Transnistria is a strip of land between the Dniester River in the west and the Moldovan-Ukrainian border in the east. Although UN member states consider this area part of Moldova, since the 1990s, when Russia supported the separatists, it has been an unrecognized state with ties to Moscow, which has stationed a 500-strong “peacekeeping force” in the region.
Among those who fought on the side of the separatists at the time was Igor Vsevolodovich Girkin, a war criminal and later defense minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, known as Igor Ivanovich Strelkov.
We recall that on March 16, 2022, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe adopted a resolution in which it described the territory of the self-proclaimed republic as “Russian-occupied territory” – until then, it had been listed as “under the effective control of the Russian Federation.”
“The leadership of the Russian Federation, through its attitude and actions, poses an open threat to security in Europe and is pursuing a course that also includes an act of military aggression against Moldova and the occupation of its Transnistria region,” the Council of Europe said in its statement.
Elections in Moldova
According to the SVR, the deployment of NATO troops has been rehearsed several times and “could be used after the parliamentary elections in Moldova on September 28.”
The Russian secret service claims that a “gross falsification of the election results” by Brussels and the Moldovan government will drive Moldovan citizens to take to the streets in protest and that President Maia Sandu will use NATO armies against them.
Russian intelligence chief Sergei Naryshkin, with whom MEP Ľuboš Blaha (Smer) met in Moscow in early March, described the regime in Moldova as totalitarian last year, adding that Moldova had followed in Ukraine's footsteps.
According to a press release from the SVR, the deployment of European armies in Moldova is intended to “force Moldovans to accept dictatorship.”
The Russian intelligence service further reports that Brussels allegedly “has no intention of abandoning its plans to occupy Moldova,” even if the election results do not require it—it will simply wait for another pretext, namely the Transnistrian parliamentary elections on November 30.
The SVR report ends with an emotionally charged statement that “the Europeans, fearing direct confrontation with the great Russia, have decided to take revenge on little Moldova. Strengthening oneself at the expense of the weak has always been an integral part of European colonialism.”
Maia Sanduová. Photo: TASR/AP
Chisinau warned earlier
Moldovan Prime Minister Dorin Recean warned back in June that Russia was trying to influence the upcoming parliamentary elections in Moldova in order to install a government that would allow the deployment of 10,000 Russian soldiers. These are to occupy the Transnistria region.
Recean told the Financial Times that Moscow was spending significant resources on propaganda, online disinformation, and the illegal financing of political parties.
“Their propaganda and communication mechanisms are very strong. They spend a lot of money,” he explained.
According to him, the Russian regime spent a sum equivalent to one percent of the country's GDP on influence operations in Moldova last year alone.
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The prime minister also made no secret of his fears regarding a military threat to NATO. In his opinion, the deployment of thousands of Russian soldiers poses a risk to both Ukraine and NATO member Romania.
It should be remembered that in 2023, the official language in Moldova was changed from Moldovan to Romanian, which in its Moldovan variant contains fewer words borrowed from Russian.
“Pro-Russian forces in Moldova and the Kremlin ... have always questioned the view that the majority of the population is ethnic Romanian and speaks Romanian,” noted Cristian Cantir, a Moldovan lecturer in international relations at Oakland University, after the law was passed.
The western part of the former Principality of Moldavia is now part of Romania, along with Wallachia and Transylvania.
