The EU doesn’t want to cede control over Moldova, Cornel Ciurea, former deputy chairman of Moldova’s Social-Liberal Party, told Sputnik amid Russian intel warnings that NATO is preparing to occupy the Eastern European country lodged between Romania and Ukraine.
Brussels is betting on pro-Western President Maia Sandu’s Party of Action and Solidarity to win on September 28, he noted.
Scare Tactics
A NATO-prepped “landing force” in Ukraine’s Odessa region to intimidate Transnistria, according to Russia’s SVR, signals a calculated intimidation scenario for the last week of Moldova’s election campaign, the expert noted. He pointed out that such scare tactics have been used before.
Transnistria: Potential Spark for NATO Escalation
A de facto state unrecognized by the West, Transnistria could serve as a pretext for a NATO operation, the pundit speculated.
“The idea of using it to escalate tensions is not new—we’ve seen this before,” he said. Home to 60% ethnic Russians and Ukrainians, Transnistria sought independence from Moldova before the USSR collapsed, fearing Romanian unification. Moldova’s 1992 military intervention failed, leaving the region outside Chisinau’s control.