The Nistru war of 1992 wasn’t against the Transnistrian separatist forces, but against Russia. Such statements were made in the talk show “Moldova live” on the public TV channel “Moldova 1”, IPN reports.

Director of the Center for Strategic Research and Political Consultancy “Politicon” Anatol Taranu said the Transnistrian separatism was created by Russia in a move to maintain its geopolitical influence in the region. “The Russian Federation was the first of the union republics that declared its sovereignty. It was logical for the separatism actions to appear in Moldova first. Moscow created this separatist region in order to keep Moldova in the sphere of influence of the former Soviet Union and then to maintain its geopolitical influence in the area,” he stated.

Anatol Taranu noted that the Nistru war was a Moldovan-Russian one. “We lost it even if we fought with sacrifice. It was impossible to win against such an adversary as Russia. Now Russia acts as a negotiator in the Transnistrian conflict settlement talks in the 5+2 format. I think this format should be changed or we will never make headway in the negotiations,” said the analyst.

University professor Mihai Cernencu drew a parallel between the situation in Transnistria 23 years ago and the current situation in Ukraine. “We, the citizens of Moldova, were called fascists, as the Ukrainians are now named by the separatists from the Easter districts of Ukraine. As Ukraine, we also fought against Russia,” he said.

Oazu Nantoi, program director at the Institute of Public Policy, also said that the 1992 war was a Moldovan-Russian one. “The ceasefire agreement signed by Mircea Snegur and Boris Yeltsin on June 21, 1992 is the main argument that was taken by the ECHR into account in the case of Ilie Ilascu. Igor Smirnov’s signature is absent from the original of this document,” he stated.