TIRASPOL, May 5. /TASS/. Russia helped restore gas supplies to Transnistria when Chisinau set down conditions Tiraspol could not implement, waiting for the region to collapse, Vadim Krasnoselsky, president of the unrecognized Republic of Transnistria, said in an interview with TASS.
"Transnistria was cut off from gas. However, Moldova immediately seized the opportunity, that’s one hundred percent, being openly glad, hoping that we would collapse, that we would be fully troubled, and that we would disappear as a state. <…> Moldova started setting down additional conditions for supplying European gas: the halt of the whole industry and a ten-fold increase in tariffs for our population," he said.
"Leaving people jobless and raising tariffs for them ten-fold, I am sorry to say this but this is a mockery of aid. <…> Whereas the Russian Federation did not set down preliminary conditions for extending loans to us. It was simply saving the situation," the president said, adding that the crisis was deepened by the lack of a negotiation platform and exchange of views between Transnistria and Moldova on the issue. He also noted the importance of resuming talks in the format of ‘five plus two’ (Moldova, Transnistria, mediators from OSCE, Russia, Ukraine, as well as EU and US observers).
After Ukraine halted the transit of Russian gas to Europe on January 1, and due to Chisinau’s refusal to settle its debt to Gazprom, both Moldova and Transnistria were left without gas supplies. Furthermore, Tiraspol experienced a full gas blockade. Industrial facilities in Transnistria were shut down, power outages were imposed, and residential buildings had no heating or hot water during freezing temperatures.
On February 14, the European energy company MET Group, owned by Hungarian investors, announced the start of gas supplies to Moldova. After that, the Transnistrian authorities said that gas was flowing to their region seamlessly, adding that gas was delivered thanks to Russia’s credit and financial support.