Residents of the Transnistrian region have become accustomed to free gas delivery in the form of humanitarian aid from the Russian Federation. This is the opinion of the project's permanent expert Igor Botan, who said that this has been going on for 20 years and now it will be impossible to ask them to pay the commercial price of gas. In the meantime, nobody wants the Transnistrian region to descend into a humanitarian catastrophe. Solutions can be found, if the Transnistrian administration is able to demonstrate how it will manage the gas offered by the European Union, the expert said at a public debate held this morning at the IPN news agency.
Igor Botan described Tiraspol's position of blaming Kiev and Chisinau as bizarre, stressing that Ukraine has not cut off the gas supplies. "Naftogaz and Gazprom had a contract that everyone knew that it expires on January 1, 2025, and Naftogaz, two years before the expiration, announced that it would not sign a new contract with Gazprom, which is what happened," Igor Botan explained. The expert said that in this situation it is strange to accuse Moldova of not influencing Kiev's war-torn relations with Moscow.
Tiraspol's leader Vadim Krasnoselsky spoke publicly about the crisis for the first time only on December 28, although the possibility of a gas crisis in the Transnistrian region was already discussed in Chisinau in October-November, the expert said. Igor Botan said that this situation then led him to think that at the last moment the leadership of the Russian Federation would announce about the gas supply to the Transnistrian region. The expert says he was surprised when this did not happen and the Russian Federation abandoned the region.
Residents of the Transnistrian region lived for a month without heat, in regular electricity disconnections. Igor Botan believes that Moscow has thus taught a lesson which shows what consequences the disagreement of the Transnistrian elites with the Kremlin's position can have.
The expert recalled that in the contract between Gazprom and Moldovagaz there is a clause stipulating that Gazprom is obliged to deliver gas to the Moldovan border. "As I understand, there it is not specified whether at the border with Ukraine or with Romania, that is why all this time there have been different versions that a commercial company will be found that will procure this gas from Gazprom and will deliver it to the Moldovan border somewhere in Romania, which did not happen. And now we have this temporary decision, which is being realized only for 10 days, with the help of the European Union," the expert said.
Asked what actions can follow after February 10, the deadline that is agreed for the delivery of gas to the Transnistrian region from the European Union, Igor Botan said that nobody knows what will happen after that. The expert continued that neither the Republic of Moldova nor the European Union wanted a humanitarian crisis in Moldova, that is why this temporary decision was taken. According to him, a solution must be found within these 10 days. If the European Union continues to deliver free gas to the Transnistrian region, this would be a victory for Russia and a huge injustice to the right bank, Igor Botan noted.
In his opinion, the current context of the Transnistrian crisis is the aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine. Igor Botan does not rule out that there are people in the Transnistrian region who want unification with the Russian Federation and is skeptical about the likelihood that the inhabitants of the region will immediately fall in love with the Republic of Moldova and want reintegration, although, he believes, this crisis should stimulate them to deep conclusions.
Public debate on "The energy crisis in the "Bermuda Triangle". Episode II: Tiraspol's position" is organized in the framework of the project "IPN News Agency for Social Cohesion and Pro-European Moldova", funded by IMS.
