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Russia on Saturday condemned as a provocation a drone attack on a military facility of pro-Russian separatists in Moldova's breakaway Transdniestria region and called for an investigation. A kamikaze drone hit a facility belonging to the separatist authority's defence ministry six km (four miles) from the border with Ukraine, the region's security ministry said on Friday. "We regard this incident as yet another provocation aimed at exacerbating the already tense situation around Transdniestria," Russia's foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement. The incident was the second of its kind in less than a month. In March, separatist Transdniestrian...

Russia told the West on Friday that it would view as an attack on itself any actions that threatened Russian peacekeepers in Moldova's breakaway Transdniestria region, one day after Moscow accused Ukraine of deploying troops near the region's border. The warning comes amid increased concerns in Moldova, a small ex-Soviet republic bordering Ukraine, of a possible Russian threat to its own independence. Its pro-European president, Maia Sandu, this month accused Moscow of plotting to overthrow Moldova's government. On Thursday, Russia accused Kyiv of planning to invade Transdniestria, which borders Ukraine. The mainly Russian-speaking territory broke from Moldova's control in 1990,...

"Establishing control over southern Ukraine would also give the Russian army access to Transdniestria, where facts of oppression of the Russian-speaking population have also been observed," Minnekayev said. Transdniestria is the de-facto breakaway region of Moldova that is not internationally recognized but has pro-Russian leaders and about 1,500 Russian troops stationed there. Before the Russian military retreated from the capital city Kyiv, Moscow claimed that "the first stage" of the attack had been completed, and it is now focusing efforts on the "liberation" of two regions in the east to bring them under the control of pro-Russian leaders in the...

A senior Russian politician said on Sunday he had brought to Moscow a petition by residents of Moldova's Russian-speaking, breakaway region of Transdniestria backing union with Russia. Dmitry Rogozin's comments will further rattle Moldova, an impoverished former Soviet republic which, like neighboring Ukraine, is seeking closer ties with Europe but faces stiff resistance from Moscow. Transdniestria, which broke from Moldova in 1990, has long sought to join Russia and the West fears the narrow sliver of land on the Dniestr river will be Moscow's next target following its annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region in March and its support for pro-Russian...

MOSCOW, March 29, /ITAR-TASS/. In a telephone conversation with his US counterpart Barack Obama Russian President Vladimir Putin drew attention to the continuing rampage by extremists in Ukraine, who are committing acts of intimidation against civilians, bodies of power, and law enforcers in different parts of Ukraine and in Kiev and do so with impunity, the Kremlin’s press-service has said. In this context the Russian leader suggested considering likely steps by the international community to help stabilize the situation in Ukraine. It was agreed that Russian and US foreign ministers would discuss specific parameters of such joint work in the...

(Reuters) - Russia's military staged training exercises on Tuesday in Transdniestria, a breakaway sliver of Moldova that is a focus of tension following Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region. NATO's top military commander said on Sunday he was worried that Russia might have its eye on Transdniestria, a largely Russian-speaking region that borders western Ukraine, after seizing Crimea, which has a narrow ethnic Russian majority. The Interfax news agency quoted a spokesman for Russia's Western Military District, Colonel Oleg Kochetkov, as saying that Russian forces stationed in Transdniestria had "conducted an anti-terrorism drill and practiced operations to rebuff an attack...

Inflammatory language: Nina Shtanski, foreign minister of Transdniestria The glamorous foreign minister of a breakaway region of Moldova is calling on Vladimir Putin to make her country his next conquest in eastern Europe. Few may have heard of Transdniestria, the unofficial and fictitious-sounding statelet whose head of international relations is 36-year-old Nina Shtanski. However, senior Western figures are alarmed that following the annexation of Crimea it is step two in a Kremlin masterplan to redraw the frontiers of Europe. This top diplomat in staunchly pro-Russian Transdniestria, who has a penchant for revealing black dresses, is gushing in her praise of...

