The time when we felt relatively safe in Moldova because of Ukraine’s heroic resistance to Putin’s aggression, including the great military success of sinking the Russian Black Sea Fleet’s flagship, Moscow, is over. What is happening in the separatist region of Transnistria does not bode well.
On Monday, April 25, the second day of Orthodox Easter, the Secret Service (KGB) building in Tiraspol, the capital of the separatist region, was attacked with grenade launchers.
There were no casualties because no one was there at the time. The next day, there were new incidents in Transnistria: two telecommunications antennas were destroyed in the Grigoriopol area. Explosions followed in Parkani, a town 13km from the Ukrainian border, and at Tiraspol airport. It cannot be ruled out that this will happen again.
Chisinau has repeatedly called on Moscow to transfer weapons from Kobasna to Russia, but there has been no response. The same goes for the request to withdraw about 2,000 Russian troops from Transnistria. The OSCE, in which Russia has strong influence, has proved completely ineffective in supporting Russian interests, rather than Moldova’s legitimate request to eliminate this source of insecurity that hangs over our heads like the Sword of Damocles.
The first clear sign that Russia was “targeting” Moldova after the war in Ukraine were statements by Russian General Rustam Minekayev, deputy commander of Russia’s central military district. He openly commented on the upcoming “second phase of the special operation”, consisting in taking control of Ukraine’s southwestern Black Sea coast and creating a land corridor to Transnistria, where he said “there are cases of violations of ethnic Russian rights”. . A blatant lie. The region is completely controlled by Moscow – who then violates the rights of Russian speakers?
Not Russian-speaking but Romanian-speaking residents and their institutions, including schools under the control of the Ministry of Education in Chisinau, have been threatened and terrorized. The harassment is of Moldovan villagers who have been terrorized by separatist militias for about 30 years. But when were the Russians interested in the truth?
The Office for Reintegration Policy (the structure of the Moldovan government for Transnistria) has indicated that the shelling of the KGB building in Tiraspol on Monday was only a pretext for escalating the situation in the region.
Following militant statements by Russian politicians about a “corridor” to Transnistria, Russian Ambassador to Chisinau Oleg Vasnetsov was summoned to the Moldovan Foreign Ministry.
Shortly afterwards, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko sent a reassuring message: “Russia sees no danger to its citizens in Transnistria and remains committed to a peaceful solution to the Transnistrian issue, while respecting the sovereignty and integrity of the Republic of Moldova.”
We are witnessing a game of cat and mouse. Study of the ability of the authorities in Chisinau to react to possible Russian actions in the region, Moldovan media write.
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