Lawmakers of the pro-Moscow breakaway region of Transdniester assailed calls by the Moldovan government that Russia pull its troops out of the territory.
Transdniester’s parliament on July 22 released a statement calling the Moldovan lawmakers’ demands a "reflection of Chisinau's strategy to destabilize the situation, to fuel the conflict, and bring it to the ‘hot phase,’" Russian state-run TASS news agency reported.
The Moldovan parliament, in a July 21 vote supported by 61 of the 101 members of parliament, approved a “symbolic” statement that called for the removal of Russian troops, weapons, and other military equipment from Transdniester.
The declaration said presence of Russian forces "violates the constitutional provisions on independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity" of Moldova.
Moscow-backed and mainly Russian-speaking Transdniester, which borders on Ukraine's Odesa region, declared independence from Moldova in 1990.
The two sides fought a brief war in 1992 that ended when the Russian military intervened on the side of Transdniester, which is not recognized as an independent nation by any country, although Moscow has been unofficially backing the separatist regime.
Moldova itself is split between a pro-West government and a president, Igor Dodon, who supports closer ties with Moscow.