By New York Post (World News) | Created at 2025-01-02 18:55:05 | Updated at 2025-01-05 02:03:52
2 days ago
Russia’s halt to gas supplies on January 1 has crippled Moldova’s largest power plant and spread fear of a looming energy crisis in the eastern European country amid a winter freeze.
Russian-owned gas giant Gazprom announced in December it would halt gas supplies to Moldova over a dispute over an alleged $709 million debt for past supplies.
The claim has been rejected by Moldova’s pro-Western government which accused Moscow of “oppressive tactics.”
Moldova’s national security adviser, Stanislav Secrieru, accused Russia of “weaponizing” its energy exports “to destabilize Moldova economically and socially, weaken the pro-reform government ahead of the elections, and manufacture political demand for the return of pro-Russian forces to power,” in an interview with Politico.
Winter freeze in Transnistria
Gazprom had already reduced its deliveries to Moldova since the beginning of the invasion in Ukraine, solely supplying gas to the unrecognized breakaway state of Transnistria, also known as Pridnestrovia.
Transnistria claimed independence from Moldova following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 but is still internationally recognized as a part of the country.
It stretches vertically along the northeastern Moldova-Ukraine border.
A sweetheart deal struck in 2004 between Transnistria and the Kremlin allowed the separatist region to receive free gas from Russia to sell electricity to the rest of Moldova.
Now, that power supply has been cut off.
On New Year’s Day, local media in Transnistria reported heating outages, while an energy supplier urged residents to “dress warmly,” gather into a single room, and seal doors and windows with curtains and blankets.
Temperatures plunged to -1 degree Celsius on Wednesday night, The Moscow Times reports.
More than 130 schools were without heating, Russian state media cited local officials as saying.
Transnistria declared a 30-day economic emergency last month in anticipation of the energy shortage.
While the rest of Moldova is making do with power imports from neighboring Romania, the country’s largest power station is located in the separatist region and provides some two-thirds of the electricity consumed across Moldova.
It is already being fueled by coal instead of Russian gas, but authorities say there is only enough for 50 days, the BBC reports.
Last month, Moldova issued a state of emergency over expected power disruptions.
Threat of disruption in Europe
In a separate move that also took effect on January 1, Kyiv disrupted the flow of gas supplies through Europe by refusing to renew a transit agreement with Gazprom.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Wednesday the move marked one of Moscow’s “biggest defeats” amid the three-year invasion.
“When Putin was given power in Russia more than 25 years ago, the annual gas pumping through Ukraine to Europe was 130+ billion cubic meters,” he said on social media.
“Today, the transit of Russian gas is 0.”
The impact of the nullified transit agreement on landlocked Moldova will be significant, given the country shares its northern, eastern, and southern borders with Ukraine.
Other countries cut off on January 1 include Slovakia and Hungary, who have remained friendly to Moscow.
Hungary is predicted to remain unaffected due to receiving supplies through the TurkStream pipeline in the Black Sea.
TurkStream is an alternative route that bypasses Ukraine by running through Turkey and up through the Balkans.
Slovakia has slammed Kyiv’s decision, criticizing it for crippling the European Union.
“Halting gas transit via Ukraine will have a drastic impact on us all in the EU but not on the Russian Federation,” said Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who has pushed Bratislava closer to Moscow since returning to power in 2023.
— with AFP
