CHISINAU, Moldova (AP) — The Moldovan parliament voted Friday in favor of imposing a state of emergency in the energy sector over concerns that Russia could leave the European Union candidate country this winter without sufficient natural gas supplies.
A majority in the 101-seat Moldovan parliament voted in favor of the state of emergency, which will come into effect on December 16 and last 60 days. A special committee will take urgent measures to manage “imminent risks” if Moscow fails to supply gas to the Kuciurgan power plant, the country’s largest, located in the separatist pro-Russian region of Transnistria.
Moldovan Prime Minister Dorin Recean said his country is facing an “exceptional situation” in which Moscow could deliberately weaponize energy flows to destabilize the country and potentially leave people “without heat and electricity in the middle of winter.”
Russian energy giant Gazprom supplies the gas-fired Kuciurgan power plant, which generates electricity that powers a significant part of Moldova. The factory was privatized by Transnistrian officials in 2004 and later sold to a Russian state-owned company. Moldova does not recognize the privatization.
In late 2022, Moldova suffered major power outages due to Russian attacks on neighboring Ukraine, which is connected to the Kuciurgan plant.
“This must be the last winter in the country’s history where we could still be threatened by energy,” Recean said. “It is clear that these crises are deliberately provoked, and their aim is to create panic and chaos.”
He added that a halt to natural gas production could trigger economic and humanitarian crises, but vowed that no one in Moldova would be left “in the cold and dark.”
Transnistria, which broke away after a brief war in 1992 and is not recognized by most countries, also declared its own state of emergency this week in case the region does not receive gas supplies.
When Russia fully invaded Ukraine in 2022, Moldova, a former Soviet republic of about 2.5 million people, was completely dependent on Moscow for natural gas but has since pushed to diversify and expand its energy sources.
Sebastian Burduja, Romania’s energy minister, said late on Thursday that Romania has the means to support Moldova “if the situation requires it”, saying it would be “a duty … in the face of the aggression coming from the east comes.”
In October, Moldova’s pro-Western president Maia Sandu won a second term in office, and a referendum voted in favor of securing the country’s path to the EU in a split vote, overshadowed by persistent claims of Russian interference that are halting the westward shift would derail the country in recent times. year. Russia denies that it is interfering in Moldova.
