On Friday, Moldova declared a 60-day national state of emergency, expecting gas supplies through the Russian pipeline to be cut off by January 1, 2025.
The country's parliament, which currently receives Russian gas via Ukraine, approved overnight Prime Minister Dorin Recean's proposal to declare a state of emergency, which will take effect on December 16.
Moldova is trying to push back Russian influence in the breakaway region of Transnistria, a narrow strip of land between the Dniester River and the Ukrainian border that is not recognized by the international community.
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But from 2022, Transnistria and the central government of Moldova have agreed that all natural gas sent by Russian giant Gazprom to Moldova will flow through Transnistria.
The vote to declare a state of emergency is a way to end Russia's "gas blackmail," according to Moldovan Prime Minister Recean. "This should be the last winter in the country's history during which we could be threatened with power outages," the prime minister added.
Russian President Vladimir Putin "wants to leave the population of Transnistria without gas and electricity and hold them hostage. Moscow is doing this to destabilize the situation in Moldova," Recean was quoted as saying by Reuters.
Late last month, Moldova and Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller discussed alternative routes for supplying natural gas to the Transnistrian region if transit through Ukraine is disrupted.
Gazprom said, however, that deliveries via alternative routes to Moldova would be tied to Moldova paying its outstanding debts for past deliveries. According to Russia, this debt is about 709 million dollars.
Meanwhile, supplies of Russian natural gas to Europe via Ukraine have been halted, three weeks before the agreement for gas transit through Ukrainian territory expires on December 31.
The volumes that Gazprom sends to Europe via Ukraine have been more or less stable since the Russian company cut off supplies to Austria's OMV in mid-November.
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