A separatist region of Moldova has asked Russia for protection over what it claims is economic pressure from the Moldovan government.
Transnistria, a separatist enclave in the east of the country, has functioned as an unrecognised state since the fall of the Soviet Union and is backed by the Kremlin.
A “congress of deputies of all levels", attended by several ministers in the breakaway government, passed a resolution to appeal to Russia for protection against so-called pressure from Moldova.
Moscow has more than a thousand troops stationed in the enclave, which has a border with Ukraine to the east.
However, the motion stopped short of asking Moscow to integrate Transnistria into Russia, which one Transnistrian opposition politician had predicted last week.
Moldova's government introduced customs regulations this year requiring companies in Transnistria to pay import duties into the Moldovan budget.
The region's economy minister told the congress, held in the regional capital Tiraspol, that this had cut the customs revenues paid into the Transnistria budget by 18%.
"There is social and economic pressure on Transnistria, which directly contradicts European principles and approaches to the protection of human rights and free trade," read the text of the resolution.
However, Moldovan government spokesman Daniel Voda said: "This is a propaganda event, a trap that does not deserve the attention of foreign journalists or sensational headlines in news bulletins."
The Moldovan government has repeatedly accused Russia of destabilising the situation in the country through manoeuvres in the breakaway region.
In 2006, an unrecognised referendum in the breakaway region called for the statelet to be formally incorporated into Russia.
However, Moscow has since then not taken any further steps toward formal annexation.
It comes as Russia on Wednesday vowed unspecified counter-measures to protect itself against Sweden joining Nato, a move which it cast as aggression.
Sweden cleared a last hurdle towards Nato accession on Monday after Hungary's parliament approved membership of the traditionally neutral Nordic country.
Sweden and Finland both bid to join Nato after Russia sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in 2022, setting off Europe's biggest conflict since the Second World War.
