Moldova: Russia is provoking us
Russia is provoking Moldova in Transnistria, stated by the Moldovan Minister of Defense Eugen Sturza on his Facebook page.
“Some think that by making threats you can be a friend. If you climb over your neighbor’s fence and threaten them, can you expect them to be your friend? Paradoxically, this is what our neighbor, Russia, is trying to do, conducting military exercises with the crossing of the Dniester. Such exercises in the Security Zone, with unmarked armored trucks involved, is a provocative act that undermines the Russian side's justification as a peacekeeping mission. It is extremely difficult to explain to them that the military exercise where "little green men" cross the Dniester with armored vehicles is not a peacekeeping mission, and what they are doing does not secure peace in the region. Maybe the OSCE will help us explain the difference?” he writes.
In turn, representatives from the OSCE in Moldova express their concern over the Russian military exercises conducted crossing the Dniester river. OSCE representatives were deployed to the Security Area, but they were prevented from conducting a full monitoring of the exercise.
It was reported, that on August 13th, the Russian Army Operational Group, stationed in the Transnistrian region, was preparing military armored vehicles for training exercises crossing water barriers.
On the morning of August 14, on the bank of the Dniester River, unmarked military vehicles without any kind of plates were stationed. Later, these vehicles entered the river.
Furthermore, after the 1992 armed conflict on the Dniester, in a settlement it was specified that in the Security Zone, checkpoints for the peacekeeping forces of Russia, Moldova, and Transnistria were to be placed.