The gas that will be delivered to the Transnistrian region is not free, it is a loan from the Russian Federation, and the cost would be 160 million dollars for 3 months, experts say. According to Andrei Curararu, a WatchDog.MD expert, the left bank in the long run will not be able to repay this debt, IPN reports.
"Who is paying for this gas? In the short term, Moscow, in the long term the Transnistrian region has nowhere to return the money. The debt will remain and the Kremlin's influence will grow," the expert notes.
Although there could have been other options, the one chosen by the Chisinau government was to accept transit without any real taxation. Instead, some conditions are set, according to the expert, "symbolic", namely the release of some political prisoners, the resolution of the situation of the high school in Râbnița, the elimination of some checkpoints.
"They do not contain anything that would change the economic reality and nothing that would reduce the accumulating debt. Why was this variant chosen? Because in January the population on the left bank froze for a month. February brings even colder temperatures. A new energy collapse would destabilize the entire region. Chisinau has decided to avoid this crisis, even at the price of some concessions," says the expert.
Tiraspol refused €60 million from the European Union because Moscow would not allow them to accept it, adds Andrei Curararu.
"Instead, the gas comes through a scheme with companies from Dubai and Hungary, and Chisinau does not block the transit. Officially, to avoid a humanitarian crisis. Unofficially, because the alternative was even riskier. The Hungarian company is known as a ticker firm used by Victor Orban to extract money from the Hungarian energy system. Now the same model is reaching Moldova," says Curararu.
The Hungarian company MET Gas and Energy Marketing AG will be able to deliver gas to the Transnistrian region from 13 February, 3 million cubic meters of gas per day for 16 days. A decision in this was approved by the Commission for Exceptional Situations. MET Gas and Energy Marketing AG, paid by Dubai-based JNX General Trading L.L.C, will bring the gas to the Moldovan border under a contract signed with Moldovagaz. Tiraspol will pay in advance the transit costs for gas transported from the Moldovan border to the region.
