Russia will do everything possible to defend its citizens from Transnistria, says Serghei Șoigu, who warns the Republic of Moldova: “Don't try, like Ukraine”
The Secretary of the Russian Security Council, Serghei Șoigu, said in an interview with the widely circulated Russian daily Komsomolskaia Pravda on Tuesday that Russia will take all necessary measures to defend its citizens in Transnistria, the pro-Russian separatist region in the east of the Republic of Moldova.
“If necessary, Russia will take all necessary measures and resort to all available methods to protect them (the Russian citizens of Transnistria) in accordance with the Constitution” of the Russian Federation, said Soigu, according to Agerpres.
Sergei Shoigu, a former Russian defense minister whose former deputy ministers were all jailed for corruption, claimed in the interview that approximately 220,000 Russian citizens live in the Transnistrian region and that “their interests and safety are currently threatened due to the reckless and irresponsible actions of Kyiv and Chisinau.”
Soigu accused the Chisinau authorities, who obtained financial support from the European Union for gas imports, of blackmailing the pro-Russian region in the energy field.
“Chisinau (…) allows the supply of gas on the left bank, but only to cover basic social needs, otherwise it tries to impose a prohibitive tariff. This can only be qualified as blackmail and an attempt at intimidation,” he said.
However, the authorities in Transnistria were the ones who refused EU aid last year to be able to receive Russian gas, recalls the EFE agency.
“Tiraspol rejected this proposal. Russia does not allow them to accept European aid for fear of losing control over the region,” said the Moldovan Prime Minister, Dorin Rechan, at the time.
Soigu: “The rhetoric of the Moldovan authorities is increasingly similar to that of the Ukrainian authorities in 2014”
Shoigu also claimed on Tuesday that the rhetoric of the authorities of the Republic of Moldova regarding Transnistria “resembles more and more the statements of the Ukrainian authorities about Donbas in 2014”, the year in which Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula and sent paramilitaries to strengthen the separatist movement in eastern Ukraine, which it invaded eight years later.
Recently, the Russian State Duma (the lower house of the federal parliament) approved in a first reading a bill authorizing the deployment of Russian Federation troops abroad in case Russian citizens feel threatened.
At the same time, Shoigu warned Chisinau not to somehow play into Kiev's hands and try to forcibly attach Transnistria to the rest of the Republic of Moldova.
“We have repeatedly warned, at all levels, that any attempt to solve the Transnistrian problem by force, as well as the desire to replace the Russian peacekeeping forces with a “Western contingent”, will cause negative consequences for the Republic of Moldova and the entire region”, declared the secretary of the Security Council of Russia, adding that, in this case, President (Maia) “Sandu and his team will bear full responsibility”.
Soigu: “It is clear that the authorities of the Republic of Moldova are trying to expel the Russian troops from Transnistria”
On April 17, members of the command of the Russian Transnistria Task Force (GOTR), which is illegally stationed in the east of the Republic of Moldova, including the commander and chiefs of staff, were declared undesirable by Chisinau, according to Moldovan media.
GOTR commander Dmitri Zelenkov, his deputies Dmitri Opalev, Sergey Mashenko and Sergey Shirshov, as well as GOTR chiefs of staff Marat Iarulin and Aleksei Bogomolov were declared undesirable.
“It is clear that the authorities of the Republic of Moldova, with the support of the European Union, are trying to expel the Russian troops from Transnistria. The Moldovan authorities have effectively deprived the GOTR leadership of the legal right of movement outside the region”, declared Șoigu, claiming that this political step shows “the firm intention of the current leadership in Chisinau to further aggravate the situation”.
The current pro-European leadership in Chisinau, including President Maia Sandu, has repeatedly called on the international community to pressure Moscow to withdraw its troops from Transnistria and ammunition from the Cobasna warehouses.
