CHISINAU, September 10. /TASS/. People in the non-recognized republic of Transnistrian are afraid that Moldova might re-ignite and that is why want Russian peacekeepers to stay in the republic, Elena Bobkova, head of the Center for Studies of Peacekeeping Activities under the Transnistrian State University, said.

"We see non-stop drills in Moldova, purchases of new weapons, reports about movements of combat vehicles in Moldova, joint exercises with NATO countries. And, naturally, anyone, not only experts, ask a question: what is Moldova getting prepared for? Now, I think that the biggest threat and the highest risk is potential hostilities from Moldova," she said, adding that the opinion polls conducted over the period of Transnistria’s existence reveal that the overwhelming majority of people are afraid that the 1992 conflict could recur and that is why they oppose Moldova’s proposals to withdraw Russian peacekeepers from the region.

"If you ask people whether anything should be done with the peacekeepers, I am sure 110% of them will say ‘no,’ peacekeepers should not be withdrawn. This is the answer that has not changed over the 32 years the peacekeeping mission has been deployed to the region," she stressed.

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum earlier that Moscow would interpret any provocations against Russian peacekeepers and citizens in Transnistria as an attack on Russia. The current Moldovan authorities, in her words, are leading their country "along Ukraine’s ruinous path" by following the West’s anti-Russian course.

Transnistria, a largely Russian-speaking region on the left bank of the Dniester River, broke away from Moldova in September 1990 when radical Moldovan politicians demanded that the republic withdraw from the former Soviet Union and unify with Romania. Its relations with Moldova’s central government in Chisinau have been highly mixed and extremely tense at times ever since then. In 1992, after Chisinau tried to resolve the problem with the use of force, tensions erupted into a bloody armed conflict that claimed the lives of hundreds of people on both sides.

The fratricidal war was stopped after a ceasefire was signed in 1992 and Russian peacekeepers were brought into the conflict area. Negotiations on the conflict’s peace settlement known as the 5+2 format (Moldova, Transnistria, the OSCE, Russia, Ukraine and observers from the United States and the European Union) started after that. Since then, Russian peacekeepers, along with their Transnistrian and Moldovan colleagues, as well as group of military observers from Ukraine have been maintaining peace in the region.

Apart from that, a Russian group of forces of around 1,000 soldiers and officers is deployed to the region to ensure the security of depots holding more than 20,000 tons of munitions that were put in storage there after the withdrawal of Soviet troops from European countries. A weapons and munitions withdrawal and disposal campaign started in 2001, but in 2004 the Transnistrian authorities cut it short following a deterioration in relations with Moldova. These troops are also supporting the peacekeepers who have found themselves literally under blockade after Ukraine blocked logistics routes through its territory.

However, Moldova insists on withdrawing the Russian military and replacing peacekeepers by civilian observers. Transnistria doesn’t share this position, saying that the withdrawal of Russian forces will lead to the recurrence of the armed conflict.