Vadim Krasnoselsky, the leader of Moldova’s unrecognized breakaway Transnistria region, will be banned from leaving Moldova for the next five years, Newsmaker reports, citing the country’s Bureau for Reintegration Policies. The day before, Krasnoselsky received the Order of Honor from Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin, where the Transnistrian leader closed his acceptance speech with the phrase “the Russian World is life.”
As the Moldovan Bureau for Reintegration Policies stated:
“This is a Russian provocation aimed at hindering Moldova’s European integration. We condemn Russia’s actions and will consider possible responses without escalating the situation, given that Russia’s intentions to destabilize Moldova are of a permanent nature. Upon his return, we will apply restrictive measures to Krasnoselsky, including a five-year ban on leaving the country’s territory.”
The Bureau also noted that Krasnoselsky had officially traveled to Russia as part of OSCE-facilitated discussions on supplying Transnistria with natural gas. The agency stressed:
“The problems of gas supply for residents of the left bank of the Dniester and the efforts of the OSCE remain extremely important for the pragmatic management of the situation and the prevention of escalating tensions, as well as for increasing trust between the two banks of the Dniester in order to ensure a sustainable process of reintegration of the Transnistrian region.”
In the awards ceremony video published by the Kremlin, Krasnoselsky is referred to as “president of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic,” even though Moscow does not officially recognize the region’s independence. After receiving the award, the Transnistrian leader expressed gratitude to Putin and Russia. Among other things, he thanked the Russian president on behalf of “the Transnistrian people for peace and for Russia’s peacekeeping mission on the Dniester,” saying:
“On behalf of the people of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic and personally, I congratulate you on National Unity Day. Transnistria is undoubtedly part of the Russian World. When I speak of the Russian World, I speak and think of the Russian civilizational space. We are part of the great Motherland, and it is not our fault that we ended up far away, unfortunately. Nevertheless, we have fully harmonized our legislation with Russia, and all our education standards are entirely Russian. Thanks to your support, graduates of our schools and universities receive Russian certificates and diplomas. In addition, thanks to your support, all the books, specifically Russian books, for our schools have been printed in a timely way. Thank you very much. Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich, if you ask any citizen of Transnistria what the Russian World means to them, they will say quite simply: the Russian World is life.”
As the Moldovan human rights association Promo-LEX has reported, starting in 2027 the Transnistrian authorities intend to introduce the use of Russian history textbooks that were composed under the direction of Russian presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky. The measure will apply to schools in the region where Ukrainian is the language of instruction. Officials in Tiraspol have said that using Ukrainian textbooks is impossible “for ideological reasons.” In Russian history textbooks, Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine is called a “special military operation,” and the occupied territories are called “new regions.”
Newsmaker writes that Krasnoselsky’s second term as president of Transnistria expires in December 2026. Among his possible successors is Vitaly Nyaga, head of the Tiraspol executive committee. His potential rival in the regional election race is local lawmaker Vadim Kravchuk, whom Moldovan President Maia Sandu earlier stripped of Moldovan citizenship.
