Philip Breedlove: Russia starts “hybrid war” against Moldova

NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Europe says Russia begins to use the scenario of the “hybrid war” against Moldova.

The Daily Beast writes about it, RBC reports.

“To the little green men thing, we've clearly now seen the script play out in Crimea, we've seen the script play out in eastern Ukraine. We're beginning to see some of the script in Moldova and Transnistria,” Breelove said during a discussion at the the Atlantic Council.

Russia conducted military exercises in Transnistria at the beginning of 2014. The president of Moldova warned Moscow against annexing Transnistria on the scenario of Crimea. Russia's deputy PM Dmitry Rogozin said last year a closer cooperation between Moldova and the EU could cause Chisinau to lose control of Transnistria and lead to an increase in prices of energy from Russia.

Breedlove said NATO has now a general understanding of how Russia uses its hybrid war tactics. It is important to figure out how to help countries in eastern Europe survive the initial onslaught of the little green men scenario, he thinks. He recalled that NATO cannot interfere with internal conflicts of states, but can react to a direct attack of an outside aggressor.

“This hybrid war, if it kicks off, [...] is not a NATO issue, it is an internal to the nation issue,” the general said.

He noted in this regard that NATO members need to decide what their responsibilities should be in situations like Ukraine, if a country in conflict is not a member of the alliance. “Right now, there is no NATO policy on what to do in those nations that find themselves outside of the alliance and not in the Russian Federation,” Breedlove said.

He said Russia ultimately needed to be part of the solution. “I don't think we can ever arrive at a Europe whole, free and at peace without Russia as a partner,” the general thinks.