Moldova & Transnestria-Pridnestrovye

Feanor

Super Moderator
Staff member
This is a thread for discussion of all the things pertaining to the war in Moldavia between ethnic Russian and Moldavians, as well as the current situation surrounding the unrecognized republic of Transnestria.

Some photos of PMR KGB SpetzNaz training.

Ð£Ñ‡ÐµÐ½Ð¸Ñ Ñпецназа КГБ ПриднеÑтровÑкой реÑпублики: dambiev

For those who have never heard of this, the wikipedia entry isn't a bad place to start.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transnistria
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transnistria_War
 

Feanor

Super Moderator
Staff member
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #3
ACIG has a pretty detailed article on the 1992 war. The article also has some interesting photos.

War in Moldova, 1992 - www.acig.org
It's quite detailed but rather biased. Just to put things into perspective, its talks about Russians "terrorizing" the locals, causing 10 000 displaced persons. This is a highly densely populated area. It's '91 population was in the neighborhood of 700 000, and even now it's home to ~500 000 people. So a 10k displacement would be ~1.5% of the population. Given that the ethnic makeup of Transnestria is almost evenly split between Russian, Ukrainian, and Moldovans, (with a tiny smattering of "other" such as Bulgarians and Gagauz) if this really was a Russian nationalist thing, it would look quite different. It's even more interesting that the article omits the participation of the infamous OUN, the Ukrainian nationalist group that fought on the side of the Transnestrians. Of course those war junkies, Cossacks, showed up too. But neither played a decisive role. General Lebed' did.

Overall it's significant to remember that this conflict was less military and more political. The PMR is a small strip but it produced pre '91 about 40% of the GDP of Moldova, and 2/3rds of the electricity. It's densely populated, heavily urban, and like most urban areas in the USSR, heavily russified. Unlike the rural Moldova, which was basically still a piece of Romania just independent. And even today the PMR still exports manufactured goods to Russia (steel cables for the Ostankino tower replaced in '08 came from the PMR). The conflict was primarily about whether the newly independent country would be a post-Soviet industrialized state or an Eastern Europe agrarian one with heavy ethnic overtones.
 

Feanor

Super Moderator
Staff member
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #4
Joint exercises have taken place for the second time this year, between the Russian security contingent and the Transnestrian military. From the photos it seems that they focus of the training was on evacuating and treating wounded personnel. The official statement said that these exercises are a response to recent Moldavian-US exercises in the course of which US military personnel allegedly violated the demilitarized zone between Moldavia and Transnestria.

СовмеÑтные ÑƒÑ‡ÐµÐ½Ð¸Ñ Ñиловых ведомÑтв ПриднеÑтровÑкой Ð*еÑпублики Ñ ÐžÐ“Ð*Ð’: dambiev

I'm going to run updates on Transnestria as well, since, in light of the recent conflict in Ukraine, Transnestria is in a difficult situation. On the one hand they have a decent relationship with Moldavia (as decent as can be expected under the circumstances) on the other hand they are (rightly) seen as a Russian client state and therefore a great target for anyone (Ukraine) who want to stick it to Russia.

For those who don't know, Russia maintains two military taskforces in the region. One is a peacekeeping unit present there in accordance with the post-war settlement. Their withdrawal is the subject of complex and protracted negotiations between Moldavia, Russia, and Transnestria. The other group is the Russian Group of Forces in Pridnestrovye, which is the remains of the Soviet 14th Army. They're basically a small security force sitting atop a giant arsenal.

EDIT: The exercises, in addition to the medical aspect, also focused on counter-terrorism.
 

kato

The Bunker Group
Verified Defense Pro
Since this is the closest we have to a Moldavia thread:

Germany is providing 19 Piranha-IIIH from industry stocks (GDELS) to the Moldavian Army. This is due to a bilateral agreement signed in October; the German government is financing the deal. The vehicles were formerly owned by Denmark and are being overhauled at GDELS's factories in East Germany. The first three vehicles were handed over last Thursday, the remainder is planned to be transferred within this year.

Under the deal, Moldavia plans to use the APCs in the 22nd Peacekeeping Battalion, a unit fielded for participating in UN missions and in recent years mostly trained by the US Army and operating lighter vehicles donated by the US.

