Dodon: Transnistria will not have free gas
Problems with Russian gas supplies to Moldova and Transnistria may arise as early as 2020. Moldovan President Igor Dodon stated this on the NTV Moldova television channel, as reported by a PolitNavigator correspondent.
“There will no longer be transit through Ukraine in the volumes in which it exists now. There will be very serious problems, first of all, for Transnistria. We will try to solve them somehow, but they will no longer have free gas. And everything rests on this, including electricity, which we buy from them and pay in real money. And they don’t pay this money to the Russians for gas, but cover the interests of some companies,” Dodon said.
According to him, Moldova will not pay the Transnistrian debt.
“We need to talk about the gas debt that Transnistria has, because we will never pay it. Moldovan consumers from the right bank have always paid for this gas. Why should we pay for gas that consumers on the left bank did not pay for, or that money went somewhere? Let’s figure it out,” Dodon said.
The Russian Gazprom previously stated that Moldovagaz’s debt for 2018 reached 431,66 billion rubles. Most of the debt (more than 90%) falls on Transnistria.
Moldova has repeatedly proposed transferring the Transnistrian part of the debt to the Transnistrian gas transport operator Tiraspoltransgaz LLC, but Gazprom prefers to keep the debt for Moldova, since official Chisinau insists that the PMR is Moldovan territory and denies the republic recognition of independence.
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