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Post by Admin on Dec 16, 2022 18:25:06 GMT
Moldova’s frozen conflict with Russian-backed breakaway region Transnistria - BBC Newsnight
BBC News 13.6M subscribers 8,650 views Dec 17, 2022
Russia’s foreign ministry has issued a not so veiled threat to the government of Moldova – accusing them of fostering an “off-the-scale degree of Russophobia” – encouraged by their Western allies.
Moldova has been in a “frozen conflict” for the last 30 years with a breakaway region called Transnistria, which is backed by the Russians who have 1,500 troops there.
Like many countries of the former soviet union, the tiny Eastern European nation has come under intense pressure from Moscow since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Our international correspondent Joe Inwood travelled to the country to see if this cold war could turn hot once more.
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Post by Admin on Nov 17, 2023 3:29:47 GMT
SUMMARY NATO and US demands to withdraw Russian troops from Transnistria are contrary to international law. According to Washington, Russian troops are stationed there without the consent of the host and undermine European security.
RESPONSE A recurring pro-Kremlin narrative about Russian troops in the Transnistrian region of the Republic of Moldova, trying to draw attention away from the real issue.
In this breakaway region, uncontrolled by the constitutional authorities of Moldova, there is a contingent of the Russian army, called the Operational Group of Russian Forces. There is also a Russian ammunition and weapons depot in the region. After the 1992 armed conflict in the region, Moldova is constantly demanding the withdrawal of Russian troops and ammunition from its territory.
By signing the final document of the OSCE summit in Istanbul in 1999, Russia has pledged to withdraw ammunition and troops by 2002 but has not done so to date. Since then, Russia has been repeatedly asked to honour its commitment and withdraw its troops from Moldova. In June 2018, the UN General Assembly adopted a statement urging troops withdrawal from the Republic of Moldova.
Also, in June 2021, the heads of state and government participating in the meeting of the North Atlantic Council in Brussels issued a communiqué with the same requirement to Russia.
See here a similar case claiming that Romania and Moldova have a secret plan to forcefully push Russian troops out of Transnistria.
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Post by Admin on Dec 5, 2023 20:33:26 GMT
Sergey Lavrov seemed to make an implied threat against Moldova amid his country's ongoing war against Ukraine, which the Kremlin continues to claim was perpetrated by the West.
Lavrov said on Thursday that Moldova, an Eastern European country and former Soviet republic, is putting itself in harm's way in its desire to join the European Union. He made the remarks during a ministerial conference held by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the world's largest regional security organization.
In June 2022, the EU and its member states offered unwavering support for Moldova and granted it candidate status. The support was reaffirmed in March of this year, with the EU and its members promising to continue to provide security and economic support to Moldova as it awaits its path to accession.
"The Kozak Memorandum, which could have reliably resolved the situation in Moldova 20 years ago, is among the thwarted attempts to resolve the acute problems of our continent on the basis of OSCE principles," Lavrov said. "At that time, NATO and EU Brussels unceremoniously torpedoed the document.... In fact, Moldova is destined to be the next victim in the hybrid war against Russia unleashed by the West."
The Kozak Memorandum was a 2003 plan, proposed by Russia, that attempted to solve relations between Moldova and Transnistria, a separatist region that broke away from Moldova in 1990. The memorandum was ultimately rejected by Vladimir Voronin, then Moldova's president.
On Thursday, the Moldova Foreign Ministry issued a rebuke to Lavrov's comments, calling Russia's invasion of Ukraine "brutal" and saying that Moldova "has felt the entire arsenal of destabilization attempts that Russia has unleashed against us."
"Russia's statements, whether today or on previous occasions, are part of the series of hostile actions that the Russian Federation has been trying to implement towards our country over the past 30 years," the statement reads. "Fortunately, throughout this time, the partner states in the West have been by our side, helping us to successfully overcome these threats.
The statement went on: "Taking into account that Minister Lavrov still arrived at the OSCE ministerial meeting, we hope that our message—clear and sharp—will be understood by him as well: the Republic of Moldova is going, irreversibly, on the European path and today, more than ever, we insist on the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of Russian troops from our territory."
Newsweek reached out by email to the Moldovan and Russian foreign ministries, as well as the EU and the OSCE, for comment.
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Post by Admin on Feb 28, 2024 21:14:55 GMT
Pro-Russian rebels in a separatist sliver of Moldova have asked President Vladimir Putin to protect their region from what they claim are threats from Moldova’s government. Transnistria, which illegally split from Moldova as the Soviet Union crumbled, has remained firmly within the Kremlin’s orbit while Moldova, which borders Ukraine, is bidding to join the European Union. In a special congress on Wednesday, politicians in Transnistria asked Moscow to guard it from “increasing pressure from Moldova,” and the Kremlin later said protecting its “compatriots” was a priority, Russian state media RIA Novosti reported. While the congress initially sparked fears that Moscow could press ahead with its longstanding plan to destabilize Moldova’s increasingly pro-Western government, Moldova dismissed it as “propaganda.” Meetings of Transnistria’s Congress of Deputies, a Soviet-era decision-making model, are rare but often significant. A Congress of Deputies gave birth to Transnistria in 1990, sparking a war between the Moscow-backed separatists and the fledgling Moldovan republic two years later. No country officially recognizes Transnistria, where Russia has kept a steadily dwindling military presence for decades, now standing at around 1,500 troops. Before Wednesday, the congress’ most recent meeting was in 2006, when it passed a referendum calling to join Russia. When Transnistrian politicians unexpectedly announced a new meeting, analysts suggested this could lead to fresh calls for unification with Russia. Moldovan and Ukrainian officials downplayed this speculation.
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