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Background: Russia supports Moldova’s breakaway region called Transnistria. In effect, Moscow does not recognize Moldova’s sovereignty over the territory claimed by Chisinau. De facto, Transnistria functions independently within Moldova’s internationally recognized borders.
News the Irony: In light of Transnistria’s customers unwilling/unable to pay their gas bills, Gazprom is now billing Moldovagaz for their consumption.
Neither [the Moldovan gas distributing joint- venture] Moldovagaz nor Moldovan consumers will be held responsible for the [Moldovan rebel] Dniester region’s debts for Russian gas, sources in the management of the Moldovan-Russian joint venture have told Infotag. They commented on [Russian gas monopoly] Gazprom’s attempt to file a lawsuit against Moldovagaz with an international commercial arbitration court to recover Dniester residents’ debts. The sources said that Moldovagaz has agreements with Gazprom that Moldova and the Dniester region have to pay separately for gas and that it has relevant contracts. “In addition, the authorities of the unrecognized Dniester Moldovan republic passed to Gazprom its stake in Moldovagaz (13.44 per cent) in 2005 and unilaterally announced its withdrawal from the joint venture. That is why the main shareholder, Russia, perfectly knows the situation, its representatives visit Tiraspol often and they have to solve the non-payment issue there,” Moldovagaz’s sources said.
Full story here.
Mr Smirnov, the Transnistrian
despotleader, won’t be too unhappy about this decision. Its all part of the same story of putting all political and economic pressure on Moldova.We might see more of this in the near future, since next year is election year in Moldova - and a bit of pressure can always help to influence the agenda.