An energy crisis in a Russian-backed breakaway region of Moldova has left homes without heating and hot water and threatened a total collapse of the power grid after the end of gas supplies from Moscow.
Transnistria, a tiny stretch of territory that borders Ukraine, split from Moldova in the early 1990s during an armed conflict and has its own passports and currency. It is home to 1,500 Russian troops who the Kremlin says are peacekeepers. It is internationally recognised as part of Moldova, including by Russia.
The pro-Moscow region, whose flag still includes the Soviet hammer and sickle, received cheap gas from Russia until January 1, when the Kremlin turned off the taps over a financial dispute with Moldova, plunging it into an uncertain future.
The region’s 350,000 residents have been forced to burn wood or use electric heaters to stay warm amid freezing temperatures. Factories and schools have been closed. Free firewood has been made available, while field kitchens offering hot food have been set up in Tiraspol, the main city.
Vadim Krasnoselsky, the region’s leader, has warned that the strain on the power grid caused by the widespread use of plug-in heaters could cause it to collapse entirely. “Then we will be left without any electricity at all, then a very bad scenario will arrive,” he said. Rolling blackouts have already been introduced in an attempt to conserve energy.
Officials said on Wednesday that the region’s gas reserves would run out completely in less than a month.
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The crisis began as Kyiv ended an agreement with Moscow to pipe Russian gas to Europe, which would have dried up the Kremlin’s supplies to Transnistria irrespective of the dispute with the Moldovan government. However, Moldova says that the Kremlin could provide gas through an alternative pipeline network that runs across the Black Sea to Turkey and then up through the Balkans. So far, Moscow has not chosen to do so.
Moldova, which recently voted in a referendum to press ahead with an application to join the European Union, has been able to receive gas from neighbouring Romania, albeit at much higher prices that are likely to foment discontent in the run-up to this year’s parliamentary elections.
A border crossing out of the territory: Transnistria split from Moldova in the early 1990s and has its own passports and currency
DANIEL MIHAILESCU/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
DANIEL MIHAILESCU/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Dorin Recean, the Moldovan prime minister, has accused President Putin of engineering the crisis to undermine Moldova’s pro-western government and “weaponise” its territory against Ukraine. He also said that Russia had sacrificed the wellbeing of Transnistria’s residents in an attempt to bring pro-Moscow forces to power in Moldova.
“By jeopardising the future of the protectorate it has backed for three decades in an effort to destabilise Moldova, Russia is revealing the inevitable outcome for all its allies: betrayal and isolation,” he said last week. His comments were echoed on Wednesday by Kaja Kallas, the EU foreign policy chief, who accused Russia of using “gas as a weapon” in a hybrid war against Moldova.
A billboard reading “Russia in our hearts” sits on the side of a road in the town of Tiraspol
SERGEI GAPON/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Russia has blamed Moldova, Ukraine and the West for the crisis, a viewpoint that has been echoed inside Transnistria by separatist-controlled media. Transnistria has so far refused to purchase gas from the EU, Moldovan officials said.