Gazprom may take over Moldovan power plants, Chisinau Council chairman

“Not paying the debts generated by the difference between the real cost of the heat and the tariff payed by the population may lead to Gazprom's ({Russian giant supplying natural gas to Moldova and the largest stakeholder of Moldovagaz }) takeover of the Moldovan thermal-power plants: Termocom, CET 1 and CET 2,” the chairman of the Chisinau Council (CMC), Eduard Musuc told a news conference on Friday. He says it could happen unless the local authorities honor their commitments in a memo signed with Termocom and Moldovagaz. “It's a very simple and very harsh procedure which can be applied in case of debts. The property can be sequestered and taken over through a simple writ,” Info-Prim Neo quotes the CMC chairman as saying. “If we talk with Termocom today, tomorrow we may have to talk with a giant structure to emerge in Chisinau,” he says. When asked to comment the statements, the capital's mayor Dorin Chirtoaca has stated it is an attempt to deprive of property the Moldovan citizens and Moldova as a state. He says the situation is similar to the one in 1998, when gas pipes were given to Gazprom to make up for Moldovagaz's debts. Dorin Chirtoaca accuses the Moldovan Government and the National Power Regulator of complicity with Gazprom “in a fraudulent scheme of extorting money from Moldovan citizens to create huge profits for this company.” Now heat supplier Termocom is owned by the Chisinau Council, as CET 1 and CET 2 plants are subordinated to the Government.