Expert: The moment the last Russian soldier leaves Transdnestr, NATO troops will come in

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The director of the Russian-Transdnestr Information-Analytical Center Alexey Martynov comments to REGNUM on the demand for Russia to withdraw its troops from Transdnestr raised at the OSCE Ministerial Council in Ljubljana last week and the agreement for the US to deploy its four military bases in Romania singed in Bucharest at the very same time.

“In this context, as a new NATO member Romania is fulfilling the US' demands for deploying military bases in its territory. This will give the US strategic and military influence over the whole region: the Balkans, Moldova, southern Ukraine. That is exactly why the OSCE foreign ministers reiterated in Ljubljana that Russia should withdraw its troops from Transdnestr in compliance with the Istanbul agreements 1999. But Russia has long complied with these agreements — there are no troops left in Transdnestr. True, there is still plenty of Russian arms there, which Russia had been gradually withdrawing until Moldova froze the peace talks on a unilateral basis. Following this Transdnestr insisted on stopping the withdrawal and the Russian military contingent there is now ensuring the safety and immunity of the arms.”

The position of the OSCE, who is fulfilling the order of its oversea bosses, is quite clear: now that the US is stationing military bases in Romania to gain control over the whole region it will not bear the presence of even a small contingent of Russian troops in Transdnestr. Moreover, geo-strategically it is more convenient to have a military base in Tiraspol than in Romania. First, this allows to control a bigger territory. Second, this area still has Soviet-time infrastructure, for example, an aerodrome in Tiraspol wherefrom a plane can reach the Balkans in just 12 minutes. So, the persistence of the OSCE, or, in other words, the US and the EU, to force Russia and its troops out of Transdnestr is just a wish to take their place. The moment the last Russian soldier leaves Transdnestr, NATO troops will come in to set up their base.

However eager the Romanians may be “to revive their Great Romania,” this all is, obviously, being done for serving the economic interests of the US, who wants to control the oil, gas and transport arteries running from Russia via this region to feed Europe.