CHISINAU. Aug 15 (Interfax) - The Moldovan government's bureau of reintegration has expressed concern over Russian troops training in Transdniestria, the bureau said in a statement obtained by Interfax on Wednesday.
The Moldovan delegation to the Joint Control Commission (JCC), which monitors the situation in the security zone on the Dniester river, sees the exercise of the Operative Group of Russian Troops in said zone as "provocative and challenging," the statement said.
On August 14, a concentration of armored vehicles (of BTR-70 type) and army trucks without registration numbers, was spotted on the left bank of Dniester, just off the beach in the Ternovka village, Slobozia district, and near the pedestrian bridge across the river Dniester in Tiraspol, the bureau said. According to eyewitnesses, "a roar of engines of armored vehicles was well audible and they were seen entering the River Dniester," the bureau said.
"The military command of the Moldovan Peacekeeping Forces and representatives from the OSCE [Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe] Mission in Moldova attempted to verify this information. They travelled to the reported area but were met by some military officers who presented themselves as a patrol of Operative Group of Russian Troops and obstructed the inspection," the statement said.
The patrol was in the buffer zone without Joint Military Command representatives, Moldovan officials said.
The exercise is announced on the official website of the Russian Western Military District.
"These actions, like other analogous precedents, undertaken in the Security Zone by Russian troops, and the manner of interpreting these actions, are qualified by the Moldovan side as being provocative and challenging. They violate the existing mechanism for keeping the Security Zone regime in place and the fundamental principles of peacekeeping. Representatives from one of the JCC components cannot perform their obligations while disregarding the JCC's main documents and regulations," the bureau stated, expressing its "extreme concern and puzzlement over the unauthorized start of military drills near Dniester, which may cause only tension in the security zone."