might be worth pointing out that this happened in Transnistria (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transnistria) a part of Moldova that has stronger political ties to Russia than to Moldova. It's complicated.
This doesn't seem to be correct. According to the press releases from the Moldovan Prosecutor-General's office, the factory is "in a locality in the Criuleni District", so it's in territory controlled by the Moldovan government. But several individuals associated with this operation, including its leader, live in territory that the Moldovan government does not control (i.e. in Transnistria). This latter complication is specifically mentioned.
Transnistria claimed independence a while ago. Only Russia acknowledges their claim but de facto Moldova has lost the monopoly on violence in that small region.
Transnistria is basically following the same pattern as North Georgia or East Ukraine. Step 1 is a "separatists" group pops up overnight and declares independence. Step 2 is the totally legit "separatists" happen to do exactly the things Russia would do if they had annexed the place per se. Step 3 is Russia acknowledges the "independence" of the "breakaway" region and also denies being behind the separatists to begin with. Step 4 is Western leaders send strongly worded letters and symbolic sanctions. Step 5 is everyone forgets and the relationship status is set to "it's complicated".
This is how Russia invades without invading. The relevant term of art is "hybrid warfare".
Not the GP, but probably the "complicated" part is that the Moldovan prosecutors would not be able to shut down an illegal factory in Transnistria, which is de facto independent. The fact that the workers were from Transnistria probably provided them some type of immunity for a while. It's quite unlikely that the factory and the operation itself was really unknown. It's more likely that for political reasons, the authorities needed to turn a blind eye to it. What exactly changed now, who knows? It's complicated ...
temp-dude-87844|5 years ago
Press releases from the Moldovan government:
http://procuratura.md/md/newslst/1211/1/8368/
http://procuratura.md/md/newslst/1211/1/8371/
FpUser|5 years ago
ummwhat|5 years ago
Transnistria is basically following the same pattern as North Georgia or East Ukraine. Step 1 is a "separatists" group pops up overnight and declares independence. Step 2 is the totally legit "separatists" happen to do exactly the things Russia would do if they had annexed the place per se. Step 3 is Russia acknowledges the "independence" of the "breakaway" region and also denies being behind the separatists to begin with. Step 4 is Western leaders send strongly worded letters and symbolic sanctions. Step 5 is everyone forgets and the relationship status is set to "it's complicated".
This is how Russia invades without invading. The relevant term of art is "hybrid warfare".
credit_guy|5 years ago
Florin_Andrei|5 years ago
When history involves territories changing owners, and Stalinist Russia was involved at some point, then things are always "complicated".