Well as I said at Talk:Transnistria, I'll be happy to unblock after three days (which would be the same as the previous edit war block) if I think the page is getting nowhere; I've also said that if people really belive this is being harsh, then I won't revert an unblock.
But 'leniency' is the way I'm looking at this. I'm not blocking M/M to punish them; I'm blcoking them and unprotecting Transnistria to give it some time open without their influence. Maybe it'll just go stale and not develop; in which case I'll be happy to unblock. But protection simply hasn't been working on that page.