CHIȘINĂU — For the first time in three decades, Moldova thinks it finally has the leverage to kick Russia out of the country.
But it comes with a quandary: how to do that without unleashing a humanitarian crisis on its own citizens.
Since gaining independence in the 1990s, Moldova has been locked in a frozen conflict with Moscow over Transnistria, a Kremlin-backed separatist region near Moldova’s eastern border with over a quarter-million people.
The face-off has been tense but maintained by a powerful connection: Moldova gets cut-rate Russian energy via Transnistria, which gets hundreds of millions of euros a year in return. The link allowed Russia to preserve control over the strategic strip of land along the Ukrainian border, where its troops are stationed despite Moldova’s objections.