Nato's military commander in Europe has issued a warning about the build-up of Russian forces on Ukraine's border. Supreme Allied Commander Europe Gen Philip Breedlove said Nato was in particular concerned about the threat to Moldova's Trans-Dniester region. Russia said its forces complied with international agreements. The build-up has been allied with Russia's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine, following the removal of Ukraine's pro-Moscow president. Moscow formally annexed Crimea after the predominantly ethic-Russian region held a referendum which backed joining the Russian Federation.

NATO's top military commander said on Sunday that Russia had a large force on Ukraine's eastern border and he was worried it could pose a threat to Moldova's separatist Transdniestria region. The warning comes a day after Russian troops, using armored vehicles, automatic weapons and stun grenades, seized the last military facilities under Ukrainian control in Crimea, the Black Sea peninsular that Russian President Vladimir Putin formally annexed on Friday. "The (Russian) force that is at the Ukrainian border now to the east is very, very sizeable and very, very ready," NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Europe, U.S. Air Force General...

LETTER FROM MOSCOW The war in Georgia has provoked unprecedented levels of patriosm in Russia. The majority of the population supported their army's actions in the Caucasus. And even the fiercest critics of the Kremlin have now become proud Russians. REUTERS Members of the Kremlin-loyal youth organisation "Nashi" wave flags and hold a banner during a protest in front of the US embassy in Moscow during the Georgia war. I never thought I’d see the day when regular Russians, without any prompting, would voluntarily and passionately defend the actions of the Kremlin in conversations with a foreign friend. But at...

Land Grab // Russia rejects Georgia's and Moldova's territorial integrity The Russian Foreign Minister yesterday for the first time openly declared that the unrecognized republics in the former Soviet Union have a right to self-determination. That is Moscow's response to Western demands that Russia adhere to the 1999 Istanbul Commitments and remove its forces from the territories of Georgia and Moldova. It represents a radical shift in Russian policy and is a means of maintaining influence over pro-Western former Soviet states. Its timing in relation to the G8 summit in St. Petersburg indicates that Russia wants to send a message...

On February 28, in Tiraspol “Breakthrough” International Youth Corporation published an official statement to international youth organizations and mass media, as a REGNUM correspondent informs. The statement says, that the organization will organize an HQ to conduct mass meetings with slogan “If you recognize Kosovo, recognize Transdnestr too!”, because, according to the statement “Transdnestr youth is always ready to fight for its independence and freedom.” The Breakthrough addresses all non-governmental organization, asking to conduct “non-stop meeting, protest actions, conferences,” and other events dedicated to international recognition of Transdnestr, condemning of double standards policy and overcome of informational, political and economical...

Chairman of the Transdnestr Moldavian Republic Yevgeny Shevchuk commented on the statement made by Russian President Vladimir Putin on the Kosovo conflict settlement made at a meeting with the Cabinet of Ministers: “We in Transdnestr are closely observing the events around Kosovo, because any decisions of the international community on Kosovo are the algorithm for future decisions on the Transdnestr-Moldavian issue. The situation in Kosovo has a lot of analogies with Transdnestr. In particular, the history of the collapse of Yugoslavia is in some points corresponding with the history of disintegration of Moldavia and Transdnestr. The agreements passed on Serbia...

The official Chisinau is in possession of documents indicating that weapons from Transnistria were supplied to Iraq, Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin stated to Russian journalists who are paying a 5-day-long working visit to this republic on the Moldovan leadership's invitation. "We have sent to Russia a file with documents on the directions of arms exports from Transnistria. According to the data available with us, 13 Transnistrian industrial enterprises manufacture armaments continuously. We have a document from the Presidential Office of Saddam Hussein's certifying that weapons from Transnistria used to be imported to Iraq. Now we are scrutinizing this", Voronin...

CHISINAU. Oct 27 (Interfax) - Moldovan Prime Minister Vasile Tarlev thinks that armaments from Russian stockpiles in Transdniestria might have been shipped to Chechen militants and, probably, Beslan. "Unfortunately, as far as we know, some armaments from the Russian depots in Transdniestria have been sent to Chechnya and some allegedly went to militants in Beslan," he told the Russian press in Chisinau on Thursday. "We must finally eliminate this source of arms for separatists and terrorists," he said.