The separatist Transnistria, an unrecognized pseudo-republic in eastern Moldova, has been facing an energy crisis for a week after Ukraine did not renew a contract with Russia to transit gas through its territory and Russia’s Gazprom halted gas supplies to Moldova.
According to local authorities, 72,000 households were without gas in the separatist region of 400,000, which remains loyal to Moscow.
More than fifteen hundred blocks of flats have no heating or hot water. Local governments had to temporarily shut down more than a hundred boiler plants that heated hot water.
Hundreds of local businesses have suspended their activities, which also means that thousands of people have found themselves without work. Power outages, which are currently provided by coal in Transnistria, are becoming more frequent. Winter holidays were extended for schoolchildren, doctors had to shorten outpatient hours. People buy heaters, warm blankets and, accordingly, provide themselves with food that does not require heat treatment: biscuits or cheese.
“Last night was quite difficult because we were quite cold (in the apartment). The walls are damp. And the forecasts say frost,” a resident of Tiraspol, the capital of unrecognized Transnistria, told the station’s Russian edition.
“I don’t understand how they can do this to people. We lived normally, had normal relationships, and suddenly – die of hunger, of cold,” added another.
On the verge of collapse
The daily notes that while other European states that were once dependent on Russian gas were able to compensate for the stoppage of transit from the east with alternative suppliers from the west, the breakaway region loyal to Russia has been facing an existential crisis since January 1.
“The entire system in Transnistria relies on free Russian gas. Without gas, it is collapsing,” former Moldovan deputy prime minister Alexandru Flenchea, who was in charge of the agenda to reintegrate territory controlled by pro-Russian separatists back into Moldova, told the NY Times.
According to him, however, Moscow will not want to let it lose the influence it has in Transnistria. For more than 30 years, the region has been Russia’s lever, thanks to which Moscow can, if necessary, exert political or military pressure on Moldova, which in recent years has focused mainly on cooperation with Europe.
This was finally confirmed by the last presidential election, in which the pro-Western president Maia Sandu defended her position – despite Russian interference. But the NY Times reminds us that Moldova itself, with a population of two and a half million, is cut off from Russian gas and is switching to more expensive alternatives, including electricity supplies from Romania.
Although this protected Moldovan consumers from the cold in their apartments, they will have to dig deeper into their pockets this winter, which could be reflected in the results of the parliamentary elections that await the country in July.
Footer from Gazprom
Moldovan analyst Vladislav Kulminski told the NY Times that Russia’s interest would be to keep Moldova “in the gray zone.” Moldovan Prime Minister Dorin Recean himself commented on the situation in a similar way, claiming that Russia is trying to create instability in the region and influence the results of future parliamentary elections. According to Recean, the Russians could supply gas to Moldova through the TurkStream gas pipeline, but “they are not doing it on purpose.”
In the case of the stoppage of gas to Moldova, it is not only a matter of stopping the transit of Russian gas through Ukrainian territories, as Kyiv has announced that it will no longer extend the contract with Moscow on its transportation in 2025. Gazprom itself put pressure on Moldova.
Russia used to supply about two billion cubic meters of gas to the hitherto unrecognized Transnistria free of charge. A significant part of it was used by the separatist region to produce cheap electricity, which it then sold to Moldova. At the end of December, however, Gazprom announced that it would cut gas supplies to Moldova. But the era of cheap electricity from Transnistria is coming to an end, at least for now, with Gazprom’s stop sign. The reason is supposed to be the Moldovan debt to the company.
The Russians say Chisinau owes them $709 million for past deliveries and want Moldova to repay the debt before gas starts flowing into the country via alternative routes. Moldova itself, according to the agency, estimated the debt to Russia at 8.6 million dollars and accused Gazprom of provoking the energy crisis.
According to the agency, it is expected that energy prices may double in Moldova.
A pre-election lever?
Ukrainian journalist Serhiy Sydorenko reminds that Russia can resume gas supplies to Transnistria at any time. It still has a gas pipeline that bypasses Ukraine – the already mentioned TurkStream – and Moldova itself agrees to the supply of Russian gas.
“However, the Kremlin is not doing this and is deliberately driving the region it controls into a deep humanitarian crisis – only to later ‘save’ it and blame the lost lives and ruined economy on the current government of Moldova, whose ratings have already suffered as a result of the energy crisis,” he writes in the comment for .
This is also why, according to Sydorenko, it is likely that Russia will soon partially restore gas supplies to Transnistria and present them as the merit of one of Moldova’s pro-Russian politicians.
Although some Moldovan politicians say that the current crisis situation gives Chisinau a chance to unite with the unrecognized separatist republic, according to the former vice-prime minister of Moldova, today the director of the Initiative for Peace Alexander Flenk, Moldova missed the chance to influence Tiraspol.
“Everything is now happening according to Moscow’s script. Chisinau only reacts, it is not the driving force behind solutions. Energy supplies from Transnistria make up three quarters of all energy that Moldova needs. If Sandu’s administration would solve the problem of securing gas for itself and for Tiraspol, it would practically solve the entire conflict,” expolitika cites.
Cities and villages in Transnistria, as well as those in the territory controlled by the Moldovan government, are still hoping that the region will not be hit by severe frosts. According to the mayor of the Moldovan municipality of Varnita, which lies along the demarcation line with Transnistria and is one of the eleven border municipalities dependent on energy supplies from Transnistria, Alexandru Nichitenac, more than five thousand local residents were left without heating. They are facing a disaster, he told the NY Times, adding that he does not blame Transnistria for the situation.
“They can’t do anything. Moscow controls everything there,” he added.
