Masha and the Bear. 10 rubles for one. Someone actually works here? Yeah! Oh, wow. I thought it was abandoned. Oh, I thought we were going on
the little one. No, this one. Yes, it’s a surprise for you. It’s the best sound
design for your video. Wow. So this is
where my story ends. Okay, so to me this place felt
kind of, like, abandoned. But there’s this woman working
at the cash desk and she’s walking over just with us
to unlock this thing, and I guess she’s gonna operate
this this ferris wheel. Oh my gosh. When do you
think this was built? No answer? Yeah, safety first. Yeah, thank you. It was built 70 years ago. Actually? Yeah man. No way… 70 years? Wait, you mean in Soviet
times? In the Soviet Union. Jesus Christ. Oh. I hate heights. Alright, we’re at the top.
We have reached the top, and we’re on our way back down.
So, I have a question for you guys. How has the war in
Ukraine affected life here? Because you guys are under
sanctions from the West just like Russia, right? Yeah, for economic, it’s
hard for us, because we take, uh, stuff like food, uh… Clothes… Clothes, from
Ukraine and Moldova. But now, it’s an economic
war. It’s hard for us. There are some problems
for export. Yeah, problems for export, import… You can’t import,
can’t export… Only from Russia? Yeah. Yesterday, uh, when I met
Vladimir, he was on my bus, and I’m really glad I met him
because he helped me out with a lot of stuff yesterday,
including my money situation, because one of the things
about this war in Ukraine that’s affected Transnistria,
is that international cards don’t work here. So no international credit
cards, no debit cards, ATM cards, none of
that will work here. And I didn’t bring enough
cash, because I just didn’t think ahead. So I didn’t have enough
cash to pay for my hotel. We went to a couple different
banks to see if they could take my visa card to withdraw
from my checking account. Absolutely impossible. You cannot do it
anywhere in Transnistria. So, we ended up having to
drive all the way back across the border to Moldova, stop
at an ATM right across the border, and then come back. Thanks again. Thanks for that. And Max drove us. Thanks bro. Yeah, so it’s a
tricky situation here basically right now. Okay, and we survived. Made it down. Thanks guys, that was
a good surprise. And I lived to tell the tale. Hey, we were talking about
something earlier when we went to the restaurant. Like, you
live in Italy now? Yeah, yeah. And you said when you first
went there you thought it was weird everyone is
smiling at you, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, it’s a
problem for us with Europeans. We don’t understand.
All people are smiling, we don’t understand. We think they’re crazy guys. So in Russia and in
post-Soviet countries, like, people don’t smile unless
they’re actually happy about something, right? Yeah, yeah, only this. We don’t ask you, “How
are you?” if we don’t want to know this question. If you don’t want to
actually know, you don’t ask. Yes. For us, if you find any
Russian friend, it’s a friend for all your life. Vladimir was saying to me
like, yeah, people in the West always think the Russian
people are angry or we’re mad at you because we’re not
smiling all the time, but it’s just a cultural difference.
Like, people here don’t smile unless they’re actually happy.
Whereas in the West, it’s considered polite to smile. Like, you walk into a cafe,
you say, “Hi, how are you?” Here if you do that, they’re
gonna go like, “What’s the matter with you?” Who are you, man? Soviet Union house. Soviet Union house? It’s really nice with the
little flowers around it. Now we’re going
to the Gypsy hood. What did you say? The Gypsy hood. Okay. This now is a little bit
danger- If you’re going for the first time, and going
alone on this street, it’s a little bit dangerous for
you. Oh yeah? Yes. Alright, I’m in good hands though. It’s like a Brazilian favela. Really? Yeah! Alright,
the Transnistrian hood. We don’t take the simple way,
we take only the hard way. Alright. Okay, so what is this place? Is it really like the hood? Yeah, it’s a Gypsy hood. It’s a little bit
of a dangerous street if you weren’t born in this
place and don’t know any guys who are living here… for
you, going alone, for you, a little bit dangerous. Even, for me because
I’m a foreigner, or like even people… For us. For anybody who’s
not born in this… Yeah, yeah, yeah. So even you if you’re alone. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because someone can grab you,
he can take your camera… Okay. You said
Max was born here? Yeah, Max was born in
a dangerous place. He’s a dangerous guy. Yeah,
yeah, yeah, I can tell. So we’re in good hands. Okay, so something I’ve
noticed on every old Soviet apartment block is that… like, every apartment
looks different. They have different type of
windows, they have different color, different, like,
A.C. units, different… Why is that? Like, what… Because people who live in
this place, they’re doing for comfort, for uh… anything
you want. It’s not a problem. So you can just change
your individual unit? Yeah, you want to change
individual, you change. But… if you have
money, you know? So you can see, like, some
people have bricks on theirs, some people have greenish-blue
windows, some people have glass, some
people have wooden… It’s just, it’s a telltale
sign of a communist block apartment building. Just a kind of general
disarray and kind of random smattering of
designs and various upholsteries and things. And you said they used
to give these rooms away, these apartments away to
factory workers and stuff? Yeah, yeah, yeah. For free? Yeah, they would take it in
