The president of the unrecognised separatist Transnistria region in Moldova, Vadim Krasnoselsky, held talks in Moscow on January 14 on overcoming the energy crisis, the head of state's press secretary Denis Podgorny reported.

As it refused help from central authorities in Chisinau and from Ukraine, the separatist region that is home to around 300,000 people (under 10% of Moldova’s population) is facing an acute lack of energy after Gazprom cut supplies to Moldova on January 1, citing an unpaid debt. 

The sole power unit still in operation, burning Transnistria’s limited coal reserves, MoldGRES, provides electricity to the region with a third of the consumers having power cut, by rotation, during the daytime (7:00-22:00). 

The separatist authorities announced that the Tirotex-Energo power plant, idle for years, resumed operations. The power plant, which can use only natural gas, is providing 23 MW of electricity – approximately 15% of all electricity generated in Transnistria. The total daily consumption of the power station is about 160 thousand cubic metres, according to the authorities. The source of the gas is unclear, but failure to keep the unit in operation would seriously damage it – and this indicates that the separatist authority expects a quick resumption of gas supplies.

In the meantime, Moldova’s President Maia Sandu, after a meeting of the State Security Council (CSS), again rejected Gazprom’s allegations about unpaid debt. $708mn in principal, interest and penalties is claimed by Gazprom but not recognised by an international audit report carried out at the request of the Moldovan authorities.

Sandu blamed Russia for “punishing Transnistria, which refused to actively act for undermining the stability in Moldova”.

“What is happening now also represents pressure on Tiraspol to be more cooperative in destabilising the situation in the Republic of Moldova in the future,” the head of state declared.

If this is the case, Russia seems to have at least partly achieved its target: Transnistria has refused support to overcome the energy crisis from Chisinau and Ukraine, seeking aid from Moscow only. Moldova offered Transnistria natural gas from Europe (at a high price, indeed) while Ukraine offered it coal (not mentioning whether it expects some payment in return).

Tiraspol’s deepening of its self-imposed energy blockade already caused political tensions in Chisinau, where Sandu came under criticism from the pro-Russian opposition for not actively seeking to settle the energy crisis by negotiating with Moscow.