> They don't have russian passorts.

You clearly are not familiar with how things work in Transnistria.

I'm from around that region so I'm quite familiar.

Just because Putin says those people are Russians so he can claim some clay, doesn't make it a fact.

Sure some are ethnically Russian, but that doesn't make them Russian citizens.

They are Moldovan citizens. Transnistria is a rouge separatist nation that's not internationally recognized and only exists on paper because Russia has troops and weapons there and Moldova is too weak to do anything about it.

> I'm from around that region so I'm quite familiar.

Not sufficiently familiar then.

"It is estimated that about 250,000 out of 500,000 people living in Transnistria hold Russian citizenship."

That's as of 2020, "passportization" has continued since then.

https://warsawinstitute.org/russia-hands-passports-diaspora/

If France were to give french passports to a lot of Germans in a particular region of Germany, that region doesn't magically become a French asset/territory.

Transnistria is literally controlled by Russian armed forces…

Which are there illegally as they occupy the territory of the sovereign nation of Moldova.

Case in point, no other UN nation recognizes Transnistria or Transnistrean passports. Transnistrean citizens travel with Moldovan passports.

You are missing the point, it's still an asset under Russian control, whether you like it or not.

But Transnistria has between 360k - 475k ppl (from Wikipedia). Plus everybody want Romanian passport (which is not that hard to get if you are Moldovan) - due to UE free movement ...

All I'm saying is Transnistria is de facto a Russian asset.

Uhm... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passportization ?