Russia still desperately trying to built a case for a war in Moldova
just redo what they did in ukraine
invade ("special operation acktually") -> shit out casus belli afterwards
such as in the case of ukraine, ukranian biolabs developing anti-slav bio-weapons, which gets funnier the more you think about and is probably why russia skipped to other talking points
Maybe it's just me but it feels to me Russia should have done the false flag thing with Moldova 2 months ago.
Doing it now causes some chaos and propaganda, ok, but they don't have the means to really exploit it. They didn't take Kiev, they are bugged down in Eastern Ukraine, far away from Moldova.
Ok, they have a few thousands, poorly trained Russian troops in Transnistria. That's apparently enough to keep the breakaway territory, but not enough to invade Ukraine from the West or take over Moldova. So really, why show you can't do anything about Transnistria being "attacked"?
A couple of reasons.
1. It links up all the occupied Russian land in the south and used to be part of the Russian Empire Putin wants to restore
2. It stops Ukraine from deploying the forces they have in the west to the Donbas
3. The threat might prompt Ukraine(or Romania) to move into Moldova(giving the Russians a reason to invade)
4. They need a 'victory' by May 9th. Moldova has no army or defenses and is an easy target
5. After the FSB bungled things with the coup that didn't happen, the army took point and promised victory.
They might simply see it as a strategic move to block supplies and have another launchpad for attacks on Ukraine
The Russian Imperialists pretty much see it like this. All those lands were stolen from them by NATO and Nazi US puppet regimes are in power so they must either surrender or be removed from power.
The people there have been 'brainwashed' for generations by western propaganda so of course there is resistance and it will again take generations to 'pacify' those areas so they can be of service to the empire.
I think Poland is making the right move by putting pressure on Belarus as that is the weakest link. Putin wants Lukashenka to send his armies but he hesistated once it was clear the Russians would not take Kyiv and his army would revolt.