(Voice of Paul) – 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.
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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.”
Here’s what you need to know.
What happened in Transnistria?
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 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.
The congress stopped short of this extreme outcome, instead passing a resolution appealing to Russia to provide more than 220,000 Russian nationals in Transnistria with greater “protection” from Moldovan authorities.
“Transnistria will persistently fight for its identity, the rights and interests of the Transnistrian people and will not give up on protecting them, despite any blackmail or external pressure,” the resolution said, according to Russian state media TASS.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said “protecting the interests of the inhabitants of Transnistria, our compatriots, is one of the priorities.”
Moldovan authorities dismissed the congress as an attempt to stoke “hysteria.”
“There are no dangers of escalation and destabilization of the situation in this region of our country,” spokesperson Daniel Voda wrote on Telegram. “What is happening in Tiraspol [the region’s capital] is a propaganda event.”
In a statement to CNN, Moldova’s bureau of reintegration said it “rejects the propagandistic declarations of Tiraspol and reminds that the Transnistrian region benefits from the policies of peace, security, and economic integration with the EU, which are advantageous for all citizens.”
Meanwhile, US State Department spokesperson Matt Miller said Wednesday that the United States is “watching Russia’s actions in Transnistria and the broader situation there very closely.”