Moldovan kitchen and Asconi winery

May 18, 2023 by Peter Jan Haas in Moldova

There are few traditional Moldovan restaurants in Chişinǎu. For local standards they are not cheap either. I treated myself for dinner in Taifas on Strada București 67, Chișinău. I let the waiter advise me how much to order. I have to say the quality was excellent. The bill came to a little over € 30,00.

The white wine I ordered was a Fautor made from the Feteasca Regala grape, which translates to ‘young royal girl’. Not sure why the Mioritic cheese platter was named after the Romanian Mioritic Shepherd Dog. Possibly because the dog herds sheep and the cheese is made of sheep’s milk.

I ordered the ‘crap ca la Chişinǎu’, which translates to ‘carp prepared the way of Chişinǎu’. The carp is hidden under quite a lot of perfectly steamed, and slightly grilled, vegetables.

Asconi winery

I forgot to book a hotel for the final night (never book your hotels without looking at your return ticket), so I decided to spend the last night at the Asconi winery, just 20 minutes south of the airport. The winery is located in Puhoi, a small village. Population: 5,518 according to the 2014 census. The winery was run by very young staff. Service wasn’t great, there was no option to visit the winery itself or to learn where the grapes were grown. I slept in a blue house, overpriced. But it looked nice and the sun was shining, so I didn’t complain.

It was the first of May and the place was busy with Moldovan guests for the day. For lunch I had two glasses of red wine made from the Rară Neagră grape, which literally means ‘rare black one’. I ordered the seasons vegetables with fresh cheese and pork fat with garlic. The fat was thinly sliced. I once slept at a Romanian farm and they gave me a big chunk of white pork fat for breakfast and a glass of warm milk with milk skin.

Puhoi has hardly any centre to speak of. The ‘park’ looked run down and the logo on the local shop was washed out. For some reason the two glasses of red wine during lunch almost knocked me out cold, so I was forced to take a nap in my blue house.

For the 1 May festivities I ordered grilled pork skewers for dinner and stayed away from red wine, so it had to be a white wine instead. People around me were well dressed for the occasion.

The last morning of my geopolitical trip I woke up to the smell of wood burning. Many Puhoi houses are heated by wood stoves and the smoke filled the valley. I took a morning walk in search of the vineyards. There were a few but the vines were pruned back and it was very early in the growing season. Around nine in the morning I positioned myself next to the road and waited for a bus. After an hour I had succes and a minibus actually stopped.

After being dropped off by the minibus I walked the sunny Strada Aeroport in Chişinău to the airport. The Soviet built Moldova Tupolev Tu-134 on display near the entrance was a fitting last image of my journey.

Gagauzia

May 18, 2023 by Peter Jan Haas in Moldova

Between 1990 and 1994 Gagauzia was an independent republic. The capital Comrat isn’t much bigger than 20.000 inhabitants. The city is home to the Gagauz people. The historical origin of the Gagauz people is not clear. They may be descendants of Turkic nomadic tribes, they could be Turkified Bulgarians or they are of Greek origin keeping their Greek Orthodox religion but linguistically assimilated. What is clear is that the Russian Empire allocated land to the Gagauz in a region of Bessarabia, which lies now within Moldavian borders.

Even today, in Gagauzia Russian is predominantly spoken. Schools are Russian language schools. Everything is in Russian. Gagauz is only spoken by a few Gagauz. The ties with Russia are strong. Many people only consume Russian news sources.

Arriving in Comrat feels like arriving in a dusty Western town. It’s worlds apart from the capital Chișinău. As the capital of the Autonomous Territorial Unit of Gagauzia the town has a lively market and many shops selling agricultural and building machines. It is an excellent place to buy a concrete mixer or a wheelbarrow, if you need one.

**Gagauz Republic 1990–1994.** **Map of the territory claimed by the Gagauz Republic. It did not control all of these lands.**

When I arrived in Comrat it was just a few weeks before elections for governor of Gagauzia on 30 April 2023. The pro-Russian candidate for the Șor Party, Evghenia Gutul, won the second round of voting on 14 May. The Șor Party is led by the fugitive oligarch Ilan Shor. He was convicted of stealing $1 billion from the banking system between 2012 and 2014. The Russian President Vladimir Putin promised free gasoline, so it is not surprising a pro-Russian candidate is now governor of Gagauzia.

Below an election billboard of bearded Grigorii Uzun supported by the Socialist Party. He was leading the polls but he lost in the second round with 47.66% of the vote against Gutul who received 52.34%.

