Russia warns West over threatening its troops in Moldovan region

[AZLD4Candidate]

Source: Reuters via AOL

Russia told the West on Friday that it would view as an attack on itself any actions that threatened Russian peacekeepers in Moldova's breakaway Transdniestria region, one day after Moscow accused Ukraine of planning an invasion.

In Kyiv, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy rejected Moscow's assertion that Ukraine wanted to take over the region.

The warning comes amid increased concerns in Moldova, a small ex-Soviet republic bordering Ukraine, of a possible Russian threat. Its pro-European president, Maia Sandu, this month accused Moscow of plotting a coup.

On Thursday, Russia accused Kyiv of planning to invade Transdniestria, which borders Ukraine. The mainly Russian-speaking territory broke from Moldova's control in 1990, a year before the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Read more: https://www.aol.com/news/russia-warns-west-over-threatening-195201559.html

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I truly believe Putin helped foster all of these "breakaway" moments to soften up these countries for invasion.

He learned well from his Nazi mentor from the 1930s.

[yonder]

1. "Russian Peacekeepers"? What might those be?

[AZLD4Candidate]

4. Translate from Russian to English and you'll understand the Peacekeeper's Force's official name

Мобильные отряды смерти, пыток, изнасилований и убийств

[yonder]

6. No surprises there.

[relayerbob]

2. As far as I'm concerned

Ukraine and Moldova should team up and drive the Russian warmongers out of Moldova, once and for all.

[Igel]

16. Ukraine's busy.

Perhaps we/NATO can help Rumania pitch in?

Some fighters, tanks, weapons, munitions. On a pass-through basis, of course.

And when done, Moldova can generously say, "Hey, Ukraine, here's *our* assistance!"

Ignore that it's 1200 A1 tanks and 400 fighter plans.

[relayerbob]

17. NATOs not going to touch it. Romania, on their own, might, but unlikely

Russia has a few thousand unlikely to be motivated "troops" there, stuffed into a region a few miles wide. The prize for Ukraine is the largest Soviet munitions supply remaining in Europe. Compared to their current fight, this would be pretty minimal, assuming those "troops" even bother to put up a fight, and don't just ask for a clean passport to the EU. Giving Ukraine the weapons they can use, right now, would be a small price for Moldova to get rid of the cancer in their country.

[tornado34jh]

3. Look who's talking

Russia is the only country in Europe that has supported separatist rebels, with the exception of maybe Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh), but that's a whole different story for another time. I truly think that they supported separatists in Crimea, Donbass, Transnitiria, Abkhazia, and South Ossetia (both in Georgia). Technically, Transnistria, which Moldova claims is part of the territory of Moldova, is the border of Moldova and Ukraine. Transnistria borders Vinnytsia and Odesa oblasts of Ukraine. It is not recognized as a separate state internationally. Also, if anything Moldovan is a variant of the Romanian language. Even most of their places in Moldova are Romanian. So really Russia really has no claim to any territory of Moldova.

[XorXor]

18. +1

[PortTack]

5. Transdniestria is part of Moldova. If they want to put the Russian troops out that threaten their

Sovereignty they have right to do so.

[AZLD4Candidate]

7. Putin's using the "All Russians need to be under the Russian flag" argument

I wonder what person used that argument before, specifically from the 1930s. I can't seem to remember his name.

[tornado34jh]

19. Moldova has virtually no links to Russia, even in language

Its language is basically a variant of the Romanian language, and Transistria mostly uses the Cyrillic version of the Moldovan alphabet. Other than that, there are no links to Russia.

[Otto_Harper]

8. At some point, Ruzzia will claim that the Russian speaking areas of

Brooklyn, such as Brighton Beach are its territory and should be occupied by "Peacekeepers"

[AZLD4Candidate]

9. I said that about an hour before you did. Look at my above yours reply.

[Martin68]

12. No, Russia only picks on smaller, weaker countries, biting off a chunk at a time.

[DFW]

10. I used to meet Moldovan students all the time in Cape Cod

Less so in recent years, due to Covid-related travel restrictions.

I was always careful to immediately ask, Russian-speaking or Romanian-speaking (it was usually half and half). They were already surprised to meet an American who knew where Moldova was, much less one who knew what languages were spoken there. I could greet them both in their own languages, but while my Russian was up to the task of continuing the conversation, my Romanian is minimal, and after surprising them with a few phrases, I have to switch to Russian or English (the Romanian-speaking Moldovans prefered English).

This whole "heim ins Reich" stance is indeed a holdover of cultural imperialism reminiscent of the 1930s. Whether they hide behind National Socialism or Soviet Socialism, it's the same antiquated philosophy--always dominated by control freaks who are terrified of dissent. It's convenient to hide your territorial ambitions behind it. Imagine France sending troops into southern Belgium or eastern Switzerland to unite all European French-speakers. Belgium is a mess, so the Walloons might not even care, but if there is one place the Swiss do NOT want to be a part of, it's France. Indeed, a satiric novel that came out some 40 years ago told of a Swiss decision to invade and ocucpy France (they were fed up with the chaos on their western border), and the French liked the new government so much, they never wanted to regain independence.

Moldova was never paradise on earth. It is poor, corrupt as can be, and just barely a viable state. It doesn't really have any allies, so its neighbors don't have much resistance to worry about if they want to act aggressively. However, it is rather conspicuous that Romania has not made any gestures indicating a desire to invade (oh, sorry, I mean, send peacekeepers to) the Romanian-speaking part of Moldova.

[Martin68]

11. They should put Russian "peacekeepers" in quotation marks.

[Ray Bruns]

13. Translation: man who has cried "wolf" many times before cries wolf again.

[cstanleytech]

14. "Russian peacekeepers" Thats rich.

[LudwigPastorius]

15. Putin's 'little green men' have been in Moldova for almost a decade.

They've been destabilizing the country and recruiting sympathetic young men for a long time.

https://euromaidanpress.com/2014/09/09/ukraine-nsdc-russian-little-green-men-appeared-in-moldova/