The Moldovan negotiators haven’t efficiently used the Transnistrian factor in the talks on the contract with Gazprom. “We didn’t obtain the best contract we could have obtained. To my mind, we haven’t sufficiently used the Transnistrian factor in the negotiations on the gas supply contract with the Russian Federation. I say this even if we considerably lack information and cannot draw a rather trenchant conclusion in this regard,” Anatol Țăranu, ex-ambassador of the Republic of Moldova to Russia, stated in IPN’s public debate “Energy Security of the European Union and the Republic of Moldova: reciprocal lessons”.
“I want to tell you that the Transnistrian factor is extremely important for Russia and it is rather improbable that we have remained without a gas supply contract. If we had had more patience and increased ingeniousness, I think the price of gas we receive from the Russian Federation would have been lower, if we had played the Transnistrian trump card till the end and with greater skillfulness,” stated Anatol Țăranu.
As to the regional geopolitical context, the expert said the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline has a geopolitical component as it was planned as a geopolitical weapon against Ukraine and its economic component is less pronounced. “Russia faces problems with Ukraine and does its best to subjugate this and to minimize the amounts of gas transported via Ukraine. It actually manages to do this. If the main gas flows that go from the Russian Federation to Europe go through Ukraine, volens nolens this increases the weight of Ukraine in the European geopolitical game. The economic component of this transit is rather important for Ukraine – the considerable amounts of money that Ukraine‘s budget receives owing to this transit,” said Anatol Țaranu, noting Russia tries to avoid the territory of Ukraine and to force the European countries to also avoid it.
The expert said Hungary gave up the transit through Ukraine, impacting European solidarity, but got a very favorable gas price from Russia.
According to Anatol Țăranu, the European Union paid special attention to the Republic of Moldova, realizing that Chisinau’s failure in the relations with Russia is also a very unpleasant precedent for the relations between Russia and the EU in general. This solidarity with Moldova shown by Brussels, by the EU in general derived from here.
The public debate “Energy Security of the European Union and the Republic of Moldova: reciprocal lessons” is the 212th installment of the series of debates held as part of IPN’s project “Developing Political Culture through Public Debates” that is supported by the Hanns Seidel Foundation.
