Moldovan Civil War

The Moldovan Civil War was a year-long conflict fought in the republic of Moldova which pitted the Neo-Soviet Union and its loyalists against the various pro-Romanian and pro-Ukrainian separatist factions in the region.

Background
Though there'd never been a shortage of dissidents in the fringe territories of the Soviet Union, Moldova was a uniquely messy little country. The republic was home to more than a dozen different separatist groups, each with widely differing goals and reasons for their discontent. And yet, despite all of the tension there, the government maintained some semblance of control for years not simply because of propaganda, militias, and puppet officials but because the pro-separatists' own incoherence made it nearly impossible for them to gain any real traction with the locals.

Over time, however, most Moldovans became increasingly frustrated by the corruption and uselessness of their political leaders, as well the blatant exploitation by the corps, resulting in a period of frequent protests beginning in December of 2020. This led to the government becoming more heavy-handed in its attempts at maintaining order, usually dispersing protests through heightening brutality and, in turn, sparking even larger protests. This vicious cycle would continue into March 2021, when the powder-keg called Moldova inevitably exploded.

Tiraspol protests and uprising
Large-scale protests had erupted all over Moldova for months, though none were quite as large nor as persistent as those taking place in the Dniester city of Tiraspol. Everyday since the protests first began in December, the people of Tiraspol took to the streets in their thousands to challenge the State. The local metro police typically escalated these protests into violent riots after clashing with these demonstrators unprovoked, initially hoping to break their spirits, yet Dniester had been the epicenter of dissent against the State and Corps for years; the people were not only galvanized by instances of police brutality, but typically fought back at nearly every opportunity.

By the spring, it was the police who were most exhausted and outnumbered. Frustrated and running out of options to pacify the protests, the State launched a brutal crackdown in March where law enforcement agencies from across Moldova were called to the region. In addition, the GRU also deployed military police to the city.

What followed was all-out chaos as emboldened and enraged police, backed by the brutal state military, flooded the streets attacking anyone they perceived to be a part of the protests. In the span of a single night, there were over 500 arrests, 1,000 injuries, and 100 dead or disappeared, though the state denied the use of excessive force to the media. As the crackdown persisted into a second night, many of the protestors—though initially scattered—rallied once more, now backed by pro-Ukrainian separatists. For years, these same separatists had been smuggling dope to Ukraine in exchange for firearms in hopes of sparking a rebellion and now, they had an opportunity to seize the moment.

The city's dissidents, now armed by rebels, clashed with police across Tiraspol and in other parts of Dniester. After seizing control of city hall, the separatists officially declare themselves independent from the Soviet Union and took the name of Transnistria.

Full-scale civil war
Not long after secessionists took over the Dniester Republic, Romanian nationalists in Ungheni, Hîncești, and a handful of other districts concurrently rebelled as well, joining forces with radical groups in neighboring Romania to force a unification of the two nations into a new Bessarabia. In response to this growing socio-political crisis, the GRU mobilized two full divisions—including units of spetsnaz—to Moldova, initially serving in "support and advisory" roles for the local Soviet loyalists in the region.

Over the next several months, violence raged across several districts in Moldova with spillover in Romania as well. Three months into the fighting and the GRU officially took control of the fight to quell the uprisings, forcing the embattled locals into an almost auxiliary role. Most of the engagements between the State and the separatists were small-scale and precise, with spetsnaz units usually breaking up entire rebel cells over night before conventional forces mopped up the remnants. Other clashes, however, were far more destructive.

Battles in cities like Tiraspol and Chișinău, along with the suburban and rural areas surrounding them, the fighting was protracted, bloody, and catastrophic. GRU armored, artillery, and air units were heavily utilized in these areas where rebels were the most entrenched. Separatists here were also more desperate, using whatever tactics possible to slow the advances of their enemy, including a fair amount of war crimes. Predictably, most of the conflict's casualties stemmed from these fronts.

SovOil intervention
Eventually, Soviet World Oil Industries—or SovOil, as it is more commonly known—finally joined the conflict, taking the side of the State as it held vested interest in the USSR remaining unified. With its arsenal of the best hardware and personnel in the Soviet Union, SovOil was able to steamroll separatist strongholds with far greater ease than its State counterparts. Leaders of the secessionist groups were hunted down and assassinated by elite "black beret" commandos, while their netrunners seized, exploited, or dismantled entire separatist-run data networks.

Within weeks of SovOil joining the conflict, the war wound down to its last legs. The last holdouts of the pro-Ukrainian Dniester Republic in their Tiraspol/Transnistria stronghold were hunted down and obliterated at the end of August. A little over a month later, the last leaders of the pro-Romanian United Bessarabian Front surrendered. Thus, after approximately nine months of fighting, the war officially concluded in early October of 2020 though small pockets of rebel activity would continue to erupt from time to time. In response, a counter-terrorism task force was created which SovOil would take the lead on; in fact, the megacorporation would come out of the war with its leveraged power over the State greatly increased.

Notable participants

 * Olga Radchenko