Law enforcement in Transnistria

Transnistria functions as a presidential republic, with its own government, parliament, military, paramilitary and police (militsiya) force, constitution, currency, postal system and stamps, flag, national anthem, and coat of arms.

International recognition of its sovereignty is limited to Abkhazia and South Ossetia (themselves both only partially recognised as sovereign nations) however, and due to the disputed status of Transnistria, it is subject to the security agencies and concerns of other nations, and both Russian and Transnistrian police officers work side by side patrolling the de facto border between Transnistria and Moldova.

Moldovan diplomacy took advantage of the negotiations concerning The Adaptation of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CAF), and managed to ensure that a special paragraph about the removal of Russian troops from Moldova's territory was introduced into the text of the OSCE Summit Declaration of Istanbul (1999), through which Russia had committed itself to pulling out its troops from Transnistria by the end of 2002.

[3] However, even after 2002, Russia continued to ignore the agreements made with the government in Chisinau and with the international community regarding the removal of its troops from Moldova.

[6] Andrei Stratan, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Moldova stated in his speech during the 12th OSCE Ministerial Council Meeting in Sofia on 6 – 7 December 2004 that "The presence of Russian troops on the territory of the Republic of Moldova is against the political will of Moldovan constitutional authorities and defies the unanimously recognized international norms and principles, being qualified by Moldovan authorities as a foreign military occupation illegally deployed on the territory of the state[…]"[4][7] Russia continues to 'sustain the Dniestr region as a quasi-independent entity through direct and indirect means'[8] Through the 1990s the Transnistrian police were involved in a conflict over Romanian-language schools in Transnistria.