Officials in the pro-Russian separatist region of Transnistria appealed for protection from Moscow on Wednesday.
Moldova, a candidate for membership in the European Union, imposed new customs duties on January 1, 2024 on imports and exports from Transnistria, which borders Ukraine and is not recognized by any member country of the UN, including Russia, which maintains close ties with the region.
Members of the Transnistrian congress took advantage of a rare meeting in the regional capital, Tiraspol, on Wednesday to ask the Russian Duma to “implement measures to defend Transnistria in the face of increasing pressure from Moldova, given that more than 220,000 Russian citizens reside in Transnistria.”
A short war in the early 1990s led pro-Russian forces in Transnistria to declare a breakaway state. To date, Russia stations around 1,500 troops in the region as “peacekeepers”, who guard huge stockpiles of Soviet-era weapons and ammunition.
Moldova is working to align its economic laws with those of the European Union, as it seeks full membership of the 27-member bloc. But new customs duties imposed on Transnistria have sparked criticism. anger of the authorities of this country, who believe that these measures harm residents and local businesses.
In a statement read Wednesday, Tiraspol officials also called on the European Parliament to prevent what they describe as pressure from Moldova to “violate rights and freedoms” local residents. They made similar appeals to the United Nations Secretary-General, the European Parliament and the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Ahead of Wednesday’s meeting, tensions rose after an opposition lawmaker in Tiraspol said last week that the gathering could be used to announce a demand to annex Transnistria to Russia.
In a 2006 referendum in Transnistria, more than 95% of voters voted in favor of joining Russia, but the vote was not internationally recognized.
Moldova was granted candidate status for EU membership in 2022. It was reinforced last December when Brussels declared that it was opening accession negotiations, alongside neighboring Ukraine.
Transnistria, with a population of around 470,000, is a thin strip of territory between the eastern bank of the Dniester River and Moldova’s border with Ukraine. This unrecognized state, officially called the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic, has its own currency and flag.
Since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Moldova’s pro-Western leaders have regularly accused Moscow of waging campaigns aimed at destabilizing the country, which was a Soviet republic until 1991.