NATO's supreme allied commander is warning that Russia's annexation of Crimea might not be its last acquisition in the region. According to The Guardian, Gen. Philip Breedlove is concerned that the next target might be the Trans-Dniester region, a Russian-speaking separatist territory that broke away from Moldova in the early 1990s. "There is absolutely sufficient force postured on the eastern border of Ukraine to run to Trans-Dniester if the decision was made to do that," Breedlove said. "That is very worrisome."
Russian annexation of Trans-Dniester, which borders on southern Ukraine, near the key port of Odessa, would put a strong Russian military presence along a southwestern front and squeeze Kiev from another direction. Earlier this week, Moldova's president, Nicolae Timofti, said in a news conference that "any decision by Moscow to accept Trans-Dniester 'would be a step in the wrong direction.'" Neither Moldova nor the international community accepts the region as a sovereign nation. --Catherine Garcia
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