Moldova's parliament voted early this morning to impose a national state of emergency for 60 days, starting on December 16, due to the expected interruption of Russian gas supplies from January 1, Reuters reported, quoted by BTA.
Fifty-six members of the 101-member legislature supported the measure in a vote shortly after midnight, after Prime Minister Dorin Recan appealed for support for the measure to ensure that Moldova's separatist region of Transnistria would be provided with the gas it needed.
It was a vote, Recan said, to end "gas blackmail" Moscow.
The declaration of a state of emergency allows the government to react quickly and limit energy exports.
Moldova receives Russian natural gas through Ukraine, which has already said it will not extend its Russian gas transit contract with Russian gas giant “Gazprom“. The contract expires on December 31.
Recan said that Russian President Vladimir Putin “wants to leave the population of Transnistria without gas and electricity and hold them hostage. Moscow is doing this to destabilize the situation in Moldova“.
It is up to the parliament, Recan said, to approve the state of emergency so that “this winter will be the last in the country's history when we can be subject to energy blackmail“.
If we fail to provide gas to Transnistria, it will “lead to a humanitarian crisis... and will also create risks for the stability of Moldova's electricity supply sector“.
Moldova receives about 2 billion cubic meters of gas annually from Russia. From 2022, Transnistria and the central government have agreed that all Russian gas received by Moldova will go to Transnistria. The region has a power plant powered by Russian gas, which is a vital element of the breakaway region's economy and also provides most of the electricity for government-controlled parts of Moldova.
Transnistria, which is not internationally recognized, declared a state of economic emergency on Tuesday.
Recan said the transit problem through Ukraine was an "artificial problem" because Russian gas could also flow via other routes. Moldova has said an alternative route to Transnistria could be to transport Russian gas via the "Turkish Stream" pipeline to Turkey and then through Bulgaria and Romania.
However, supplies could be in question because in the negotiations "Gazprom" tied continued supplies via alternative routes to its demands that Moldova pay its debt for past supplies, which according to Russian calculations amounts to $709 million.