Transnistria Makes Own Cryptocurrency, Possible Front for Arms Deals

After Transnistria's announcement that it would create a cryptocurrency of its own, a source spoke to us and said that it could be used for the breakaway region's arms deals.

During the little-known Sixth Pridnestrovian International Investment Economic Forum in the Republic Palace of Tiraspol in the breakaway Moldovan region of Transnistria, the idea of a sovereign cryptocurrency was circulated that could provide the territory with some advantages.

Among those, according to the CEO of the Transnistrian “state-owned” company Tehnopark, Veaceslav Cernikevici, is the ability to quickly create supplementary income in the state’s budget using plans to “raise the consumption of energy through special equipments [sic] up to 20-25 megawatts per hour by the beginning of 2019.”

"There are now seven farms in Râbnița, Bender and Tiraspol. Among the investors are seven foreign residents of the free economic zone and two locals. 32 new jobs were created. We use 3.7 megawatts per hour. This is not much, but when you see how much money and effort you invest in their development, this is a serious sum for six months. The first ‘cent’ of this program arrived in the budget in May this year," he said.

Transnistria broke away unofficially from the Republic of Moldova in 1990, creating a state known as Republica Moldovenească Nistreană (called Pridnestrovie by Russia). Together with Russian troops, the region entered an armed conflict with Moldova that has been going on since 1992.

Today, both Transnistria and the Republic of Moldova are under a tense and ongoing ceasefire, as the country does not recognize the independence of its region. Only Abkhazia, Artsakh, and South Ossetia—all breakaway regions of their own and two of them supported directly by Russia—recognize its sovereignty.

Russia itself does not officially recognize the region’s sovereignty, but it has sent delegations to Tiraspol and Dmitri Medvedev publicly supported “special status” for the area.

All of this leads us to an anonymous source close to Transnistrian politics who spoke to Cryptovest on the condition of guaranteed anonymity. He implied that Russia might be fueling Transnistria’s ambitions to make its own sovereign cryptocurrency, pointing out that oligarchs close to Igor Dodon, Moldova’s pro-Russian president, want to invest heavily in the region and sway it in their direction.

"I think you should pay attention to arms and drug purchases, and also conversions [of the cryptocurrency], because I guarantee that Russia is all over this… They need to get equipment closer to Europe. How else can they do this than make purchases in a coin that nobody can track?" he told us.

Our efforts to contact the organizers of the Pridnestrovian International Investment Economic Forum have failed, but we would like them to know that we are more than willing to speak with them should they contact us.

If there are arms deals pending in Transnistria, this would have a strong impact on the geopolitical stability in the regions surrounding it, including Ukraine, Moldova, and Romania.