 As the Red Army also began its occupation of Romania, Salogor began campaigning for establishing a new Moldavian state under Soviet rule, which would have extended into both Romania (Western Moldavia, as well as Năsăud and Maramureș counties) and the Ukrainian SSR (the Budjak to the south, Bukovina to the north); its territory would have been significantly greater than the 18th-century Principality of Moldavia.On 29 June 1946, the Moldavian Supreme Soviet went public with the irredentist goals, proclaiming foremost the need to "free [Moldavian lands] from the yoke of Romanian boyars and capitalists".As noted by Romanian critics, the project formed part of a Soviet "extortion" mechanism, meant to increase pressures on Romanian delegates at the Paris Peace Conference, which was set to begin in July.