Micronightmares

I’ve written about microstates in the past, noting both the good and the bad. Here’s more of the bad:

Moldova: Breakaway Transdniester To Hold Referendum Amid International Isolation

PRAGUE, September 14, 2005 (RFE/RL)—Moldova’s separatist Transdniester region is due to hold a referendum over the weekend to decide whether it should stay independent in order to join the Russian Federation in the future, or give up independence and reunite with Moldova. The Moldovan authorities have strongly condemned the vote. While the international community has largely shunned the poll, Moscow has not said whether it will recognize the results of the referendum.

Following and perhaps tarnishing the good example set by Montenegro, as predicted, Moldova is trying to run a play from the same book. The questions on the upcoming referendum are

“Do you support the course toward the Dniester Republic’s independence and ensuing future free accession to the Russian Federation?” And “Do you consider it possible that the Dniester Republic give up its independence and then join Moldova?

Making matters worse is the November referendum in Georgia’s breakaway region of South Ossetia (which Chirol plans to visit next year). In response to the Transdniester question, Russia issued a vague response that referendums are “seen in recognized democratic states as an important legal basis for building civil society.” True, and it seems Moscow is hoping that if given enough rope, democracies will hang themselves by recognizing Kosovo and Montenegro but not South Ossetia, Abkhazia, Transdniester, Karbagh etc. clearly hoping to discredit the West and gain ground in its former near abroad. Despite the obvious hypocrisy with regard to Russia’s war against Chechnya, Putin is surely banking on the terrorist issue keeping Western governments from pointing that out.

Montenegro may have set a good example, but that won’t stop others from misusing it. Incidentally, I’d like to note that this case has more to do unfinished structural changes in the former USSR than an international trend such as elsewhere like Great Britain and Spain.