The day before, mass outages of gas, heating and hot water began in the unrecognized republic.
Russia is trying to use the suspension of gas transit through Ukraine to create an artificial energy crisis in Moldova.
This is stated in a report by the American Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
According to analysts, Gazprom is probably trying to use the cessation of gas transit through Ukraine to create an artificial energy crisis to destabilize Moldova.
Moldova recently negotiated with Gazprom about transporting gas to Transnistria via the Turkish Stream pipeline, which runs from Russia to Turkey, but Gazprom refused and did not agree on this before the deadline – December 16.
On October 28, Russian Gazprom sent a message to Moldovan gas company Moldovagaz, in which it reported that due to the regular failure of the Moldovan side to fulfill payment obligations and “accumulated debt”, natural gas supplies to the Republic of Moldova would be completely stopped.
According to calculations by the Russian side, Moldova's debt for gas is 709 million dollars. Moldova admits a debt of only $8.6 million.
What came before
Since the beginning of 2025, Ukraine has stopped transiting Russian gas, previously received by several EU countries and the unrecognized Transnistria.
Heating and hot water have been cut off in Transnistria since January 1 due to Russia's refusal to continue gas supplies to Moldova over a disputed old debt and the termination of Russian gas transit through Ukraine to Eastern European countries.
According to the Transnistrian company Tiraspoltransgaz, about 75 thousand people were left without gas on the first day of the new year households.
The total population of Transnistria is about 450 thousand people.
Also, 11 settlements located in the so-called “security zone” – an area bordering Transnistria, but under the control of the official authorities of Moldova – were left without gas and heating.
Free gas from Gazprom for a long time fed the Transnistrian Kuchurgan power plant, which exported a significant amount of electricity to Moldova and used the revenues from these sales to support the budget of Transnistria.
Meanwhile, Moldova increased electricity imports from Romania to compensate for lost supplies from Transnistria.
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