On the map below note that Transdniester is boxed in by NATO client states on east and west. Note also Gagauzia in the south, which is another potential conflict zone like the remainder of Nagorno-Karabakh, Transdniester, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Crimea, Donetsk, Lugansk, Kaliningrad and the Grodno region of Belarus.

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At UN, Moldovan President Reiterates Call For Russian Troop Withdrawal

In a speech before the UN General Assembly in New York, President Maia Sandu again called or the departure of Russian troops from Moldova’s breakaway Transdniester region.

Some 1,400 Russian troops are still stationed in Transdniester, which declared independence from Moldova in 1990….

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Transdniester fought a short war in 1992 with Moldova over fears that the newly independent country would seek reunification with neighboring Romania. [Romania joined NATO twelve years later.]

The conflict ended with a cease-fire agreement after Russian troops stationed in the region since Soviet times intervened….

Sandu, who defeated Russian-backed incumbent Igor Dodon in November 2020 on a ticket of closer relations with the West, has repeatedly called for Russian troops in Transdniester to be removed….

The Kremlin has rebuffed the idea, saying it could lead to a “serious destabilization” of the situation.