Moldova’s breakaway pro-Russian
region of Transnistria has appealed to Russian President
Vladimir Putin to recognize its independence after Russia’s
annexation of Crimea.

The appeal by the Parliament of Transnistria, city and
district council members and community associations “express
the aspirations of the people of Transnistria” and is based on
the results of referendums held in 1991, 1995 and 2006, the
parliament of the unrecognized state said on its website.

Moldova, eastern Europe’s second-smallest economy, shares a
border with Ukraine where tensions escalated after Russia
annexed the Crimean peninsula. Moldova is on the verge of
signing an association agreement with the European Union, while
Transnistria wants to join Russia, Evgeny Shevchuk, president of
the self-proclaimed republic, said April 7.

The Transnistrian parliament’s appeal is a “direct
defiance” of Moldova’s territorial integrity and efforts to
settle the territorial dispute, the country’s government said in
a statement on its website.

According to the most recent referendum in 2006, 97.2
percent of Transnistrian voters favored joining Russia and 2.3
percent were opposed.

“Transnistria is a Russian-language land, more than 90
percent of Transnistrians speak and think in Russian,” the
region’s parliament said in its statement.

Russia has maintained troops in Transnistria since the 1992
military conflict with Moldova as part of a peace-keeping force
that includes Moldovans, Transnistrian militants and Ukrainian
military observers.

To contact the reporters on this story:
Olga Tanas in Moscow at
otanas@bloomberg.net;
Andra Timu in Bucharest at
atimu@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Balazs Penz at
bpenz@bloomberg.net
James Kraus