According to Reuters, 56 members of the 101-seat Moldova National Assembly supported the measure in a vote early on the morning of December 13, following Prime Minister Dorin Recean’s call for approval to ensure Moldova’s separatist region of Transnistria is secure. necessary gas source. Mr. Recean emphasized that it was a vote to end “gas extortion” from Moscow.
Moldova Prime Minister Dorin Recean spoke at the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York (USA) on September 27
The declaration of a state of emergency allows the Moldova government to react quickly and limit energy exports, according to Reuters.
Moldova receives Russian natural gas through Ukraine, which has announced it will not renew its transit contract with Russian gas giant Gazprom. This contract will expire on December 31.
Mr Recean accused Russia of “wanting to leave the people of Transnistria without gas and electricity and holding them hostage”. “Moscow is doing this to destabilize the situation in Moldova,” he alleged.
Mr. Recean emphasized that parliament must approve a state of emergency so that “this winter must be the last in the country’s history when we can be blackmailed on energy.”
The Moldova government warned in a statement that failure to supply gas to Transnistria “will lead to a humanitarian crisis… and will also create risks to the stability of the Moldovan electricity sector”.
Moldova received about 2 billion m3 gas blocks/year from Russia. As of 2022, Transnistria and the central government have agreed that all Russian gas Moldova receives will go to Transnistria.
Transnistria is home to a power plant that runs on Russian gas. It is an important cornerstone of Transnistria’s economy and also provides much of the electricity to areas controlled by the Moldovan government. Transnistria declared its own state of economic emergency on December 10.
Mr. Recean affirmed that Moldova receiving natural gas from Russia through Ukraine is an “artificial problem” because Russian gas can be moved along other routes.
Moldova said an alternative route to Transnistria could be to transport Russian gas via the TurkStream pipeline to Türkiye and then through Bulgaria and Romania.
However, gas supplies via alternative routes could be problematic as Gazprom in the negotiations has linked continued deliveries via such routes to a demand that Moldova repay its debt for the supply Previous gas, according to Russian calculations, was 709 million USD, according to Reuters.
There is currently no information on the reaction of Russia and Ukraine to Moldova’s new move.
