CHISINAU (Reuters) – Moldova’s breakaway Transdniestria region expects to receive Russian gas again soon to meet its needs, its leader Vadim Krasnoselsky said on Wednesday, two weeks into crippling power cuts in the Russian-backed enclave.
Tens of thousands of people in Transdniestria have been without gas or winter heating since Jan. 1 when Russia’s Gazprom suspended gas exports to the region, citing an unpaid Moldovan debt of $709 million that Chisinau does not recognise as valid.
Moscow blames the suspension of gas supplies on pro-Western Moldova and Ukraine, which refused to extend a five-year gas transit deal that expired on Dec. 31 on the grounds that the proceeds help fund Russia’s invasion.
“I hope that as a result of these negotiations (in Moscow), in the near future gas will be supplied to Transdniestria for electricity generation and to our citizens,” Krasnoselsky told a news briefing.
“The gas will be supplied as humanitarian gas in the volume necessary for the population of Transdniestria, for heat and power generation and for industrial enterprises of Transdniestria,” he added.
Russia has not yet commented on the issue.
Krasnoselsky said there would be further negotiations to determine the start date for deliveries and their route.
Transdniestria, a tiny pro-Russian and mainly Russian-speaking separatist region along the Dniester River and the border with Ukraine, received about 2 billion cubic meters of Russian gas a year via Ukraine, using the fuel to heat homes and generate electricity, which it sold to the rest of Moldova.
Moldova’s authorities have said that despite a valid contract and the option of an alternative transit route, Gazprom is refusing to supply gas in order to destabilise its government ahead of this year’s parliamentary elections.
The government has sourced alternative supplies from Europe and has offered to help Transdniestria buy gas, but the offer was rejected by the separatist leaders there, who blame Moldova for the crisis.
“The Kremlin regime has held the people there hostage, mercilessly, in the cold and darkness, because it wants to bring to power (in Moldova) pro-Russian groups that will plunge our country into conflict and destabilize public order,” Moldova Prime Minister Dorin Recean told reporters.
(Reporting by Alexander Tanas; Writing by Pavel Polityuk and Philippa Fletcher)
