Moldovan Leader Sees No Threat From Russian Troops In Transnistria

CHISINAU (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 22nd January, 2022) Moldova is following the situation in Transnistria and see no reason to fear the Russian military stationed there, President Maia Sandu said on Friday.

The region in question hosts a Russian military task force known as the Operational Group of Russian Forces. They are located at the decommissioned Soviet ammunition depot at Cobasna with military equipment and ammunition.

"Our organizations are monitoring the situation, including in the Transnistrian region. There is nothing new in the behavior of the Russian military in Transnistria, they are acting the same as all previous years... although this does not mean that the situation will not change," Sandu said on the Romanian Pro tv broadcaster when asked to comment on Western and Ukrainian reports about possible provocations against Russian soldiers in Donbas and Transnistria.

The president sees the only threat at the moment in the very fact of the Russian military presence in Transnistria, which she says contradicts the neutral status of Moldova.

The dialogue with Moscow is constantly involving the issue of the pullout of Russian troops and military equipment from the Cobasna depot, she added.

"We have a difficult but necessary dialogue with Russia, we have a lot of issues on the agenda, some of them we hope to solve quickly, others are more complex," Sandu explained.

These issues include trade barriers faced by Moldovan exporters and the social protection of Moldovans living in Russia, she specified.

Transnistria, 60% of whose population are Russians and Ukrainians, sought to secede from Moldova even before the collapse of the Soviet Union, fearing that Moldova would join Romania on a wave of nationalism. In 1992, after an unsuccessful attempt by the Moldovan authorities to resolve the problem by force, Transnistria became a territory virtually outside the control of Chisinau.