A slick Putinist screw-job from Moldova: the Kremlin decorated him, Chișinău won't let him leave for five years
Vadim Krasnoselsky traveled to Moscow during negotiations over winter gas supplies, where Putin pinned the Russian Order of Honor on his chest. The Moldovan government announced the next day that the leader of the breakaway Transnistria region could come home, but he would be barred for five years from leaving Moldova. With that, Chișinău took away his most convenient excuse for staying in Moscow.
According to Moldova's Bureau for Reintegration, Krasnoselsky was able to leave from Chișinău airport as part of gas talks mediated by the OSCE. On November 4 he then appeared in a Kremlin video, where Putin introduced him as "president of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic" and decorated him for strengthening ties with Russia. Moscow still does not officially recognize the breakaway republic, but in the ceremonial hall that small detail was overlooked for a few minutes. Krasnoselsky, for his part, declared that the region is undoubtedly part of the Russian world.
According to Moldovan Prime Minister Vasile Tofan, the Kremlin was precisely counting on Chișinău, in its anger, banning the breakaway leader. That way Krasnoselsky — who, Tofan suspects, would stay in Russia with his family anyway — could even have claimed that he would gladly go home, if only the Moldovans would let him. Instead, Tofan called him back to Tiraspol to enjoy the fruits of the system he ran for ten years, with the added detail that he won't be able to set foot in Moldova for five years — meaning he can't go anywhere from Tiraspol, unless he decides to take a detour through Ukraine, which wouldn't exactly be the best idea for his health.
Among those fruits used to be Russian gas, for which Tiraspol never paid; the Cuciurgan power plant generated electricity from it and even sold some across to the right bank of the Dniester. But that came to an end in early 2025, when Gazprom halted deliveries and homes in the region were left without heating. The gas has since returned, only by a completely different route. It is bought on the European market, brokered by Hungary's MET Group, and financed by Moscow. The current supply is secured through the end of the year; from January it's uncertain again.
Russian Ambassador Oleg Ozerov expressed bafflement on Friday at the Moldovan reaction, saying that Maia Sandu too has received foreign decorations before. According to a European Commission spokesperson, however, the Moscow gesture is part of a Russian strategy aimed at keeping Moldova divided. Krasnoselsky's second term expires in December, and he can no longer run again in the December 13 election, which Chișinău does not recognize. He can take the Order of Honor home with him — but if he chooses to stay in Moscow instead, it will now be up to him to explain that in Tiraspol.
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