During the spring of 2008 positive images of Russia dominated the media worldwide. So much was coming from Russia that was postive, and I think I’m far from alone when I honestly say that it makes me feel sad to see everything change so drastically. Beacuse of a war. And I can’t ignore this war – I’m going back to Russia in less than three weeks – I’ll have to go right through it. It doesn’t matter “who” started it. What matters is that this war very fast changed how Russia is percieved in the world today. It took many years for the country to work itself up to getting all that good ‘pr’ it got during this year. And now it will take even longer to get it back. The picture above I found in a post called “Ossetia” on EnglishRussia. (The pictures posted there are originally from a site with the name “Альманах: Искусство войны“ [Almanac: The Art of War]). It caught my attention because the banner in it contained the sentence “Год приднестровья в Южной Осетии” [The Year of transdniestria in South Ossetia]. I had never come across the word приднестровье before, let alone the English translation of it. What does transdniestra mean? Of course my first reaction was to run as fast as I could to wikipedia, which explained it to me in the following terms: “Transnistria, also known as Trans-Dniester, Transdniestria, and Pridnestrovie (full name: Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic), is a breakaway republic within the internationally recognised borders of Moldova, with the official status of an autonomous territory.” The Russian version of the article is pretty much the same. And I guess there is no need for me to elaborate on why this banner is hanging between trees across a street in South Ossetia.
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I spent a couple of months in Republic of Moldova last year. Here is my understanding of Transdniestra. When the Soviet Union broke up, Russian oligarchs (persons of power) retained control of certain strategic areas. In Moldova, it is Transdniestra (a strip along the important Dniestra river, hence the name). This group controls all the (electric and gas) power, strategic industries and Moldova’s access to the sea. Many believe the persons who control this area do and have worked in concert with the KGB. Many ethnic Russians also live here and are not associated with the corrupt persons in power, but rather are manipulated by them. This is my observation of the situation and I experienced similar impressions in Ukraine as well. I have had such positive and warm experiences with Russian people, it saddens me that these situations exist, but honesty compels me to describe what I have seen.
Хотя еще полностью непонятно, что там происходит, но на 100% могу сказать, что это не в лучшую сторону!
But, doesn’t everyone see?? America tries to dominate the whole world and they hope to do this by gaining control of the resources, hence they send agitators into these other countries, fix elections, seize control under the euphemism “Regime Change”, then place their government puppets to do their bidding. The ordinary citizens are never benefit in any way, in fact they are made poorer. There is no doubt that the Georgian war and the sudden antagonistic behaviour of Ukraine is USA fuelled and this scenario is repaeted throughout the world. Ominously, the USA attempts to implicate the EU countries to do their dirty work for them and unfortunately in some cases has already succeeded! Just remember what happened to the Red Indians of America!! The few remaining Red Indians are absolutely destitute! Look to the science fiction writers to see what terrible future is most probable if the USA were to succeed. Be warned!