The Paradoxes of Moldovan Sports. An insight into the nature of the Transnistrian conflict
The Paradoxes of Moldovan Sports. An insight into the nature of the Transnistrian conflict

Author(s): Adam Eberhardt
Contributor(s): Anna Łabuszewska (Editor), Katarzyna Kazimierska (Editor), Ilona Duchnowicz (Translator)
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, Politics, History, Social Sciences, Sociology, Political history, Recent History (1900 till today), Government/Political systems, International relations/trade, Transformation Period (1990 - 2010), Sports Studies, Sociology of Politics, Geopolitics, Peace and Conflict Studies
Published by: OSW Ośrodek Studiów Wschodnich im. Marka Karpia
Keywords: Moldova; Transnistrian conflict; political system; 1990s; political history; Moldovan sports; national sports teams;
Summary/Abstract: The military conflict in the early 1990s split Moldova into two; thus Transnistria, which was set up on the eastern bank of the Dniester river as a se - parate state, remains unrecognised by the international community to date. This breakaway province has grown stronger, as today it possesses almost all the internal attributes of statehood, including an effective political system, an army and its own currency. The memory of the 1992 conflict, in which around one thousand people were killed, is the founding myth of Transnistria, and hostility towards Moldova has been used by the political elite in Tiraspol as a foundation of the state ideology and a key propaganda tool. The Transnistrian problem is usually seen as analogous to a few other separatist conflicts which broke out twenty years ago as a consequence of the fall of the Soviet empire and have not yet been resolved in a manner which would satisfy all the parties involved and also gain support from the major international actors. However, the Transnistrian conflict is clear - ly different in its nature from the conflicts in Abkhazia, South Ossetia or Nagorno-Karabakh. Relations between Moldova proper and this breakaway province cannot be described by simple definitions or seemingly obvious analogies.

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