CHISINAU, Dec 19 (Reuters) - Moldova's spy chief warned on Monday of a "very high" risk of a new Russian offensive towards his country's east next year and said Moscow still aimed to secure a land corridor through Ukraine to the breakaway Moldovan region of Transdniestria. "The question is not whether the Russian Federation will undertake a new advance towards Moldova's territory, but when it will do so," Musteata told the TVR-Moldova television channel. The Information and Security Service said in a statement that it expected Russian offensive action would depend on the course of its Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine. To Ukraine's west, fellow ex-Soviet republic Moldova has a tiny defence budget and has long had Russian troops and peacekeepers based in Transdniestria, a breakaway statelet that has survived for three decades with support from Moscow. Moldova, now seeking closer ties with the West like Ukraine, has condemned the Russian invasion of its larger neighbour.

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