Russia says it will stop supplying Moldova with gas next week

Gazprom said the supply of gas will cease on January 1st at 0500GMT in an announcement that was not unexpected in Moldova’s capital Chisinau.

On December 13th Moldova’s parliament voted in favour of imposing a state of emergency in the energy sector over fears that Russia could leave it without sufficient natural gas supplies this winter.

After the vote Moldovan Prime Minister Dorin Recean said Moscow could deliberately weaponise energy flows to destabilise the country, and potentially leave people “in the middle of winter without heat and electricity.”

Russian energy giant Gazprom supplies the gas-operated Kuciurgan plant, which generates electricity that powers a significant portion of Moldova proper. The plant was privatized in 2004 by Transnistrian officials and later sold to a Russian state-owned company. Moldova doesn’t recognise the privatisation.

In late 2022, Moldova suffered major power outages following Russian strikes on neighbouring Ukraine, which is interconnected to the Kuciurgan plant.

Transnistria, which broke away after a short war in 1992 and is not recognised by most countries, also declared its own state of emergency in mid-December in case the region does not receive gas supplies.

When Russia fully invaded Ukraine in 2022, Moldova, a former Soviet republic of about 2.5 million people, was entirely dependent on Moscow for natural gas but has since pushed to diversify and expand its energy sources.

Sebastian Burduja, Romania’s energy minister, has previously promised that Romania has the energy resources to support Moldova, if it’s need help.

In October, Moldova’s pro-Western President Maia Sandu won a second term in office, and a referendum voted in favour of securing the country’s path toward the EU.

The two votes were overshadowed by ongoing claims of Russian interference to derail the country’s westward shift in recent years. Russia denies it is meddling in Moldova.