Cuts In Russian Gas And Ukrainian Electricity Leave Moldova Out In The Cold

Electricians service power lines near Balti, Moldova, on November 2.

The Moldovan government could sue Russian state energy company Gazprom over a sharp cut in natural gas supply and is studying its options, Reuters reported. Gazprom has accused cash-strapped Moldova of failing to promptly pay for gas deliveries.

 

Moldovan President Maia Sandu arrives for a meeting of the European Political Community at Prague Castle on October 6.

Sandu, the pro-European and Harvard-educated president of Moldova, has warned that with gas prices soaring as much as 600 percent in the past year, her country could potentially run out of gas and electricity this winter.

Power lines are pictured on the outskirts of Balti on November 2.

Moldova, which has denounced the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine, has a contract with Gazprom that fluctuates from month to month based on the spot-market price of gas and oil. With prices soaring and a 40 percent cut in deliveries, the country is struggling to supply enough electricity to its 2.5 million population.
 

The crisis has forced this factory, which produces building materials, to shut down for the first time since 1992. Its workers are now reassigned to building a new hall in order to keep their jobs.




 

Ion Ignat, the founder and director of the company producing building materials, contemplates his future at the idled factory that previously employed 50 workers.




 

Concrete blocks are pictured in the courtyard of Ignat's factory in Chetrosu.

Ignat said the "next six months will be decisive" for his country. "We have one foot in Russia and one in the EU. But if we're going to be brave and dignified we'll have both feet in Europe and we'll get rid of the blackmail of the past 30 years."





 

A woman eats her dinner by candlelight in Chisinau on October 25.

"It's a daily challenge to supply the country with energy. A family is paying 70 to 75 percent of its incomes on [gas and electricity] bills," Sandu said in a recent address to parliament in neighboring Romania.

 

High inflation, particularly for energy, has triggered weekly street protests in the nation's capital of Chisinau.
 

A tractor works the land near Tibirica on November 2.

EU member Romania said last month it would start selling electricity to its neighbor at a reduced price because of the difficulties created by the war in Ukraine. The Moldovan government has also urged towns to turn off street lights and households to limit consumption, with businesses asked to alter their hours to work at off-peak times.
 

Sergei Litra, the owner of Litra Brewing Company, Moldova's first craft beer factory, is trying hard to save energy. His employees now work in two shifts outside peak hours, one running from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m.

"Everything depends on when the war in Ukraine will end. This war made everybody understand that we need energy independence," the 36-year-old told AFP, adding that he was considering buying solar panels. 

 

Previously, Ukraine provided 30 percent of Moldova's electricity needs. However, Russian attacks on the country's energy infrastructure have forced Kyiv to halt all exports. The remaining 70 percent of the country's power normally comes from a thermal power station in Moldova's breakaway Transdniester region, where Russian troops are stationed and which also cut deliveries.

 

Sandu -- a former World Bank economist elected in 2020 -- said Moldova's dependence on Russian gas is a "vulnerability [that] generates political blackmail."



 

Villagers use a horse and cart in Tibirica on November 2.

On October 26, the U.S. Treasury imposed sanctions on a former Moldovan official and several other figures to counter Russia's "persistent malign influence campaigns and systemic corruption in Moldova."

 

"I felt deep sadness seeing Chisinau plunged into darkness," said pharmacist Liliana Damaschin, 54, who had returned to Moldova from her job in Italy for a holiday. "I am very worried about my country."