Energy crisis in Russia-supported Moldova: Interesting facts

Energy crisis in Russia-supported Moldova: Interesting facts

in the capital of Transnistrien Festive New Year's lights expired prematurely. The head of the government supported by Russia announced that this separatist part of Moldova will be without energy in three weeks.

The energy bottleneck in Transnistria

once proud and wealthier than their neighbors in Moldova, the transistrians now have to burn wood to keep up with the winter during hours. The bottleneck began when Moscow stopped, Russian natural gas via the Ukraine to Moldavia and to other European countries. The last transaction with Kiev, which was signed to Ukraine in 2022 before Russia, was signed before Russia. Ukraine had announced for months not to extend the agreement - and kept its promise. Some countries, including Austria, had prepared for this and are now relating to gas from other sources. Transnistria did not do this. After the split off of Moldova in 1990, Transnistria was completely free of charge on the Russian natural gas, which was delivered via the Ukrainian pipelines. This now has an end because Russia is not ready to deliver gas over alternative routes.

The effects on the population

transnistria has more than 300,000 inhabitants, mostly Russian -speaking. The Orthodox Christmas holiday on Tuesday was interrupted by the announcement of the self -proclaimed government over daily eight -hour power outages. The government announced that the decision was made after the electricity consumption had increased four times in the past few days. Without gas to heat the apartments, the residents had switched to electrical heating, which overloaded the already battered power grid. At a meeting of the Energy Committee, President Vadim Krasnoselsky said that the system from the Soviet period no longer works and asked the population to "selectively" use electrical heating.

care crisis in schools and health system

Videos that have been posted online show how the residents cope with their everyday life. Cooking transistrier with electrical mini stove or Burn up to heat Hot water is now provided according to a strict schedule, which is why many water boil in boilers and Shower

Some alternative heating methods have proven to be dangerous. The Orthodox Christmas was overshadowed by two cases of carbon monoxide poisoning, one of which was fatal. On Tuesday, a family of four in the city of Bendery, including a seven -year -old child, fell ill due to the vapors of a gas water. They were treated and released in a stable state. The following night a woman died in the capital Tiraspol, while in a poorly ventilated apartment with a chimney gas boiler, as the Ministry of Internal Affairs reported.

Answer Moldawia to the crisis

Moldova is also affected, but not that strong. Before the invasion of Russia in Ukraine, Moldova was almost entirely dependent on Russian natural gas. However, a few months after the beginning of the war, Russia's energy giant Gazprom reduced the gas deliveries to the country and increased prices, citing unpaid debts. Moldova civil servants were perplexed - some described this step as an attempt to "blackmail" the country to orientate themselves to the west. With the approaching winter, Moldova quickly organized energy supply from Europe.

Although the country has hired the purchase of gas from Russia, it continues to buy large amounts of its energy from transnistria, which uses Russian gas to generate electricity in the Cuciurgan power plant. Now that the Russian gas deliveries have been set, this power plant produces significantly less energy, and Moldova had to buy more expensive from the emergency markets of Europe, mainly via Romania.

political perspectives and future developments

chisinau offered to sell transni atnisendar gas and energy, although the officials in Tiraspol show little signs of accepting this offer. The main reason for this is economic in nature. In contrast to Moscow, Chisinau does not propose to deliver gas for free. After 30 years with plenty of cost -effective energy, the transistriers would now have to pay the same price as the residents in Moldova themselves. Another reason is political: after decades of proclamation of their independence of Moldova, it would be an admission of failure to accept "help" from the mother country.

Instead, Tiraspol tries to attribute the Chisinau crisis. Krasnoselsky has accused Moldova of "suffocating" the region and forcing it to give up their demands on statehood.

Russia's strategy and the role of Ukraine

Russia could deliver transistria gas, but decides against it. Although it can no longer transport gas via Ukraine, other pipelines under the Black Sea are available over Turkey, but at higher costs. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov expressed that the Situation was "critical", but added that the "decisions of Ukraine and the Moldova authorities" had robbed transistria of natural gas.

Ukraine let the agreement expire to harm Russia and its allies. President Volodymyr Zelensky described the decision as "one of the largest defeats of Moscow". Despite a loss of around $ 800 million a year in transit fees for Ukraine, Gazprom could lose far more, up to $ 5 billion a year, according to Reuters. Russia's reactions to the decision became angry. The Russian embassy in Moldova said that Kiev had “cynically” stopped the gas flow and sentenced the population of Transnistria to suffering. Peskov also criticized the United States to make profit from the crisis by increasing its more expensive gas exports to Europe.

in the context of political instability in Moldova and the possibility that thousands of residents could flee to Moldova during the crisis, Nicu Popescu, former Foreign Minister of Moldova, fears that Russia will strengthen chaos theories. "Russia is not interested in the residents of Transnistria. The goal of destabilizing the Moldavian economy, the political system and the social structure.