CHISINAU, September 3. /TASS/. An international audit company contracted by the Moldovan government has not confirmed that Moldova has a debt of $800 million to Russia’s gas giant Gazprom, Moldovan President Maia Sandu said on Sunday.

"Next week, our government will come up with a statement that we hired an international company, which conducted an audit and said that we have no debt of $800 million to Gazprom. They simply wanted to cheat on us," the Moldavskiye Vedomosti newspaper quoted her as saying.

According to Sandu, Moldova’s authorities turned down Gazprom’s proposal to sign commitments to repay the debt "because this is enormous money" and the country cannot accept this. "I think we were right," she added.

Back in October 2021, Gazprom agreed to extend the gas supplies contract with Moldova for five more years on condition that the country repaid its debts and make payments as scheduled. Gazprom spokesman Sergey Kupriyanov said back then that Moldova’s debt amounted to $433 million, but taking into account delayed payments, the overall sum reached $709 million. The Moldovan audit chamber said however that the debt stood at $590.8 million. The sum of $800 million that was mentioned by Sandu has never surfaced.