From Newsweek, February 13:
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby on Monday said reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin is allegedly plotting a coup in Moldova are "deeply concerning."
Kirby made the remarks during a press briefing when asked about Moldovan President Maia Sandu's comments earlier in the day in which she accused Putin of wanting to overthrow her country's government.
According to Sandu, Putin is allegedly planning to use foreign saboteurs to destroy Moldova's leadership and stop her nation from joining the European Union. Sandu, who is an ally of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelesnky, also accused Putin of wanting to use Moldova in the war against Ukraine.
Kirby said that while the United States has not verified the coup reports, he believes Putin is capable of attempting such an act.
"Deeply concerning reports," Kirby said. "We absolutely stand with the Moldovan government and Moldovan people. We haven't seen independent confirmation, but it's certainly a page right out of Putin's playbook."....
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It is difficult to ascertain whether Putin is making a move or if the CIA is making a move.
In the 2019 RAND Corporation report, which we posted 2 1/2 weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine, we saw:
"The RAND Corporation Blueprint For Forcing Putin To Over-Extend Himself"
I hope that the U.S. or NATO or whoever commissioned this study didn't pay a lot for it, it's basically the strategy that Pope John Paul II, Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan came up with in the early 1980's although the details do differ. The tactical components of the RAND plan are:
1. Arming Ukraine ;
2. Increase support for jihadists in Syria;
3. Promoting regime change in Belarus;
4. Exploiting tensions in the South Caucasus;
5. Reducing Russian influence in Central Asia;
6. Rivaling the Russian presence in Transnistria.....MUCH MORE
Here's that bit of land via BigThink's Strange Maps:
And here is the relevant section of RAND's Extending Russia: Competing from Advantageous Ground, page 130 of the report (pp. 158 of the PDF)
Measure 6: Challenge Russian Presence in Moldova
Nestled between Romania and Ukraine with no seacoast of its own, Moldova, a former republic of the Soviet Union, is now an independent country. Transnistria is a Russian-speaking enclave within Moldova that currently hosts a Russian peacekeeping (some might say occupa- tion) force and army base. John Todd Stewart, who was U.S. ambassa- dor to Moldova from 1995 to 1998, described Moldova as “the Florida of the [Soviet Union], the republic with the most temperate climate, which was attractive to retirees. These people do not speak Romanian and have no connections with the area, period.”126 As the Soviet Union was collapsing in 1990, Transnistria—home to about a half-million Russophone residents today—broke away from Moldova.127
A brief conflict between pro-Transnistrian forces and the Moldovan police and military ended inconclusively.128Moldova never reasserted its control over the breakaway region, but no member of the United Nations— including Russia—recognized its existence either.129
Therefore, Transnistria has existed in a sort of netherworld for the past several decades....
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