The cutting of one of the last export routes for Russian gas to Europe is felt very painfully in a small separatist region of Moldova, mainly Russian-speaking, which has for decades turned to Moscow for protection.
Russian-backed separatists broke away from Moldova when the Soviet Union collapsed in the early 1990s and gained de facto independence for the region of some 450,000 people known as Transnistria.
Russia maintains around 1,500 troops there and has long provided gas for free. This situation ended on New Year’s Day when Ukraine, almost three years after Moscow’s massive invasion, refused to extend a transit deal allowing Russia to pump gas through its territory to Central Europe and Eastern Europe.
The blow to Transnistria was immediate. Central heating and hot water were cut off on Wednesday. On Thursday, the government said all industrial companies except food producers had been forced to cease production.
When the gas was cut off at his multi-story apartment complex in Tiraspol, the main city, Boris, 54, took a Soviet-era electric stove out of his garage. It provides just enough heat to prepare meals and warm the kitchen, while an electric heater warms his and his wife’s bedroom.
“My wife and I have a stable income and our children will help us, but what about the old pensioners? Boris, who declined to be identified by his full name, told Reuters. “What will happen- What about them if their gas stoves go out?
Another Tiraspol resident said there was no sense of panic, but people were queuing, sometimes in dozens, to buy electric heaters and stoves.
Some residents told Reuters they were concerned that prices of basic goods such as bread and pasta – as well as blankets – had soared since Wednesday.
DISPUTE OVER PAYMENTS
Russia has pumped about 2 billion cubic meters of gas a year to Transnistria, including to a power plant supplying energy to all of Moldova, a country of 2.5 million people that wants to join the European Union.
Separate from the gas transit dispute with Ukraine, Russian energy company Gazprom said on December 28 that it would stop supplying gas to Moldova on January 1 due to $709 million in unpaid gas debts that Russia says it owes Moldova. Moldova disputes this assertion and estimates the debt at $8.6 million.
Jonathan Eyal, international director of the RUSI think tank in London, said Russia’s aim was to squeeze Moldova, foment unrest between the central government and Transnistria, and turn an energy crisis into a political crisis.
He said it was in Moldova’s interest to help the breakaway region, whose self-proclaimed independence is not recognized by any country and which Moldova considers its own citizens. However, Moldova would have to charge for the gas it could send to Transnistria, which could fuel other disputes.
-“There is no doubt that the government would like to help. The question is whether the separatists will be willing to accept this help and whether it risks being a prelude to a much bigger conflict rather than being the start of a potential cooperative relationship,” he said in an interview.
“There is no doubt in my mind that Moscow is now banking on the possibility that the crisis will only accentuate the separatist movement inside Moldova.
Russia blames Ukraine for stopping gas transit and says the United States will profit by selling more gas to Europe. Moscow denies using gas as a weapon to coerce Moldova, but said last month, as the gas cut loomed, that it would take steps to protect its citizens and troops in Transnistria and would “respond with appropriate manner to any provocation.
Moldovan Prime Minister Dorin Recean said Friday that cutting off Russian gas to Transnistria had created a crisis for his country.
“We see this as a security crisis aimed at allowing the return of pro-Russian forces to power in Moldova and arming our territory against Ukraine, with which we share a 1,200 km border,” he said. declared.
RUSSIA WILL NOT ABANDON US
In Transnistria, authorities are working to use up their last gas reserves and some is still being pumped into apartments so residents can cook their food. The main power plant switched from gas to coal.
In Rybnitsa, a town of around 50,000 in northern Transnistria, Alla, 52, said she had lit a fire in a room of her house and that only “the will of God” would allow restore the gas.
In Bender, a town of 90,000, Maria Zolotukhina, 32, said her employer asked her to stay at home, where she used electric heating.
She does not know if she will continue to be paid, but she says she is counting on Russia to come to the rescue.
“We are allies of Russia, no matter what. And we hope that Russia will not abandon us,” she said.
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