Breakaway Moldovan region Transnistria asks for Russian protection

Pro-Russian rebel officials in the breakaway region of Transnistria in Moldova have issued an appeal for “protection” from Russia.

The appeal comes amid concerns of escalation that the area could become a new focal point in Moscow’s tensions with neighboring Ukraine.

The thin sliver of land has been de facto controlled by pro-Russian forces since the collapse of the Soviet Union but is internationally recognized as part of Moldova.

At a special congress in the region – only the seventh in its history – lawmakers passed a resolution asking Russia’s parliament to “protect” Transnistria from mounting Moldovan pressure.

They said the Moldovan government in Chisinau had unleashed an “economic war” against Transnistria, blocking vital imports with the aim of turning it into a “ghetto.”

“The decisions of the current congress cannot be ignored by the international community,” the breakaway republic’s foreign policy chief Vitaly Ignatiev told the meeting.

The resolution comes just a day before President Vladimir Putin was set to make an annual address before Russian lawmakers and as Ukraine suffers setbacks on the battlefield.

The separatist territory last held a congress in 2006 when deputies announced a referendum on integrating with Russia. The vote resulted in an overwhelming majority in favor.

The call for help from Moscow has fuelled comparisons with February 2022, when Russian-backed militants in eastern Ukraine called for protection against what they said was relentless attacks and shelling by Kyiv’s forces.

Delegates at the conference Wednesday made little mention of Ukraine, according to accounts of the session in state-run media, instead aiming their ire against Moldova, which they blamed for the territory’s economic woes.

A Moldovan government spokesman downplayed concerns ahead of the rare meeting.

“From Chisinau, things look calm … There is no danger of escalation and destabilization of the situation in the Transnistrian region. This is another campaign to create hysteria,” they said in a post on Telegram.