By Alexander Tanas
CHISINAU (Reuters) – President Maia Sandu on Thursday accused Gazprom of provoking an energy crisis in Moldova, saying the Russian energy giant was refusing to supply gas through an alternative route if the fuel stops flowing through Ukraine at the end of this year.
Moldova’s population of 2.5 million has been preparing for long power cuts since Kyiv said it will not extend its contract with Gazprom when this expires on Dec. 31.
Russia supplies Moldova with about 2 billion cubic metres of gas per year through Ukraine. This is piped to the breakaway region of Transdniestria which uses the gas to generate cheap power, which it sells to government-controlled Moldova.
“The problem is that Gazprom simply refuses to fulfil the contractual terms and supply gas via another route. The route is available, the volumes are available,” Sandu, Moldova’s pro-Western president, told a news conference.
“To call things by their names, this is an opportunity for them to create an energy crisis in Moldova. This is another lesson for us – not to have one source of energy supplies that blackmails us every time,” Sandu added.
The government of the small former Soviet republic, which is trying to join the European Union, was considering how natural gas could be supplied to Transdniestria and encourage it to foot the bill, she said.
Transdniestria and the government in Chisinau agreed in 2022 that all Russian gas received by Moldova would flow to the breakaway region, which traditionally does not pay for fuel.
The unrecognised, separatist enclave is home to a power plant which provides most of the power for government-controlled areas of Moldova at a fixed and low price.
Without gas supplies, the power plant could stop working and Moldova and Transdniestria would face hours-long blackouts of the kind that neighbouring Ukraine has learned to live with for about two years due to constant Russian missile attacks.
Sandu said her government would propose a “variant” of how gas would be supplied to Transdniestria if Gazprom stops gas deliveries from Jan. 1.
Chisinau has said one alternative route to Moldova could be to ship Russian gas via the TurkStream pipeline to Turkey and then through Bulgaria and Romania.
HOW TO PAY
Moldova and Transdniestria have both declared states of emergency over the threat of disrupted gas supplies.
Sandu said the main issue is payment for fuel that could be supplied to Transdniestria, adding: “The left bank of the Dniester will have to pay for the gas that Moldova will supply to the Transdniestrian region”.
“The question is how the left bank of the Dniester will be able to pay for this gas,” she added.
Transdniestria was an industrial part of Moldova before the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. But after the split, the region and population became impoverished, deprived of markets and cut off from a supportive Russia.
(Writing by Pavel Polityuk; Editing by Alexander Smith)
