CHISINAU, February 15. /TASS/. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko will arrive in Moldova on Tuesday to prepare for the meeting of the intergovernmental commission scheduled for March, Spokesman for Moldova’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration Daniel Voda told TASS.

"Rudenko will take part in consultations at the Foreign Ministry's level on Tuesday. He will hold a number of meetings with Moldovan colleagues in connection with the preparation of the upcoming meeting of the Moldovan-Russian intergovernmental commission in March," Voda said.

In his turn, the speaker of the Moldovan parliament, Igor Grosu, told the TV-8 channel that Rudenko would not discuss the revision of the contract with Russian energy giant Gazprom during the negotiations. "It is necessary to meet our commitments," Grosu said, noting Chisinau's interest "to conduct an audit, present arguments and draw a line."

Debt repayment and timely payments were among the main conditions on which Gazprom agreed in October 2021 to extend the contract for the gas supply to Moldova for another five years. Earlier, Gazprom's official representative Sergey Kupriyanov reported that Moldovagaz's debt to the Russian holding hit $ 433 mln, and taking into account delayed payments to the tune of $709 mln. However, the Moldovan government considers it necessary to clarify the amount of debt and intends to involve an independent international company for the audit.

Gazprom reported that Chisinau's unilateral approach to determining the terms of the tender for the payment of the auditor's services did not allow to expect transparency and objectivity of debt verification. Such an approach runs counter to the agreements reached in October 2021, and may lead to the fact that the audit results will not be approved by the supervisory board of Moldovagaz, the Russian gas holding warned.