On Tuesday, President Vladimir Putin withdrew a 2012 directive that supported Moldova’s sovereignty in deciding the future of Transdniestria, a Moscow-backed separatist enclave bordering Ukraine where Russia has soldiers.

Eleven years ago, Russia’s foreign policy, which included Moldova, established tighter links with the EU and US.

The decision was made to “secure the national interests of Russia in accordance with the substantial changes taking place in international relations,” according to the order canceling the 2012 document published on the Kremlin’s website.

That is one of several anti-Western actions Putin outlined on Tuesday.

The cancellation did not imply that Putin was giving up on the idea of Moldovan sovereignty, according to Alexandru Flenchea, the chairman of the joint control committee for Moldova in the security zone around Transdniestria.

According to Flenchea, the decree “is a policy instrument that executes the notion of Russia’s foreign policy.” “Moldova and Russia share a fundamental political accord that calls for respect for each other’s nations’ territorial integrity.”

According to the Kremlin, ties between Russia and Moldova, which approved a new pro-Western prime minister last week who promised to pursue an EU membership campaign, were extremely strained. Moldova was charged with having an anti-Russian agenda.

Moldova, one of Europe’s poorest countries wedged between Romania and Ukraine, has been under President Maia Sandu’s strong U.S. and European Union support since 2020. Tuesday, U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden visited with her in Poland to express his support.

Under the 2012 order, Russia was obligated to look for solutions to the separatist problem “based on respect for the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and neutral position of the Republic of Moldova in defining the special status of Transdniestria.”

In 1990, one year before the fall of the Soviet Union, the Transdniestrians who spoke Russian broke away from Moldova out of concern that Moldova would combine with Romania, with whom it had a close linguistic and cultural affinity.

In 1992, the newly formed Moldova engaged the separatists in a brief battle. Yet, there hasn’t been much bloodshed over the past 30 years, and Russian “peacekeepers” are still stationed in the little patch of unknown territory.

The foreign ministry of Moldova stated that it would “seriously review” the letter.

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