Russia Conducts Military Exercises In Moldova's Breakaway Region Near Ukraine's W Border

International Business Times ^ | March 26, 2014 | David Kashi

[onyx]

Days after a top NATO commander warned of Russia’s military buildup on Ukraine’s eastern border, Russian troops staged military exercises in Moldova’s breakaway region of Transnistria, which borders Ukraine on the southwest, the Russian news agency Interfax reported Wednesday.

"There is absolutely sufficient [Russian] force postured on the eastern border of Ukraine to run to Transnistria if the decision was made to do that, and that is very worrisome," U.S. Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove, NATO's supreme allied commander in Europe, said Sunday at the Brussels offices of the German Marshall Fund of the United States, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank. That would mean an invasion across the heart of the country.

Transnistria is not recognized as an independent state by any U.N. member nation, and Moldova, a former Soviet republic that was once part of Romania, considers it an autonomous region within its borders. As in Crimea, the majority of the population in Transnistria are ethnic Russians.

A spokesperson for the head of Russia's Western Military District said forces stationed in Transnistria had "conducted an anti-terrorism drill and practiced operations to rebuff an attack on their military base," according to Interfax, as reported by Sydney Morning Herald in Australia.

[Monmouth78]

It’s complicated, like every thing else in Eastern Europe. Ukranians and Russians are the same ethnic group, for the most part. Ukraine is actally the original Russian homeland. Most Moldovans are essentially Romanians, non-Slavs. Transnistria is a predominately Slavic part of Moldova that indentifies with Russia.

Ukraine is to Russia what the South/Confederacy are/were to America, fast forwarded a few hundred years.

[Fiji Hill]

What I don’t understand is how the Russian troops in Transnistria are sustained. Ukraine, which is at the brink of war with Russia, almost certainly will not allow Russian planes to overfly its territory. The only other approach would be to overfly Romania and Moldova.

[traumer]

Thanks

[eleni121]

There are no tensions for all those people who wish to join Russia. The tensions are fabricated in the wicked little minds of the State Dept snakes and their fellow travelers in the MSM.