Comrat is so small I had trouble finding a restaurant for lunch. There was practically nothing open, apart from a kebab stall on the street and many places just serving coffee and plăcintă-like pastry. In the end I googled a tiny place off the main street. I found some identity papers just in front of the restaurant so I handed them to the girl behind the counter. When I was eating my chicken soup, a man walked in and before I could react, he slapped a 50 lei banknote (€ 2,60) on my table and walked out.

I was puzzled and I asked the girl why the unknown man gave me a 50 lei note. She said it was a reward for handing over his identity card. Apparently she had called the man. I tried to give the 50 lei to the girl with the request to give it to somebody who needs it, but she refused. In the end I used Google Translate to tell her I would donate it myself to somebody on the street.

After lunch I coulnd’t figure out what to do in Comrat. After just a few hours I had walked every street. 93% of Gagauz adhere to Eastern Orthodox Christianity. The bright yellow Saint John the Baptist Cathedral in Comrat lies next to a pleasant park. The cathedral was either built in 1820 or 1840. During Soviet times it was closed and ceased to function as a church until it was reopened after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The cathedral is probably the only tourist attractions in Comrat, unless you want to purchase a concrete mixer.

Pridnestrovie - Tiraspol

May 18, 2023 by Peter Jan Haas in Moldova

The day after my first visit to Pridnestrovie, I took a bus back to Tiraspol, the de facto capital of Transnistria. I wanted to spend more time in the country to soak up the atmosphere, this time by myself in a slow pace. To get an idea of the size of the city, as of 2015 Tiraspol had a population of 133,807.

The bus dropped me off at the Green Market in Tiraspol, painted in a strange green hue. It is a modern food shopping center combined with a farmer’s market. All I could buy was a small (recycled) jar of pickled chili peppers, to bring home to Amsterdam. I wish I could have stuffed my luggage full of fresh cheeses.

Don’t just buy tomatoes, buy tomato plants. The economy is not great in Transnistria. Many people grow vegetables at home to make ends meet. But its economy witnessed a seismic shift because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. On February 28, 2022 Ukraine closed its border checkpoints on the Transnistrian part of the Moldovan-Ukrainian border.

As of late 2022 Transnistria exported 76 percent of its goods to Moldovan and EU markets. The Russian-Ukrainian conflict has driven Transnistria further away from Russkiy mir. There now is full integration of Transnistrian trade into the legal framework of Moldova. This also means goods produced in Transnistria can be labelled ‘Made in Moldova’.

Inside the market are countless fresh cheeses.

I tried to find similar cheeses in Amsterdam but so far, I didn’t. These fresh cheeses are great.

City marketing: Тирасполь Только лучшее … Tiraspol Only the best…

Diplomatic ties

Below the representative offices of the Republic of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The Republic of Artsakh also recognises Pridnestrovie, but has no representative office.

Transnistria parliament building in Tiraspol. The statue depicts Vladimir Lenin.

Shrinking Pridnestrovie

The population of Transnistria has shrunk from 706,300 in 1990 to about 475,665 in 2015 when the last census was held. In 2015 27,7% of the population was above working age, almost one third of the population are pensioners. In 2012 there were 0.75 workers per one pensioner. The pensions are supplemented by Russia. There is plenty of Soviet nostalgia in Tiraspol.

Most cars in Transnistria are modern cars. But this "Moskvich" Москвич / АЗЛК 2138 from 1976 (?) looks very well preserved.

War memorials

In the center of Tiraspol there is a rather large war memorial commemorating several wars. Not easy to overlook is the World War 2 era T-34-85 Soviet tank with the text За Родину! For the Motherland!

In 1979 the Soviet Union was slowly sucked into a war in Afghanistan to support the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (DRA) against the Mujahideen. Roughly 15.000 Soviet soldiers died during the 10 year conflict. Compare that to the casualties in the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The latest estimate is roughly 200.000 casualties in one year’s time! And that is just Russian soldiers.

The memorial also commemorates the Transnistria War of 1990 to 1992.

Catherine Park

The survival of Transnistria has depended on subsidies from the Kremlin. According to estimates about 70 percent of the state budget was provided by Russia. But by 2015 aid from Russia was diminishing. Even so, in 2018 a brand new Catherine Park was openend in Tiraspol. Catherine the Great famously annexed the Crimean Khanate in 1783. The Russian Federation annexed Crimea in March 2014.

The symbolism of opening a Catherine the Great Park is obvious. In the 1926 census only 13.7% of the region was ethnically Russian. According to the 1989 census 25.5% of the population of Transnistria was Russian, 28.3% Ukrainian and 39.9% Romanian. In 2015 the percentage of ethnic Russians was 33.8%.

Transnistrian ruble

Below is the 2006 building of the Transnistrian Republican Bank. The central bank issues the Transnistrian ruble (PRB). This currency has no ISO 4217 code and cannot participate in any card processing network. The currency however is fully convertible and via a 1997-Memorandum is recognised internationally as a national central bank.

