Jean-Claude Juncker, the former Luxembourg premier who wants to be the next head of the European Commission, said Europe must rush through an association deal with Moldova to avoid it becoming Russian President Vladimir Putin’s next target for annexation.

“After events in Ukraine, it is of great urgency that the Europeans sign the association agreement with Moldova very quickly, in the next few weeks,” Juncker told the German newspaper Die Welt am Sonntag in an interview.

Putin has to know that he cannot do in Moldova what he did in Crimea

The President of Moldova warned Russia last week not to consider any move to take over Moldova’s separatist Transdniestria region in the same way it has taken control of Crimea in Ukraine.

He was responding to comments by the Speaker of the region’s separatist Parliament urging Moscow to incorporate the mainly Russian-speaking region, which split from Moldova in 1990 a year before the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

“We have to steal a march on Putin, he has to know that he cannot do in Moldova what he did in Crimea,” said Juncker.

“Otherwise Moldova could be the next victim of Russian aggression. Putin only reacts to EU action when we make it clear that we won’t accept his behaviour,” said Juncker.