Moldova’s foreign minister asked Russia to withdraw its troops from Trans-Dniester, saying recent military exercises in the breakaway region were adding to tensions in the region.
NATO Secretary- General Jens Stoltenberg on Wednesday also called on Russia to withdraw troops from Moldova, Ukraine and Georgia, former Soviet republics, “where they are without the agreement of the respective countries.”
Last week, Moldova’s pro-Western President Maia Sandu called for the troops, or peacekeepers, to be withdrawn from Trans-Dniester. She said they had been sent there after the breakup of the Soviet Union..
But Alexey Zaitsev, an official in the Russian foreign ministry information and press department responded Thursday saying statements coming from Moldova were historically untrue.
He called on Moldova to work to solve problems some of which “were created artificially by Chisinau.”
The Moldova foreign minister on Wednesday called exercises this week involving Russian troops in Trans-Dniester illegal.
“We want dialogue….but the presence of Russian troops contravenes Russia’s international obligations and our legislation,” he said.
„Their very presence….doesn’t help calm the regional situation. It is in fact counterproductive,” he was quoted as saying by Ziarul de Gardă, a Moldovan publication.
Russia’s 14th Army remained stationed in the breakaway region after the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991.
There are about 1,500 troops stationed there, many of them are local residents with Russian citizenship. Trans-Dniester is not internationally recognized. It borders Ukraine.
The recent exercises come amid tensions between Russia and NATO allies over some 100,000 troops amassed near Ukraine’s borders.
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