LONDON – Moldovan Deputy Prime Minister Nicu Popescu said the country was facing a “very dangerous new moment” at a press briefing on Thursday following a series of explosions at the Transnistria Ministry of State Security building on Monday. Since then, all institutions in the country have been on high alert, Popescu added.
On Tuesday, two explosions damaged Soviet-era radio masts in the village of Mayak. Prior to the attacks, a Kremlin commander-in-chief said, according to Russian state media, that the Russian armed forces plan to “make the transition” to southern Ukraine to reach the breakaway Transnistrian region of Moldova.
Where is Transnistria?
Transnistria is a narrow strip of land with a length of 248 miles in Moldova, which borders Ukraine and has a population of 470,000. The region is more or less equally divided between Ukrainians, Russians and Moldovans, a former Moldovan ambassador to the United States told the French newspaper L’Illustré. However, the Russians occupy “the highest positions in the administration and form the military and economic elite,” the ambassador said. Transnistria has its own capital, uses its own currency and Russian is the official language. Kobasna, a village in the region, houses a former Soviet and now Russian ammunition depot, the largest in Eastern Europe. According to Moldova’s ambassador to the UN, the landfill contains more than 20,000 metric tons of Russian ammunition.
But what are the region’s relations with Russia?
Although Transnistria is internationally recognized as part of Moldova, it has been controlled by pro-Russian separatist authorities since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1990. Russian forces have been stationed there since 1992, after a ceasefire was signed between Moldova and Transnistria. a brief border war in which up to 700 people died.
The Kremlin is supporting Transnistria’s economy by supplying free gas to local industries and paying the elderly “Putin’s pension,” a total of $ 8 a month. In return, Russia keeps troops there permanently, in what the Kremlin describes as “peacekeeping.” Russia’s state-run media, which is widely available in the region, has also played a significant role in boosting pro-Russian sentiment.
The story continues
In Moldova, as in other countries, Russia is using its energy supplies to exploit dependencies and put pressure on it to adopt Kremlin-friendly policies, Dorina Baltag, a doctoral student at the Institute for Diplomacy and International Governance, told SETimes. Yahoo News. Last year, in October 2021, the Moldovan government was forced to declare a state of emergency after the gas contract with the Russian gas company Gazprom expired this year, and a new contract proposed by Gazprom included a threefold increase in the price. “which the Moldovan government has been unable to pay,” Baltag said. “The agreement with Russia, a good deal the Moldovan government has managed to reach, reveals Moldova’s greatest vulnerability. So for Moldova, energy security is probably the main ingredient for national security.
What has happened in Transnistria since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24?
A Transnistrian serviceman walks past a queue of cars waiting to leave the self-proclaimed Moldovan Republic of Transnistria at the Varnita border crossing with Moldova on April 28th. (Daniel Mihailescu / AFP via Getty Images)
According to L’Illustré, foreign journalists have been barred from entering the territory since the Russian invasion began. Six weeks after the Russian war, authorities in the region announced an attack on a military unit just hours after two radio masts exploded. Moldovan President Maya Sandu has blamed attacks on separatist groups and said her government would oppose “attempts to involve Moldova in actions that could threaten peace in the country”. No casualties were reported, but separatist authorities have raised the level of the terrorist threat in the region.
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has accused Russia of trying to destabilize Moldova by sarcastically comparing the motives for the attacks to what the Kremlin says is the reason for the invasion of Ukraine. “It is alleged that in Moldova, the rights of Russian speakers have been violated,” Zelenski told the nation last Friday. “Although, frankly, the territory in which Russia must take care of the rights of Russian-speakers is Russia itself: where there is no freedom of speech, there is no freedom of choice. Where there is simply no right to disagree. Where poverty flourishes and where human life is useless. “
Will the war spread to Moldova?
Baltag said Moldova’s vulnerability is Transnistria and that the situation depends on the outcome of the war in Ukraine. “The war in Ukraine presents two of the main challenges that Moldova has to deal with: dependence on Russian gas and the Transnistrian breakaway region, supported by the Russian Federation,” she said.
Add Comment