The necessity of supplying the people with electricity at a more accessible price was the top priority of Chisinau in the negotiations with the self-styled Transnistrian authorities, said Deputy Prime Minister for Reintegration Oleg Serebrian. According to him, only representatives of the opposition and some of the political commentators criticize the contract signed with MGRES (Kuchurgan power plant), while society approved of the agreement, IPN reports.
The official expressed his conviction that the citizens welcomed Chisinau’s decision to sign the given contract as the purchase price of power is now lower than the price paid for electricity bought from the Romanian market earlier.
“It’s truth that it is a political and economic cost. As to the economic cost, I saw messages of persons from the opposition, but didn’t see a vehement public reaction. The windows of my office are situated close to the Great National Assembly Square and I didn’t see a protest against the contract being staged there. Society reacted rather positively,” Oleg Serebrian stated in the program “Reflection Points” on Vocea Basarabiei station. He noted the Moldovan electricity networks are vulnerable due to Russia’s attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure and this aspect was also taken into account when discussing the contract.
Representatives of the parliamentary opposition accuse the government of supporting the separatist regime in Tiraspol by offering the Transnistrian region the whole amount of gas supplied by Gazprom. Owing to the gas provided by Moldovagaz, the Kuchurgan power plant and the Rybnitysa steel works, which are two of the largest taxpayers in the region, started to work at full capacity.
“I cannot consider such a scenario, but I don’t think the regime in Tiraspol would have collapsed without this gas. Given the military potential existing there, other solutions would have been looked for and I cannot say if those solutions would have been the ones expected by those who direct us towards this scenario. The war in Ukraine showed how much we are interdependent and this interdependence has both positive and negative sides. There are elements that can bring the two sides closer and there are many citizens of the Republic of Moldova on the left side and an increasing number of companies that register on the right side of the Nistru. Practically all those who import/export were registered on the right side of the Nistru,” stated the official.
Following the signing of the contract with MGRES, the right side of the Nistru purchases electricity from the Kuchurgan power plant at the price of US$ 73 per MW. Instead, Moldovagaz directs to the Transnistrian region the whole amount of gas supplied by Gazprom to Moldova – 5.7 million cubic meters of gas a day.