Soviet Union for free, this place. It’s a dormitory place.
All places have a kitchen, but the kitchen is for same. For the whole floor, shared? For the full floor, yeah. And… Bathroom? Bathroom, yeah. Toilet? No, toilet, and for uh… Shower. Shower, yeah. That’s shared? Yeah, yeah, yeah. They’re sharing? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Soviet playground. Yeah, it looks like
it’s seen better days. You’ve got the slide here, got
this little climbing thing, and some kind of bar. And a swing set! But no swings left,
unfortunately. Boxing. Ah! Boxing gym? This is where Ivan
Drago got his start. Oh, it’s the cat
gathering over there. Oh, hi. Baby Transnistrian kitty. You can smell shit. Oh wow, yeah, it
does smell like shit. This tunnel, danger tunnel.
Oh yeah. That looks like the start of a horror movie. The name of this
river is Sun River. Sun River? Hmm, interesting. Alright. What is this
for? To cross the street? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Wow it looks abandoned.
There’s a whole tree growing right in the
middle of the path here. Wow. Crazy. Just filled with trash and
a lot of liquor bottles and things like that. Oh my gosh. Yeah so,
it’s become just like a trash dump, I think. Wow. Crazy. Woo, we did it! Nice job, team. It’s interesting, you come
just a little bit outside of the center of the
city and it is a very different vibe out here. Very different. Yeah, now it feels like
we’re back to normal. It’s like we just crossed
through a portal, and we’re back to the normal city now. Alright guys, and now
the sun is going down on this incredible day, and
we’ve come to literally the edge of the city. Like right there is just
field, the city just… ends, right here. And there’s a little canal,
and apparently this was the drinking spot when you
guys were teenagers, right? Yeah. So we’ve come out here. Little bit beer,
little bit music. A little beer, a little music. Dark beer. Dark beer? No. Old uh… castle. “Old Castle” Only in post-Soviet
countries you can find these huge bottles of beer, plastic bottles. Very special. And so we’re just hanging out
here as the sun goes down. We’ve actually got a
nice sunset back there, and just enjoying. Thank you guys again for
everything, seriously. Thank you, nice
to meet you bro. A big thank you. Hi! Okay. An amazing time
in Transnistria. You know, I read a lot of kind
of scary stuff on the internet about getting like followed
by their KGB equivalent, and like, they’re gonna be all
over you and suspicious of any foreigners, but I’ve got to be
honest, my personal experience was I had an amazing time and felt very welcomed, met a
ton of really nice people, especially these guys.
And so, yeah, it was a great time. Cheers. Thank you guys for everything. Thank you very much. What does that mean? It’s, “We really appreciate
it, because you just started the drinking.” Oh, thank you. So guys, we’ve come
for a garage party. We’re out here somewhere. I don’t really know. In Tiraspol. We met up with a couple
more friends here, and we’re just in this garage, sitting
around a table, having some drinks and some snacks. A nice Transnistrian evening. Hey, Vladimir, can you
tell me what this is again? It’s Jagermeister
from this country. In Moldova they drink
the German Jagermeister. Yeah, but we make this here. You said Moldova, but
it’s Pridnestrovie? They make it in Transnistria. Oh, okay, okay. Let’s taste it! All right, thank you. Cheers. It’s okay. So this is uh,
Transnistrian Jager. Now you taste it without,
it’s only plain, uh, but we drink with Coca Cola. With Coke, okay. But I want to get
the real flavor. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, cheers. Cheers. Thanks again, guys. Transnistrian Jagermeister. Very good. It doesn’t taste exactly
like Jagermeister, though. It’s a little bit
different, I think. It has some… Some herbs. Yeah, there’s some
herbs in there. I don’t know what the
flavor is, but it’s good. I like it. You guys… We call it Transnistria,
but that is the international name. What do you guys call it? International name
is Transnistria. We call it “Pridnestrovie”.
We call it “Pridnestrovie,” but the international
name is Transnistria. In Russian, it’s Pridnestrovie. So I don’t know why we
call it Transnistria. The real name in here
is Pridnestrovie. Maybe it’s difficult
for us to say… Alrighty guys, and it
is now just after 6 a.m. I’ve been up all night. Made
it back to Chisinau. I’m here in the airport, heading
back to Istanbul momentarily on a 7 a.m. flight. Uh, so that’s going
to be the end of this adventure. It was amazing. I had an amazing time and hope
you guys enjoyed the video. And I just want to give a
huge thanks again to the guys for really making
this experience amazing. i wasn’t expecting to meet
anybody there, and they were just the best. Hopefully I’ll be
back to Transnistria again sometime soon. But other than that, thank
you so much for watching, and I’ll see you in the next one. Bye bye.

24 Hours in Russian Occupied Territory (TRANSNISTRIA)

In this video, I’m venturing to Transnistria, a Russian-backed breakway region that is internationally recognized as a part of Moldova. I grab a bus from Chisinau, Moldova to Transnistria’s capital city of Tiraspol, and explore this strange place to learn more about what life is like here. I also meet up with some local friends and ask them about how their lives have been affected by Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, and more. It’s a one-of-a-kind American adventure in Transnistria.

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