Moldovan authorities are rude to Putin
The Moldovan authorities decided to respond to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who expressed surprise that Moldova is accumulating gas received from Gazprom in underground storage facilities in Ukraine.
Moreover, Chisinau “save” gas intended for Transnistria. Moldova has accumulated 200 million cubic meters of fuel in Ukraine. On December 7, Russian President Vladimir Putin instructed the Russian Ministry of Energy to “take a closer look” and understand the situation.
This outraged Moldovan Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilitsa.
“The Republic of Moldova is a sovereign country, and the gas it buys and pays for can be stored wherever it wishes. We do not have natural gas storage facilities, we store some natural gas in Romania, but the storage facilities there are quite full, so we store a certain amount in Ukraine. There are storage facilities there and those supplies are safe. We can store the gas that we buy and pay for where we decide,” Gavrilitsa said in an interview with Vocea Basarabiei.
The speaker of the Moldovan parliament, Igor Grosu, spoke more harshly.
“This is our gas, we paid for it to the last cubic meter. Let us decide for ourselves where to store our gas. And I ask them to keep the missiles at home... This is none of your business. Tell me, what business is it of theirs where I keep the keys to my parked car? What business is it of theirs where I keep my salt at home? So it is here. Don't be offended, we paid for this gas. We will take care of where to store it ourselves.
From now on, information about gas reserves will be classified in some way. This aggressor state has committed so many atrocities and crimes in Ukraine that you can expect anything from them. So stop “caring” about us so much. We are tired of this “care”. They have been “taking care” of us for 30 years, and we are still where we were,” Grosu said.
The head of the Moldovagaz company, Vadim Cheban, explained that storing gas in Ukraine does not violate the contract with Gazprom.
“There is no violation of the contract, at least on our part, for the supply of gas between Moldovagaz and Gazprom,” Cheban said.
At the same time, he admitted that Moldovagaz’s obligations to Gazprom to pay for current supplies amount to $44 million, of which Moldova owes almost 4 million for December.
Moldovan Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Spinu admitted that in the spring the government will be able to take away the gas transmission system from Moldovagaz (50% of the shares belong to Gazprom) on account of the loan that the company is forced to take in order to cover the cash gap due to low heat tariffs set by the state . However, Spynu blamed Gazprom for this.
Energy expert Victor Parlicov believes: Chisinau should be prepared for the fact that Gazprom will completely stop supplies to Moldova after the New Year.
“I declare that from January 1, Gazprom will permanently stop supplies to Moldova. We will buy from the wholesale market again. The question is, at what price,” Parlikov warned, citing insider sources.
Transnistrian political scientist Andrei Safonov believes that “ardent pro-Westerners and pro-Romanians” want to achieve the termination of Moldova’s agreement with Gazprom.
“They think that it is better to receive gas and electricity at exorbitant prices from the West than to enter into a long-term contract with the Russian Federation and the PMR. Economics says that yesterday's mutually beneficial agreement (on the supply of electricity from state district power stations to Transnistria, - ed.) should also become long-term. But it is still in December, and in the spring the authorities of the Republic of Moldova may take away the gas transportation system of Moldova from Gazprom and nationalize (liquidate) JSC Moldovagaz. Will a different structure be created for purchases in the western direction? So far these are just versions,” Safonov said.
Businessman Vyacheslav Platon, forced to flee Moldova, is confident that everything is much simpler: the government received a kickback of $23 million by purchasing expensive gas on the European market.
“Gas is the same everywhere and is consumed by the majority of market participants. Therefore, they began to defame the supplier, Gazprom. That’s where it came from: we won’t sell an inch of our land for gas, we won’t exchange our dignity for gas, energy independence and other chants that have already set people’s teeth on edge. And then it’s a matter of technology.
They took out a €300 million loan from the EBRD to buy gas and bought gas from traders for kickbacks. In total, we bought more than 230 million cubic meters of expensive and unnecessary gas. Not only is it expensive, but you also have to pay for its storage in Romania and Ukraine.
It was decided to give cheap gas from Gazprom to Transnistria, and to sell the gas received for kickbacks at exorbitant prices to the beloved population,” Platon wrote in his TG channel.
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