NATO Believes Attempts to Destabilize Moldova Likely to Continue

CHISINAU (Sputnik) - NATO believes that there are no military risks for Moldova, but provocations to destabilize the situation in Transnistria may continue, NATO Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoana said on Saturday.

"We do not see imminent military risks against Moldova. Instead, we expect provocative actions, actions under someone else's flag… We can say that attempts to destabilize the situation will continue," Geoana said in an interview with Digi 24 broadcaster.

The purpose of these actions will not be to put pressure on Moldova, but to create difficulties for Ukrainian forces in western Ukraine, in the Odessa region, he added.

A series of explosions hit Transnistria, which borders Ukraine, on Monday and Tuesday. The local authorities introduced the highest level of terrorist threat alert.

The Transnistrian investigative authority has initiated a criminal probe into "an act of terrorism committed by a group of people with firearms." Transnistrian President Vadim Krasnoselsky claimed that the traces of the organizers lead to Ukraine, while Moldovan President Maia Sandu insisted that the attempts to escalate the situation in the region are undertaken by violent forces within Transnistria, which intend to drag Moldova into war.

Transnistria, 60% of whose population is Russian and Ukrainian, sought to secede from Moldova even before the collapse of the Soviet Union, fearing that Moldova would integrate with Romania. In 1992, after a failed attempt by the Moldovan authorities to solve the issue by force, Transnistria became a territory not controlled by Chisinau de facto.