Outlaw, along the same lines of Putin's emphasis on Russain ethnic identity as being the basis for action, Putin highlighted another Pro Russian enclave in his call to the President:
While not mentioning Crimea, the Kremlin drew attention to Ukraine’s blockade of Transnistria, a breakaway, pro-Russian region of Moldova, another former Soviet republic to the south. Frozen for years in an international limbo, neither accepting Moldova’s rule nor formally part of Russia, Transnistria has relied on land access through Ukraine for crucial imports.
It is hard to tell if this is 1) for domestic consumption, and therefore a way to back out of a potentially bad situation; 2) part of a real concern for ethnic Russians; or 3) a way to justify a push into Eastern Ukraine in order to protect Transnistrian Russians.

What concerns me is that we are not in a position to make a realistic determination of which of the above three options (or combination of them) are actually Putin's motivation for bringing up the subject.

What is clear is that Russian ethnic identity is helping Putin's status in Russia.