The Piranhas have been stated to replace older vehicles in use with the battalion; For wheeled APCs Moldova currently uses TAB-71 (BTR-60PB), BTR-70, BTR-80 and BTR-D, virtually all in single-company numbers and apparently being traded back-and-forth between units of the Moldovan Army.
 

swerve

Super Moderator
...This is a highly densely populated area. It's '91 population was in the neighborhood of 700 000, and even now it's home to ~500 000 people. So a 10k displacement would be ~1.5% of the population. Given that the ethnic makeup of Transnestria is almost evenly split between Russian, Ukrainian, and Moldovans, (with a tiny smattering of "other" such as Bulgarians and Gagauz) if this really was a Russian nationalist thing, it would look quite different. It's even more interesting that the article omits the participation of the infamous OUN, the Ukrainian nationalist group that fought on the side of the Transnestrians. Of course those war junkies, Cossacks, showed up too. But neither played a decisive role. General Lebed' did....
I've not heard what's going on in Transnistria recently. The Russo-Ukrainian war must have generated shock waves. It looked for some time as if Russia was aiming to link up with it, until the failure of Russian attempts to advance west of Kherson. Given the war, & the current situation with the Russian army having retreated to the left bank of the Dnipr, I can't help wondering what's going on there. Ethnic tensions could be high.

English-language reporting is sparse, to say the least, & I can't read Russian, Ukrainian or Romanian (well, a little from my limited knowledge of other Latin-based languages: I found I could read some simple things when I visited Romania), which I expect all have news about Transnistria.
 

Feanor

Super Moderator
Staff member
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #8
I've not heard what's going on in Transnistria recently. The Russo-Ukrainian war must have generated shock waves. It looked for some time as if Russia was aiming to link up with it, until the failure of Russian attempts to advance west of Kherson. Given the war, & the current situation with the Russian army having retreated to the left bank of the Dnipr, I can't help wondering what's going on there. Ethnic tensions could be high.

English-language reporting is sparse, to say the least, & I can't read Russian, Ukrainian or Romanian (well, a little from my limited knowledge of other Latin-based languages: I found I could read some simple things when I visited Romania), which I expect all have news about Transnistria.
I would be surprised if ethnic tensions there were high. Moldova has had a well conceived policy of rapprochement with Transnestria, and this has led to the situation being relatively calm for many years, especially at the personal level. Political tensions could be high but I haven't heard anything for a while. Early in the war there were some limited attacks on Transnestria infrastructure, but they stopped. Honestly if Moldova was in better shape itself, Transnestria could be ripe for reintegration. But Moldova is in the middle of continuing internal political crises itself, with it's economy not looking all that great, so it gets tricky. The politics of the situation top this off.
 

kato

The Bunker Group
Verified Defense Pro
English-language reporting is sparse, to say the least, & I can't read Russian, Ukrainian or Romanian (well, a little from my limited knowledge of other Latin-based languages: I found I could read some simple things when I visited Romania), which I expect all have news about Transnistria.
There's an extensive review of events since the start of the war in German here from the Baden-Württemberg State Agency for Political Information LPB-BW. Going with what's written there:

Of major concern from the Moldovan perspective were several attacks within Transnistria in April, including a grenade launcher (or mortar) fired at the Transnistrian Ministry of State Security, two attacks on Russian radio towers on the Ukrainian border and rumoured explosions at Russian bases in Transnistria all taking place within a span of a few days.
  • Moldovan authorities stated that the perpetrators of these attacks could not be discerned, but that they considered them an attempt to destabilize the region. Moldavia as a reaction increased its security measures and put its military on alert at the time.
  • Russia publicly called the attacks "provocations", indirectly threatened intervention and placed its troops in Transnistria in full combat readiness.
  • Transnistria followed Russia in calling the attacks "provocations", raised its terror warning level to Red, placed its troops on alert, and - unlike Russia - has openly accused Ukraine for the attacks.
  • Ukraine called the attacks "Russian false flag attacks" supposedly perpetrated by FSB and special forces.
These attacks on Transnistrian and Russian military assets in the region have been claimed to have continued in May, supposedly through the use of UCAVs against a garrison near the Ukrainian border as well as fire bombings against buildings in the Transnistrian capital Tiraspol. These reports apparently could not be verified or investigated further. Transnistria at the time reiterated its earlier accusation of Ukraine as perpetrators, and - according to Moldovan sources - supposedly was preparing for a general mobilization.

Like Feanor writes the attacks largely stopped after that.

There is propaganda making the rounds from all sides; of particular wider concern is a legend created by former Putin advisor Sergej Markov that Romania was planning to "annex Moldova" and "implement harsh measures against Russian-speaking citizens". Following - and citing - this same propaganda line the leaderships of the Donezk and Luhansk Russian Republics in Ukraine have called for the Russian "special operation" to be expanded to include Transnistria.

Ukraine repeatedly, in particular during the first months of the war, has threatened to attack bases in Transnistria should Russia attempt to reinforce its troops there.

In September Lavrov threatened a military intervention in Moldova, explaining that any endangerment of the security of Russian troops in Transnistria would risk military conflict and would be treated "as an attack on Russia itself". Moldova retorted by calling for Russian troops to be recalled from Transnistria.

In November/December in several instances Russian missiles intercepted by Ukrainian Air Defense fell on Moldovan territory, similar to Poland. Like with Poland, Ukraine used these instances to call for more air defense systems to be supplied to them.
 
Top