Between the Sheriff FC football station and Tiraspol’s centre, a Russian Army base is situated, right on the main road. When I walked past the base, workers were repainting the unofficial, only used for marketing purposes, logo of the Russian Army on the walls of the base in fresh paint. I am not sure this was done in preparation for the 9th of May Victory Day.

One of the stranger souvenirs I bought in Tiraspol is a Putin refrigerator magnet with the following quote made by Putin: “Why do we need a world, if Russia is not in it?”.

“Зачем нам такой мир, если там не будет России?”

— Vladimir Putin in the film World Order 2018 by Vladimir Solovyov

**Monument to Aviators: MiG-19 fighter.** Postcard sent from Tiraspol to The Netherlands.

Sheriff (Шериф) rules the town

The local oligarch is the Moldovan–Russian businessman and former KGB officer Viktor Gushan. His holding company is called Sheriff and, according to Wikipedia, owns a chain of petrol stations, a chain of supermarkets, a TV channel, a publishing house, a construction company, a Mercedes-Benz dealer, an advertising agency, a spirits factory, two bread factories, a mobile phone network, the football club FC Sheriff Tiraspol and Sheriff Stadium, a project which also included a five-star hotel.

I am not a football fan, so I missed the news. But in 2021 FC Sheriff Tiraspol won against Real Madrid in the Champions League, which apparently stunned the football world and had everyone scramble for a map to look up Tiraspol.

Transnistria’s origin is the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Empires tend to fall slow. Its first president Igor Smirnov (1991 - 2011) was in favour of a Russian annexation of Transnistria, but failed to do so during his presidency. After the annexation of Crimea new plans were made to facilitate a future annexation of Transnistria by Russia. This could have triggered an armed conflict with Moldova, like the War in Donbas (2014–2022).

The current president of Transnistria (since 2016) is Vadim Krasnoselsky who has expressed his pro-Russian sentiments on many occasions. He was supported by the Sheriff conglomerate and received 62% of the vote. Because Transnistria is so dependant on Russian money, any leader has to be pro-Russian or risk cuts in pensions and salaries of state-employees. In 2019 Krasnoselsky attended a ceremony when Russian minister of defence Sergei Shoigu visited the Operational Group of Russian Forces in Transnistria.

But with the Russian invasion of Ukraine the future of Transnistria might be geared towards the EU. After Putin’s defeat in Ukraine I would not be surprised if, in time, Transnistria became an autonomous territorial unit in Moldova like Gagauzia.

Photo Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation. Attribution: Mil.ru.

Further reading: The Economic Prospects of the Transnistrian Peace Settlement after the Russian Invasion of Ukraine

Chișinău

April 26, 2023 by Peter Jan Haas in Moldova

A springtime journey across the geopolitical fault lines of Europe. After the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic (1940–1991) ceased to exist, the republic fell apart in the Republic of Moldova, Pridnestrovian Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic (1990 - present) and the Gagauz Republic (1990-1994).

I landed at Aeroportul Internațional Chișinău on 26 April. I simply choose this destination to make the list of countries I have visited more complete. Besides, I visited Romania in the early 1990s several times and I always wanted to visit the region again. The city bus tickets were still being sold by, sometimes very frail, women pensioners, at 6 lei per ticket (30 eurocents). Chișinău as a city is a pleasant surprise.

Between 1918–1940 Chișinău was the second largest city in the Kingdom of Romania. The city underwent vast renovation during that time. Even so, some of the current architecture still resembles that of a small village. Few cities I have visited have such an eclectic architecture, not to be confused with eclecticism. Within minutes you’ll walk by buildings from the belle époque, tiny crumbling village houses, 1980s Soviet buildings and buildings so new, the paint is still wet.

The building below was built between 1901 and 1903, so during the time Chișinău was the capital of oblast Bessarabia of the Russian Empire. 1903 was also the year of the Kishinev pogrom.

Strada Vasile Alecsandri, across my hotel. Some old photos depict synagogues, possibly destroyed during the pogroms of 1903 and 1905.

‘Russian Plan’ to Regain Control of Moldova

In the months before my journey it became clear that Russia had drawn up plans to destabilise Moldova. In a document that appears to have been written in 2021 by the FSB’s Directorate for Cross-Border Cooperation, a 10-year strategy is documented to bring Moldova back under the influence of Russia and away from the EU. Russia claims the document is a fake.

Even worse, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy revealed that Russia was planning a coup d'etat. The plot involves forcing a change of power in Chișinău “through violent actions disguised as protests of the so-called opposition,” using Russian, Belarusian, Serbian and Montenegrin citizens, according to Moldova’s president Maia Sandu on February 13. Consequently a Montenegrin boxing team and Serbian soccer fans were barred from entering Moldova.

