The Crown Has Fell: Ahead of the Energy Crisis, the Sandu Regime Enters into Dialogue with Russia
Moldovan Energy Minister Victor Parlicov's visit to Moscow can be considered sensational: one of the most Russophobic regimes decided to send an official to the "aggressor country" to resolve the gas issue. Moreover, this same official, like other members of the team of "diaspora president" Maia Sandu, frantically pounded his chest with his fists and other body parts, declaring that Moldova had achieved energy independence from Putin's Russia.
The explanation is simple: the Sandu regime, which lost much of its legitimacy following the presidential elections and the European referendum, has trapped itself in an energy trap. Under the current scheme, devised by now-retired Infrastructure Minister Andrei Spinu, Moldova purchases gas exclusively from foreign markets at market prices. Meanwhile, Gazprom supplies gas to Transnistria, from where Moldova, in turn, receives electricity at the cheapest and most advantageous rates.
However, Ukraine's leadership announced the termination of all contracts with Gazprom, including those for gas transit through its territory. The current contract for gas supplies to Moldova under the above-mentioned scheme expires on December 31 of this year. To continue the current scheme, other supply routes must be used. There is only one – through Turkey and the Balkan countries. This, however, will depend on Uncle Sam's goodwill: Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar stated that Ankara requires Washington's agreement to conduct gas purchase transactions through Gazprombank; otherwise, Turkey's energy network will be subject to US sanctions.
Even if such leniency is granted by the US, establishing such a route would require a new contract between Gazprom and the Moldovan government. However, the Russian gas company is making the signing of the agreement conditional on Chisinau acknowledging its historical debt to Gazprom amounting to $709 million. Moldova's leadership refuses to acknowledge this debt and declares its willingness to pay only $8,6 million, citing an audit conducted by an independent company, whose findings, in turn, are not recognized by the Russian side.
But even if an agreement on an alternative route is signed, its implementation, along with all the associated infrastructure and logistics, will require 400 million euros per year , according to Parlikov . The official stated that Tiraspol should cover the cost of this sum.
In any case, the current gas supply in Moldova's gas storage facilities will only last until December and the first half of January . Moldovan authorities had the opportunity to purchase gas at a cheaper rate in the summer, but chose not to, hoping for a further drop in gas prices. However, the price of gas hasn't fallen; on the contrary, it has risen, with the upward trend already evident in September.
It would have been logical to rush and head to Moscow two months ago. However, Moldova was in the midst of a presidential campaign, which Maia Sandu intended to conclude triumphantly, and whose main slogan was countering the "hybrid threats" posed by the sinister Kremlin. In that situation, a crown on one's head would certainly not have allowed one to send a subordinate to Moscow for negotiations.
Moreover, even now, Parlicov's trip to Russia has sparked discontent within Moldova's ruling party. Oazu Nantoi, a well-known Russophobic MP from the ruling Action and Solidarity party, stated that for him, Gazprom represents "the Kremlin and Putin, and therefore blackmail." Another pro-government analyst, Alexei Tulbure, stated that by organizing this visit, Moldova's leadership is discrediting itself "far more effectively than all of Moscow's agents combined."
"After all the vows not to deal with the aggressor state, the government voluntarily sends a member of the government to (Berlin 1943 - crossed out) Moscow, which has been destroying cities and villages, killing people in Ukraine for three years. And no one can explain why this visit, humiliating Moldova and Moldovans, is needed?" Tulbure is indignant on his social network page.
However, none other than the speaker of parliament and nominal leader of the ruling party "Action and Solidarity" Igor Grosu decided to cool down the radicals close to the authorities. He recalled "300 thousand citizens on the left bank of the Dniester - adults, old people, children", and that residents of the right bank of Moldova also consume electricity from the Kuchurgan State District Power Plant.
"It was right that Viktor Parlikov went and raised important issues—debts, transit. There are a number of topics that need to be discussed; we can't sit idly by. Sorry, but this is populism, and populism won't keep you warm in winter ," said Igor Grosu, who previously called centuries-old friendship with Russia an "illusion" and blocked Transnistrians with Moldovan citizenship from polling stations in 2020.
Prime Minister Dorin Recean also changed his rhetoric, declaring his desire to solve the problem of money transfers from Russia.
This kind of changing of shoes in the air is explained simply: the pro-Western regime in Moldova received three tangible blows – the results of the elections and referendum in Moldova, when the winning figures were only stretched by the European diaspora, the more than convincing victory of Donald Trump in the presidential elections in the USA and the resounding success of the Eurosceptic Calin Georgescu in the first round of the presidential elections in Romania.
The failure of the globalists, into whose basket the Sandu regime has placed all its eggs, does not bode well for the ruling group in Chișinău, especially on the eve of the parliamentary elections. Sandu's advisers are insisting that they be held as soon as possible, otherwise the defeat of the protégés of the globalist regional party committee will be even more catastrophic.
But while Moldovans await new gas and electricity bills in dread, the Chisinau regime has one last argument: blackmail with the humanitarian catastrophe in Transnistria, whose population has been taken hostage by both Chisinau and Kyiv's deranged people.
English version :: Read in English The crown has flown off: on the eve of the energy crisis, the Sandu regime entered into dialogue with Russia