By Galina Korol | 2025-02-19

KYIV -- A new bill proposed by breakaway Transnistria's self-proclaimed prosecutor general, Anatoly Guretsky, could make the region even more similar to Vladimir Putin's Russia.

The bill, if enacted, would mandate harsh penalties for collecting and transmitting information, making every resident of Transnistria vulnerable to prosecution for espionage.

A contingent of about 1,000 Russian troops has kept the pro-Kremlin region out of Moldova's control since 1992.

Now, Transnistria is taking another step towards total control over its citizens with the help of the new initiative.

'A repressive law'

Guretsky on January 23 proposed the bill to Tiraspol's self-proclaimed parliament, calling to criminalize the collection, storage and transfer of personal data or "secret" information to citizens, organizations and foreign authorities, according to the NGO Promo-LEX.

The bill stipulates fines ranging from $1,800 to $2,700, imprisonment for up to 8 years, and in the case of participation in an "organized group" -- fines up to $3,150 and up to 10 years in prison.

"This new initiative is to tighten the screws even further, so that any transfer of data would be a crime," Promo-LEX lawyer and director Vadim Vieru told Kontur.

If the so-called "authorities" consider information undesirable, they could theoretically punish anyone -- someone who runs a blog, publishes news about the region, administers websites and social networks, or uses platforms to transfer information outside the region.

"For example, if someone sends an ordinary letter saying that the KGB office is located at 15 Karl Liebknecht Street -- which is public information -- then under the initiative, this person could now be prosecuted," said Vieru.

The bill's vague phrasing, leaving it subject to broad interpretation, is its greatest danger.

Any news story about corruption or abuse or even just mentioning the activities of local officials could qualify as a leak of "classified information," said Alexandru Bot, a specialist in justice and law with WatchDog.MD.

"They just want to silence certain voices there that could hinder local authorities, so this new law is being invented," Bot told Kontur. "Basically, it is a repressive law."

Living in fear

The Transnistrian authorities want to intimidate the public as much as possible, said Gennady Chorba, chairman of the "Transnistria Is Our Common Home" movement, a human rights activist and former Transnistrian minister of communications and mass media (2013-2015).

In 2020, Tiraspol's rulers arrested him for criticizing their actions.

"They pinned two statutes on me: public calls to extremism, and the second statute -- which they applied to me retroactively -- publicly insulting the president," Chorba told Kontur.

Chorba spent 13 months in jail before and during trial. The self-styled Transnistria Supreme Court then put him on probation for three years and three months.

However, even a trumped-up trial and imprisonment did not silence the activist.

"The mentality of the regime in Transnistria is the mentality of bandits from the 1990s," said Chorba.

"And the fear that [residents] living here have -- you have to feel it. It can't be explained in words," he said. "People are afraid to look at someone sideways once too often or to say something even under a blanket in the kitchen."

But social tension and discontent in the region are growing. And the energy crisis that Moscow created -- in which Transnistria lost access to Russian natural gas but rejected solutions by Moldova and Ukraine -- is only accelerating these processes.

"Many [Transnistrians] are currently unhappy that there is no gas," said Vieru. "This [was] resolved for 10 days, until February 10. But we don't know what will happen next. And Russia's method is to use the maximum number of tools of repression to frighten the public and keep it tense."

Guretsky's bill reflects "the fear of many Transnistrian officials," said Chorba.

"Given the present hatred that most of the population feels towards them, their personal data could ultimately be made public and subsequently be used to hold them accountable for crimes under the Moldovan Criminal Code," he said.

Chorba sees "a kind of agony in this bill."

"They realize that ... the Transnistria project is starting to come to an end, and, accordingly, questions about their activities and holding them accountable for the crimes they have committed are getting closer and closer," he said.

Copying Russian repression

Transnistria's rulers are using scripts written by the Kremlin.

"The bill copies similar actions taken earlier in Russia," said Bot.

He cited various "measures to fight independent journalists, human rights activists and any voices critical of the government" that Moscow has instituted over many years.

The explanatory note attached to the bill explicitly speaks of reconciling Transnistrian and Russian laws, observers note.

It is not the first attempt by Tiraspol to suppress the rights of Transnistrians.

"Literally three years ago, before the war [in Ukraine], [Guretsky] put forward an initiative to prosecute people for appealing to the Moldovan prosecutor's office, the European Court of Justice and international organizations," said Vieru.

"In other words, if you live in Transnistria and you ... send a complaint to the Moldovan prosecutor's office or to the Moldovan courts to say that an offense was committed against you, then a criminal case could be formally initiated against you on these grounds."

"And unfortunately, it [the older initiative] is in effect," said Vieru. "[Transnistrians] are already afraid to contact the Moldovan prosecutor's office. They are afraid to contact international organizations, knowing that they may be prosecuted."

The latest gambit by Tiraspol's security agencies did not go unnoticed in Chisinau.

Moldova's Bureau for Reintegration Policies said it was sending a formal complaint to Tiraspol "with a request to immediately revoke this illegal and offensive initiative and ensure the observance of human rights in accordance with the national laws in effect and the norms of international law," TVR MOLDOVA reported February 4.