ambassador rudolf v. perina - Association for Diplomatic Studies and ...

shorter visits of three to four weeks under the International Visitor Program. I am a great
believer in exchange programs. Many of our participants had never been to the West, and
had never imagined they would visit the United States. For so many of the Moldovans
who participated, it seemed to be a life-changing event. I had one idea to send a group of
local museum directors to the United States to see how museums are run. They came
back astounded. It was very gratifying to be able to do this for people.
Q: But you send Moldovans to the United States, the world opens up, and it is hard to go
home. How did you handle that?
PERINA: True, this is often a problem, particularly with students and younger people.
They see the limited opportunities for themselves in Moldova, and it is difficult to go
back. But it was less of a problem for the older, professional people we sent. They had
families in Moldova, established homes, and usually a much weaker command of English
than the young people. For the most part, they did not want to start over in another
country. Most of the Moldovans trying to go abroad were either young students or
unskilled workers who went to Russia and Western Europe to earn money that they could
send home. This was a serious problem. Some rural villages were almost empty of
working-age men. Children were growing up without their fathers in the household. On
the other hand, it did bring money and hard currency into the country and helped a lot of
families survive difficult times.
The economy was in bad straits, and still is. The per capita income in my time was
between $50 and $100 per month. It was very hard to measure and in fact may have been
higher because there was such an enormous black or underground economy by people
who did not declare their income in order to avoid taxes. This then meant the government
did not have money for pensions, schools and social programs. Pensioners were
particularly hard hit. You know, Moldova was the republic with the most moderate
climate in the Soviet Union. As a result of this, many pensioners went there to retire,
especially military pensioners who had weak ties to any other place. In this respect, it was
a bit like the Florida of the Soviet Union. Well, when the Soviet Union fell apart,
suddenly the new Moldovan government had responsibility for all of these pensioners
who had previously gotten their pensions from Moscow. Imagine if Florida suddenly
became responsible for all the social security payments there. It was one of the many
problems Moldova faced and one of the many complications from the dissolution of the
Soviet Union.
Q: How was the Embassy involved in dealing with the Transnistrian issue? Was
Transnistria just a separate world or what?
PERINA: We did quite a bit. I did not participate in the mediation negotiations since the
U.S. was not one of the three mediators. That was done by the American who headed the
OSCE Mission. But we in the Embassy were active in other ways. I had a lot of
discussions with the two presidents, Lucinschi and Voronin, on policy toward
Transnistria. I also tried to be more active within Transnistria. In particular, I initiated a
dialogue with the Transnistrian so-called President, Igor Smirnov. We had not engaged
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