Moldova’s prime minister expressed alarm on Monday at the crisis in Ukraine’s Crimea region, saying it was “contagious” and could stoke separatist sentiment in his country’s rebel Russian-speaking territory of Transdniestria.

Moldova, an ex-Soviet republic wedged between Ukraine and Romania, with a population of about four million, is planning to sign a landmark trade deal with the EU. The pact is similar to that which Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych dumped, sparking the crisis which brought him down.

With a breakaway territory within its borders, where 2,500 Russian soldiers guard arms stocks from the Soviet era, Moldova is looking on nervously at the crisis in Crimea, roughly 360 kilometres to the east along the Black Sea coast. Russian forces there have taken control of strategic points in support of a separatist drive by the majority ethnic Russian population after the ousting of the pro-Moscow Yanukovych.

Rebel territory in Moldova has Russian forces

“The tense situation in Crimea is a threat to the security of the whole region. The evolution of the situation will create new problems and threats, both direct and indirect for Moldova,” Prime Minister Iurie Leanca told journalists after returning from a trip to Washington.

Leanca was clearly concerned that the Crimean crisis could generate a new wave of separatist sentiment in Transdniestria as the central government pilots Moldova towards a deal with the EU.

Transdniestria, with a population of half a million, has run its own affairs since 1992 after fighting a brief war against the Moldovan government over fears that it might join Romania, with which it shares a languageand culture.

The rebel Russian-speaking territory regards Moscow as its patron.

Its independence is not recognised by the world com­­­­­­­­­­– munity and Russia too has so far refused Tiraspol’s pleas to be taken into the Russian Federation.

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