Tensions are rising in the pro-Russian separatist territory of Transnistria in Moldova, with ominous comments from Moscow raising fears that the conflict in Ukraine may extend to its neighbor. Just back from the enclave, a senior security monitor says neither side wants to get involved in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war.
Claus Neukirch heads the Organization for Security and Co-operation’s mission to Moldova where he facilitates the search for a settlement over Transnistria, where breakaway authorities have been in conflict with various Moldovan governments for 30 years.
The trip to Tiraspol, the capital of the self-declared republic, followed a series of unexplained explosions in Transnistria that set nerves jangling. Shortly before, a Russian general included Transnistria in Moscow’s war aims, arguing that ethnic Russians there were being abused.
What comes next in Ukraine is impossible to predict, and differences between Moldova and Transnistria run deep. With 1,500 Russian troops stationed in the territory, just 70 km (43.5 miles) north west of the Ukrainian port of Odesa, Moscow has a dominant voice.
Still, "this is also an opportunity,” said Neukirch, speaking on Saturday at the OSCE’s permanent mission in Chisinau, Moldova’s capital. "To a certain extent they are together in this crisis.”
The war has cut both sides off from a vital trade route, through the Black Sea port of Odesa, while Ukraine’s move to close its land border with Transnistria has for the first time forced all of the territory’s exports and imports to pass westward, through Moldovan customs.
