"There is absolutely sufficient (Russian) force postured on the eastern border of Ukraine to run to Transdniester if the decision was made to do that and that is very worrisome," said Gen Breedlove, who is Nato's Supreme Allied Commander in Europe.
Gen Breedlove issued his warning at event in Brussels held by the Marshall Fund, a German think-tank. On Tuesday, the government of Moldova warned Russia against any moves to annex Transdniester, following comments from the speaker of Transdniester's parliament urging Moscow to incorporate the enclave.
Gen Breedlove said he was concerned that the Kremlin viewed Transdniester as the "next place where Russian-speaking people may need to be incorporated."
"The (Russian) force that is at the Ukrainian border now to the east is very, very sizeable and very, very ready," he said.
He did not specify how the Russian forces would get there. Transdniestria is landlocked and to go there by land would require Russian troops to travel through much of western Ukraine. However, Russian forces based in the Eastern side of the Black Sea and Crimea could conceivably stage an airlift.
A statue of Lenin outside Tiraspol's Parliament building (Julian Simmonds)
Since it fought a brief separatist war to breakaway from Moldova in 1991, Transdniester has been home to "peacekeeping" garrison of around 1,000 Russian troops. Until now, the Kremlin is thought to have treated the enclave as being too small and unimportant to be worth incorporating into the Russian Federation. But the recent events in Crimea may have changed that calculus.
Transdniester issues its own passports, stamps and currency, despite the fact that hardly any other country in the world recognises it as a sovereign state. The European Union and Ukraine have long regarded it as a haven for smuggling and other illegal activities.
Moldova, whose five million people mostly speak the Latin dialects of neighbouring Romania, is Europe's poorest country, and has ambitions to eventually become part of the European Union.
It is currently negotiating a free trade agreement with the European Union, the same one that Ukraine's ousted President, Viktor Yanukovych, abandoned last November amid massive Kremlin pressure.
Signing the free trade agreement would take Moldova firmly into the European fold, but Transdniester's unresolved status would make full membership of the EU or Nato more complicated. As such, some believe the Kremlin has a direct vested interest in fomenting further pro-Russian sentiment in Transdniester.
Gen Breedlove issued his warning at event in Brussels held by the Marshall Fund, a German think-tank. On Tuesday, the government of Moldova warned Russia against any moves to annex Transdniester, following comments from the speaker of Transdniester's parliament urging Moscow to incorporate the enclave.
Gen Breedlove said he was concerned that the Kremlin viewed Transdniester as the "next place where Russian-speaking people may need to be incorporated."
"The (Russian) force that is at the Ukrainian border now to the east is very, very sizeable and very, very ready," he said.
He did not specify how the Russian forces would get there. Transdniestria is landlocked and to go there by land would require Russian troops to travel through much of western Ukraine. However, Russian forces based in the Eastern side of the Black Sea and Crimea could conceivably stage an airlift.
A statue of Lenin outside Tiraspol's Parliament building (Julian Simmonds)
Since it fought a brief separatist war to breakaway from Moldova in 1991, Transdniester has been home to "peacekeeping" garrison of around 1,000 Russian troops. Until now, the Kremlin is thought to have treated the enclave as being too small and unimportant to be worth incorporating into the Russian Federation. But the recent events in Crimea may have changed that calculus.
Transdniester issues its own passports, stamps and currency, despite the fact that hardly any other country in the world recognises it as a sovereign state. The European Union and Ukraine have long regarded it as a haven for smuggling and other illegal activities.
Moldova, whose five million people mostly speak the Latin dialects of neighbouring Romania, is Europe's poorest country, and has ambitions to eventually become part of the European Union.
It is currently negotiating a free trade agreement with the European Union, the same one that Ukraine's ousted President, Viktor Yanukovych, abandoned last November amid massive Kremlin pressure.
Signing the free trade agreement would take Moldova firmly into the European fold, but Transdniester's unresolved status would make full membership of the EU or Nato more complicated. As such, some believe the Kremlin has a direct vested interest in fomenting further pro-Russian sentiment in Transdniester.
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