With regard to the speculative claims by the office of the political representative of the Republic of Moldova, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs points out the following.
Chisinau’s reaction is a futile attempt to justify its own clearly inadequate and extremely dangerous activities that threaten to turn into a deep crisis on a broad regional scale. However, the Pridnestrovian side is used to basing itself on truth and facts, against which the Moldovan version of events seems to be a trivial attempt to put the blame on others.
Moldova’s official representatives publicly confirmed the fact that the reduction of Russian natural gas supplies from October 1 this year was entirely the responsibility of the Moldovan side. In particular, at the meeting of political representatives held on October 28 the Moldovagaz SA representatives directly acknowledged that the reason for the decrease in supplies was the delay made by the Republic of Moldova in auditing the historic debt of the Republic of Moldova to Gazprom PJSC as well as the delay in current payments. These statements were recorded by all participants of the meeting, including international mediators and observers. Therefore, the Pridnestrovian side, as a consumer of the resource without direct contractual relations with Gazprom PJSC encouraged the Moldovan side to conduct urgent negotiations with Russia.
However, for months neither the government of the Republic of Moldova nor the leadership of Moldovagaz SA have taken any rational steps to initiate a dialogue with the Russian side. Moreover, since November 1 of this year Moldova aggravated the crisis by starting unauthorized and unpaid withholding of contracted Russian gas for the needs of Pridnestrovie in the amount of about 1.6 million cubic meters per day. More facts: the illegal nature of the gas extraction results from the content of the contract, in which the quantities for the needs of Moldova and Pridnestrovie are clearly stated numerically in black and white. And the fact that Chisinau has still not paid for the illegitimate “settling” volume of gas taken from Pridnestrovie was publicly confirmed by Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Spinu.
It is also obvious that such actions do not allow Gazprom PJSC to consider the Moldovan side as a reliable adequate partner, which is why the relevant decisions were taken. In fact, the totality of the above-mentioned facts suggests that all the responsibility for the socio-economic crisis in Pridnestrovie and Moldova lies with the Moldovan government, which illegitimately withholds the Russian gas resources supplied to Pridnestrovie and refuses to find proper and rational solutions.
We leave the recommendations on the application of certain market economy tools in the energy and utilities sector to the conscience of the Moldovan side. The fact is that as a result of the testing of such methods in Moldova, the neighboring country is shaken by widespread popular protests caused by enormous inflation, the rising cost of utility bills, and a complex of other socio-economic reasons.
With regard to the freedom of movement, we note that since August 2022 Moldova actually withdrew from the 2019 Gentlemen’s Agreement on the travel of public officials, despite the fact that the agreement was guaranteed by the head of the OSCE Mission to Moldova. Systematic restrictions, searches and interrogations, in particular in relation to the Supreme Council delegation who returned from Moscow on 19 November this year, attest to Chisinau’s inability to honor its international commitments.
As for the imports of goods to Pridnestrovie, the Foreign Ministry has repeatedly informed international partners and the general public about the cases of non-admission or long-term delays of consignment of medicines, medical equipment, plant protection products and fertilizers, fuel, industrial goods, food products, as well as raw materials for Pridnestrovian businesses that export goods to foreign markets.
For instance, in 2021 Moldova prevented the import of a batch of radios, blanks for Pridnestrovian and neutral license plates into Pridnestrovie, which blocked the VRO activities. In March 2022, the Republic of Moldova blocked the import of raw materials for the needs of Bendery Meat Processing Plant CJSC. In April the import of two batches of Austrian- and Chinese-made plant protection agents, chicken eggs and Ukrainian sausage products was denied. In May, poultry meat from Brazil and Argentina was arrested. Since April of this year and until now, several trays with medicines owned by Vivafarm LLC have been detained on the territory of Moldova. At the same time, Latvian-made industrial equipment for Moldavskaya GRES could not be imported for three months (from February to April). Delays in imports of medicines, foodstuffs, including buckwheat, fertilizers, fuel and lubricants lasted from two to five weeks on different occasions.
Another point is that the Moldovan side, guided by political reasons, has blocked the implementation of the mechanism that was the result of months-long efforts of Moldovan and Pridnestrovian experts in the field of medicines and plant protection products.
We reiterate our appeal to the Moldovan side to refrain from destructive blackmail and non-fulfillment of its own commitments in the negotiation process, as well as from any unilateral steps that deepen the downfall of further relations between the parties. We also call on the mediators and observers to take heed of the acute gas-energy and import situation in Pridnestrovie, fraught with a humanitarian crisis, and to make the necessary efforts to restore the situation as soon as possible.
