Russia Deputy PM Delivers Transdniestr Petition despite Moldova Effort

Russia's deputy prime minister said Sunday he had managed to bring to Moscow boxes of petitions asking Russia to recognize Moldova's breakaway Transdniestr region despite an attempt by authorities in Chisinau to confiscate them.

Transdniestr, which borders Ukraine and is mainly Russian-speaking, declared independence from Moldova in 1990 and has Russian troops stationed there but is not recognized by any country.

Dmitry Rogozin, who is also President Vladimir Putin's special representative to Transdniestr, visited the separatist region for Friday celebrations marking victory over the Nazis in World War II.

Russia's annexation of Crimea has prompted fears it could claim other disputed ex-Soviet regions with majority Russian-speaking populations.

Rogozin said he had managed to deliver the petition and most boxes of signatures to Moscow despite a search of his delegation's plane by Moldovan authorities at the airport in Chisinau.

"The signatures of the Transdniestrians on recognizing the republic are in Moscow. The Moldovan special services who delayed our flight just got the smaller part of our cargo," Rogozin boasted on Facebook.

Chisinau said late Saturday that it had "seized these materials in order to examine them".

It slammed Rogozin's "unproductive" acts and "provocative statements on Moldova", saying they "do not help to make progress in the Transdniestr conflict."

Rogozin warned that the confiscations would have consequences for Romanian-speaking Moldova, which angered Moscow by initialing an association agreement with the European Union in November.

"Chisinau's provocation will have serious consequences for our bilateral relations," Rogozin said.

His visit coincided with Putin's making his first trip to Crimea since annexation.

Rogozin wrote angrily on Twitter that Ukraine prevented his plane from flying over its airspace on the outward journey from Moscow, while on the return flight EU member Romania barred his plane from its airspace.

"Next time I will fly in a Tu-160" strategic bomber, he wrote.

"A Russian deputy prime minister threatening to use a strategic bomber is a very serious threat in the current regional context," Romania's foreign office replied in a statement.

Russian Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky, also in the delegation, told state television on Saturday that Ukraine had turned back the plane after take-off from Chisinau.

Rogozin had already flown to Moscow separately, Medinsky said, without elaborating.

Rogozin, an outspoken former envoy to NATO, frequently voices nationalist and anti-European views.