Moldova is, after Ukraine, the second poorest country in Europe. The city center has its fair share of high fashion streets. Some residents supplement their income by selling home grown or home made products on the street. The average net salary is € 443 per month.

Intersection Strada Vasile Alecsandri and Stefan cel Mare si Sfant Boulevard, Chișinău

Chişinău bus station Gara Centrala: the central bus station was a ten minute walk from my hotel. Practically all buses in Moldova are mini-buses. Even when I didn’t need to catch a bus I still went to Gara Centrala for breakfast: a black coffee and a plăcintă, filled with cartof (potato) or brânză (cheese). I love hanging around busy bus stations.

A bus to Bendery (Бендеры) in Transnistria, with Transnistrian number plates.

Soviet Chișinău

Many housing projects were built in the Soviet era. Some Chișinău Soviet buildings are beautiful brutalist examples of an era gone by, most buildings are quite standard apartment blocks. The spaces between the buildings are green and generally devoid of car traffic. It is difficult for me to asses the exact age of these buildings. During the 1964-1982 Breznjev years, 5% of the building cost was spent on art, usually mosaics depicting idealised Soviet citizens. But most apartment blocks are examples of post-Stalin Soviet functionalism devoid of any ornaments.

House-Museum of A.S. Pushkin

The Russian poet Alexander Pushkin spent a few months in Chișinău, of three years in Bessarabia, after being exiled by Alexander I of Russia when writing some incendiary poems. The small house where Pushkin stayed is now a museum. At the time Bessarabia was province of the Russian Empire. Being used to his life in Saint Petersburg, Pushkin reportedly hated his time in provincial Chișinău. It was Pushkin who first renamed Sankt-Peterburg to Petrograd in one of his poems.

“Самовластительный Злодей!
Тебя, твой трон я ненавижу,
Твою погибель, смерть детей
С жестокой радостию вижу.

You autocratic psychopath,
You and your throne do I despise!
I watch your doom, your children’s death
With hateful, jubilating eyes. ”

— Alexander Pushkin, Ode to Liberty

Molda Restaurant

Ciorbă din costițe de porc. The first evening I had dinner in restaurant Molda, not far from my hotel. This soup with pork ribs was excellent. As a main course I had lepure în sos de frișcă, stewed rabbit in cream sauce. The pickled peppers in Moldova are better than anywhere else.

Cricova

Close to Chişinău are countless old 15th century limestone mines. The limestone was used to built the city. After the mines were retired, the caves provided the perfect conditions for wine storage. In Cricova a grid of caves, more than 120 kilometer in length, 60 to 100 meters deep, houses 1.3 million bottles of wine. According to a 2020 Forbes article the wine cellar kept Vladimir Putin’s wine, who celebrated his 50th birthday in Cricova. I was intrigued. Cricova is a popular day trip from Chişinău. A city bus reaches the village.

Of course in 2023 the photo of Putin was removed from the world map of world leaders who have visited Cricova. I was told that every world leader who visits the cellar receives space to keep 500 bottles of wine. Volodymyr Zelensky has visited the wine cellar. His photo is among dozens of other leaders.

I arrived unannounced so I had to take the tour in the Romanian language. You cannot visit the caves unsupervised. The guide did translate some in English on my behalf. In the caves a number of dining rooms are furnished for important guests and for wine tasting. Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin visited the The European Hall. Other dining and tasting halls are the Presidential dining hall, Sea Bottom tasting hall and the Fireplace Room.

A small part of the million plus wine bottles.

I found an image online of Putin’s former wine collection at Cricova.

Cricova winery also produces sparkling wine according to classical French method, by secondary fermentation in bottles. The bottles are horizontal position for at least 3 years. The production facility of sparkling wines is also located in the caves. I took a few photo’s before I was told that I shouldn’t photograph the production. There is also a factory located a few kilometers from the caves and I assume most of the production is done in the factory.

Of course I had to order a glass of red Cricova – nomen est omen – wine made from the rară neagră grape, 150 ml for 36 lei (1,83 euro). This grape is also known as băbească neagră. It is a late-ripening variety that gives red wines a light-bodied, fruity character. This is what I prefer in a red wine and this particular wine was very good.

On the banks of the river the limestone is visible.

Unification of Moldova and Romania

For some people the idea of a unified Moldova and Romania is still alive. The text in black says: “Moldavian, therefor Rumanian.” Somebody crossed out “Rumanian” and sprayed the word “Daci”. This refers to the Dacian Kingdom of 88 BC to 106 AD. It was explained to me that the message was simply that Moldova should stay independent. It is an anti-unionist message in red spray paint.