​At the congress of the former Soviet enclave of Transnistria, a separatist region of Moldova with a pro-Russian majority located between a narrow strip along the Dniester River and Ukraine, on February 28 next year, it is expected to pass a request to Moscow that the self-proclaimed Transnistrian Moldavian Republic be annexed to Russian Federation. Transnistrian opponent Genadiy Chorba assured about this on Wednesday, the Infotag agency cites. Chorba drew attention to the fact that the debate ended exactly one day before Russian President Vladimir Putin’s speech before the Federal Assembly. Even he does not rule out that “the order to organize this congress comes from the Kremlin.”

To be specific, he believes that the Russian representative “during his speech will voice the petition before the deputies of the Federal Assembly, who will make an urgent decision on its satisfaction.” The opponent claims that the convocation of Tiraspol, the capital of Transnistria, and the recent protest against new economic measures by Moldova – such as the introduction of a customs tax – are intended to demonstrate that the residents of this rebel enclave are against the authorities in Chisinau. “Hence the recent statement of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov that Moscow will not leave citizens living in Transnistria to fend for themselves,” the politician recalled. Chorba called on deputies from the separatist region to prevent the adoption of this decision, as it would give Putin “the legal right to attack the territory of the Republic of Moldova, including Transnistria, under any pretext.”

He also addressed the president of the former Soviet republic, Maya Sandu, for his approach to the frozen conflict: “His entourage constantly warned that Russia would attack the territory of Moldova, but he did not take into account the fact that the psychology of the current leaders of Russia, especially Putin, is very similar on Hitler in the late 1930s, attempts to conciliate people like Putin lead to only one thing: increasing the aggressor’s appetite,” Sup concluded. Immediately after learning about the possible request of the authorities of Transnistria, Kishinev emphasized that “there is no reason” for the deterioration of the situation in the region.

“The Office of the Reintegration Policy monitors the situation in the Transnistria region and is in constant contact with the OSCE Mission and other international partners. According to the information we have, there is no reason to believe that the situation can worsen. We are convinced that Tiraspol is aware of the consequences, which he takes in the case of ill-advised measures,” the agency dependent on the government of Moldova said in a statement.

A few days ago, the Instituto para el Estudio de la War (ISW) warned that Russia had developed a plan to develop a hybrid attack operation in Moldova in the near future. “Officials and representatives of the Kremlin are trying to create informational conditions to justify Russia’s possible efforts to destabilize Moldova and prevent its integration in the West,” the American think tank explains, reports the daily “Ukrainian Pravda”. Other members of the Russian Foreign Ministry, including spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, have previously said that Chisinau is trying to “stifle” Transnistria economically, impeding a diplomatic solution to the Transnistrian conflict and facing widespread domestic discontent with the policies of the Moldovan executive.

A Russian military blogger recently approached the Transnistria issue to constantly push the Kremlin’s narrative and claim that Moldova is “arming itself” to “forcefully reintegrate” Transnistria. He “milblogger” says that Russia should prepare for a possible attack from the other side of the Dniester. The Moldovan government recently accused Russian peacekeeping forces in Transnistria of conducting exercises and using weapons in Moldova’s security zone, violating the protocols of the OSCE Joint Monitoring Commission (JMC).

In addition, the Kremlin is conducting information space operations against Moldova very similar to those it used before the previous invasions of Ukraine in 2014 and 2022, likely to create the conditions to justify possible future Russian escalation against Moldova. For his part, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on February 14 that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization does not see an immediate threat of military attacks on a NATO member, but noted that there is a “constant risk” of hybrid attacks.