Moldovan leaders have called Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s proposal to grant Russian citizenship to Transdniestria residents a threat and are considering action to prevent it, Reuters reports.
The Transdniestria region broke away from Moldova in 1990, when the country was still a Soviet republic, and despite a brief conflict two years later, it now largely coexists peacefully with Moldova. The breakaway region is home to about 1,500 Russian soldiers, whom Moscow calls peacekeepers. The enclave receives significant support from Russia.
The Moldovan government, which wants the country to join the European Union by 2030, views Transdniestria and the Russian military presence there as Moscow’s interference in Moldova’s domestic politics. In April, a decision was made to bar commanders of the Russian military contingent from entering Moldova.
On the 15th of May, Putin issued a decree allowing 350,000 Transdniestrians to obtain Russian citizenship under a simplified procedure. About half of the enclave’s residents are already Russian citizens. Moldovan President Maia Sandu, speaking at a conference in Estonia on the 16th of May, said that Moscow probably wants to find more people to send to fight in Ukraine. Sandu has been a regular critic of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, saying: “It’s probably one way to threaten us again, because Russia does not like the actions we have been taking on reintegration on the economic and financial (sectors).
The people in the Transdniestria region have to think twice.”
Sandu said that many of the region’s residents have already obtained Moldovan passports to feel safer after the start of a full-scale war in Ukraine.
Moldovan Prime Minister Alexandru Munteanu said on the evening of the 16th of May that his government was considering practical action, since, for example, summoning the Russian ambassador to lodge a formal complaint about the violation of the country’s airspace had not yielded any results.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Putin’s offer was tantamount to Russia’s efforts to make the Transdniestrian territory its own. He added that Ukraine and Moldova would work to jointly assess the situation and take appropriate action.
Meanwhile, the Russian ambassador to Moldova, Oleg Ozerov, told the TASS news agency that the offer to obtain Russian citizenship was motivated by humanitarian considerations, as Moldova was putting increasing pressure on Transdniestria. Moldova’s criticism was hypocritical, as many Moldovans were obtaining citizenship of neighboring Romania.
Read also: Moldova: Accept us into the EU and we’ll help repel the Russians