Pro-moscow rebels in Moldova seek annexation by Kremlin

PRO-RUSSIA rebels in a separatist part of Moldova are preparing to ask Vladimir Putin to annex their region, amid warnings that an emboldened Kremlin is trying to destabilise Europe.

A politician in Transnistria, which borders Ukraine, has said that the rebel government will submit its request to the Kremlin on Wednesday during a special congress that last met in 2006.

“This will be voiced to Russia on behalf of citizens living on the left bank of the Dniester River,” Gennady Chorba, a local politician, was quoted as saying earlier this week. His statement came a few days after Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, said the rights of pro-russian separatists in Transnistria needed to be respected.

Western analysts believe the development is part of Moscow’s “hybrid warfare” campaign to destabilise

Europe.

The Us-based Institute for the Study of War said Putin is now trying to ramp up tension in Transnistria to create an “imminent political crisis” in Moldova, a former Soviet state that now wants to join the EU.

Russia keeps roughly 2,000 soldiers in Transnistria and there were concerns in 2022 that the Kremlin could use it to open a second front after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Concrete machine gun posts facing Transnistria still dot Ukraine’s western border.

One source, who preferred to remain anonymous, said that the Kremlin viewed the region and two other pro-russia rebel states in Georgia as useful tools to use in its “hybrid warfare” against Europe, which has included funnelling migrants into the EU and spreading misinformation.