Moldovan President Calls for Russian Troops to Withdraw from Disputed Region

The separatist region of Transnistria is located on the border between Moldova and eastern Ukraine. (Wikimedia Commons)

Moldovan President-elect Maia Sandu implored Russian peacekeeping forces to leave the Transinistrian Republic, a separatist region of the Republic of Moldova, in a statement on November 30.

Currently, Russia keeps almost 1500 troops in the disputed region of Transnistria. The deployment began after the country’s brief civil war in the early 1990s, but it has not been internationally recognized since. 

Sandu placed a call to Moscow requesting continued dialogue and that Russian troops be replaced with civilian monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). 

In a press conference, Sandu explained, "We are an independent country that does not want foreign troops to stay on its territory." 

Sandu’s political reputation is marked by her campaign to bring Moldova away from its long-term tether to Russia. Sandu won Moldova’s highly contested election on November 15, representing herself as a pro-Western candidate aiming to bring Moldova closer to the European Union. 

Moscow rejected Sandu’s call on the grounds that removing Russian peacekeepers would cause dangerous destabilization in the country. "Russia performs a very important function," said Dmitri Peskov, Kremlin Press Secretary.

Transnistria has close ties to Russia. The region declared independence from Moldova during the fall of the Soviet Union. Moscow backed the Transnistrian separatists, who clashed with local forces. Today, Transnistria stands as a self-declared, unrecognized state made up of those who identify as Russian, not Moldovan.

In response to the message from Sandu, Transnistrian leader Vadim Krasnoselsky warned, "Any attempts to destroy the existing mechanism of guarantees can return the Moldova-Transnistria conflict back to the de-facto situation of the early 1990s." In an interview with Russian News Agency, Krasnoselsky declared that Sandu’s statements were pure speculation.