Root of the Transnistria conflict

Recently, tensions have been boiling over in the small Eastern European state of Moldova where Ukraine and Russia are accusing each other of attempting to destablize Moldova. Yet, the modern Moldova has nothing to do with the traditional kingdom of Moldavia and is, in fact, a product of a string of complicated and sometimes weird history dating back to the early 20th century.

The troubles began 1940 when the Soviet troops moved in and occupied the Romanian region of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina. It was a part of the much larger historical trend of Soviet expansions at the time. The Romanian government was forced to withdraw from Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina under the pressure of a looming Soviet utlimantum, and the Soviet army moved in to establish the "Moldovan Soviet Socialist Republic". This was the beginning of the history of modern Moldova. During the Soviet German war, the Moldovan Soviet SR was occupied by the marching German army and Germany returned the region back to Romania. Thus, when the Soviets took it back in 1945, The Soviets, in an attempt to consolidate their control over Moldova, migrated many ethnic Russians into the Moldovan SSR. These Russians mostly concentrated around the Northern part of Moldova near the Moldova-Ukraine border, forming the earliest form of the future "Transnistria". Moldova's postwar history in the Soviet Union wasn't that bad. The Moldavian SSR received substantial financial aid to develop it's unique industry, thus becoming an integral part of the Soviet economic supplying system.

Everything started to break down after the liberal reform of Gorbachev in the late 1980s. Moldovan independence movement at the time was growing as the Soviet Union's grip over it's many "republics" started to break down. This led to the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 but that's the greater aspect of the event. In Moldova, the local nationalist movement was confronted with the "unionists" made up of primarily ethnic Russians. Worst of all, this separatist movement of ethnic Russians were centred around the Transnistria region which is the Eastern bank of the Dniester river. The result: the unilateral declaration of an independent ethnic Russian state called Transnistria in the East Bank of the Dniester river. This move was the accumulation of the fear that loomed over the Russian community in Moldova as they feared the growing Moldovan nationalism could threaten their livelihood. Furthermore, there were still remnants of the Soviet army stationed in Moldova, resulting in the conflict escalating into an all out military engagement that ended in a tie.

Ever since 1992 when the short Transnistria war ended with a part of Moldova breaking away, the Moldovan conflict became a frozen conflict. In Moldova itself, there were growing calls of reunification with Romania, further splitting the nationalist camp of Moldova between those who want to maintain Moldovan independence and those who want to rejoin Romania. The pro independence sector was later associated with the pro Russian camp while the reunification camp came closer with the NATO and EU camp of Western countries. As the Ukrainian conflict boiled over, Moldova's sovereignty may well be threatened as one of the main goals of Russia is to establish land connection with Transnistria and establish a foothold in Eastern Europe, highlighting Moldova's importance in the growing storm of global crisis.