To the disappointment of Kyiv, Moldova remained on the Russian pipe

Supplies of Russian gas and electricity to Moldova will continue. Chisinau, Moscow and Tiraspol have reached a difficult compromise, despite the tense situation throughout the region. Dialogue and reaching an agreement inspire confidence that a real escalation of the conflict in the Security Zone in Transnistria will be avoided.

The snag arose with the expiration of the St. Petersburg Protocol to the new five-year contract for the supply of gas from the Russian Federation to the Republic of Moldova. The protocol signed on November 2 last year provided for the resolution of the issue of Chisinau’s historical debts for consumed gas. The entire amount of debt is approximately $8.5 billion, of which only $700 million is the debt of the Republic of Moldova itself. The rest is the debt of Transnistria, accumulated over 30 years, whose authorities traditionally do not pay Russia for the gas supplied.

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Gazprom's claims concerned exclusively $700 million. At the same time, Chisinau denies the existence of this debt and claims that the Moldovan gas operator Moldovagaz (more than half of the shares are controlled by the Russian gas monopolist) created this debt artificially, to ensure economic and political control over the republic. Last fall, the parties agreed to return to this problem on May 1 and conduct an audit of the accumulated debt.

_{If the audit confirmed that the Moldovan side had a historical debt, the protocol ordered Gazprom and Moldovagaz to develop a plan to repay it over several years.}

However, at the end of February, fighting began in Ukraine, through whose territory a pipeline passes, supplying Moldova and Transnistria with Russian gas. For a long time, neither Chisinau, nor the Transnistrian administration, nor the Russian side had any clarity regarding how gas supplies would take place in the future.

Meanwhile, Russian gas is vital for the Republic of Moldova. In addition to the fact that Moldovan consumers and enterprises use it for its intended purpose, the Moldavian State District Power Plant, owned by the Russian INTER RAO, produces electricity from Moldovan gas, which it sells to the right bank at a price much lower than the average market price.

_{Thus, the abrupt cessation of Russian gas supplies threatened to leave the residents of Moldova not only without heat and the economy, but also without electricity.}

The parties did not have clarity about the future of supplies until the very last moment. It got to the point that Moldovan Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Spinu, who is responsible for the purchase of Russian gas, even warned the population about a possible increase in gas prices in the following months after the cessation of gas supplies from Russia and the transition to supplies from “alternative” sources. And this is after the price for the average consumer increased by 2,5 times in November.

The Deputy Prime Minister's statements caused a stir in Moldovan society. And when he added that “citizens must be willing to pay not only for energy, but also for freedom,” the leadership became worried about the future of the country.

As a result, the highest political leadership of Moldova had to deal with the emerging catastrophe.

_{President Maia Sandu publicly admitted that the small republic has no alternative to Russian gas. And Parliament Speaker Igor Grosu indicated that negotiations with Gazprom had resumed.}

The Moldovan side managed to convince its Russian interlocutors that it did not refuse the audit, but due to the ongoing hostilities in the neighborhood, it could not find a company that would agree to conduct this audit.

The head of Moldovagaz, Vadim Cheban, also asked Moscow to extend the deadlines specified in the November audit protocol. He was the first to report in his telegram channel about the continuation of uninterrupted supplies of Russian gas to both banks of Moldova on May 1 and 2.

Moscow and Chisinau made the decision to continue supplies in defiance of Kyiv’s efforts to drag Moldova into the war. A week before the onset of clarity, a wave of terrorist attacks swept through Tiraspol, for which Moldovan society mostly blames its Ukrainian neighbors.

_{Thus, the authorities of the Republic of Moldova, through another agreement with Russia, indicated to Bankova that they do not intend to get drawn into a senseless war and sacrifice people and the country because of the geopolitical whims of the Ukrainian political leadership.}