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Moldova sees 'prelude to war' with Russia-backed forces
By EUobserver
Last month's declaration by the breakaway Moldovan region of Transniestria that it wanted to join Russia, coupled with a spike in anonymous bomb threats in Chișinău, looked like "a kind of prelude to an operation in Moldova", Oleg Serebrian, Moldova's deputy prime minister, told British newspaper The Times. Transniestria hosts at least 1,500 Russian troops. Russia-friendly separatists in Moldova's southern Gagauzia region have also redoubled calls to split away.