Moldova: the next conflict in Europe?

(To Vasco Monteforte)
27/04/18

Today the umpteenth mission in the "neutral" Moldova of NATO experts (photo below) will be concluded as part of the initiative to consolidate the defense capabilities of the country (Defense and Related Security Capacity Building Initiative - DCBI). From the 2014, NATO has started the program to "support the defense capabilities of countries requesting assistance" (more). The fields range from troop training to logistics, to cyber security.

The target of the Alliance's activity would be “stabilization”. The presence of NATO officials (in one of the most corrupt and corruptible countries on the planet) is however interpreted by the Russians as a provocation.

The bomb triggered in Eastern Europe borders on the east with the Ukrainian conflict and on the west with Romania, a member of the European Union and NATO since 2004. Moldova - we repeat, a "neutral" state - includes Transnistria (region of independent but formally part of the country) in which Russian forces are present.

What are Russian soldiers doing in the region? Essentially they perform two tasks: they formally act as part of a force of peacekeeping  (OSCE) since the 1992 conflict, have essentially been a thorn in the side of NATO's agenda.

An "anti-missile shield" is operating from the 2016 in Romania (which Moscow interprets as a threat). Having an area potentially capable of neutralizing ballistic interventions just a few hundred kilometers from one of the main US missile bases is clearly a problem for some. Should it be solved, in the absence of political or diplomatic capacity, with yet another civil war?

(photo: army.md)