Energy dependency on Russia: “Moldova cannot do it alone”

The war against Ukraine is also having a devastating impact on Moldova’s energy prices. The country gets 80 percent of its gas from Russia. President Sandu accuses Moscow of wanting to overthrow the government in Chisinau.

By Andrea Beer, WDR, currently Chisinau

Cristina Tocari from Chisinau studied in France and has traveled extensively. Freedom, says the young woman with the long brown hair, is important to her. “It’s the feeling that no one can force you to do anything or be anywhere,” she says. “That’s how I define myself as a person.”

Cristina Tocari and her boyfriend Adrian Plesca recycle plastic and make jewelry out of it. For their recycling start-up, they rented a couple of high-ceilinged offices with rough red brick walls in the huge old post office building in Chisinau. It’s bitterly cold. “We definitely won’t turn on the heating because it’s an old Soviet system and it would cost a few hundred euros just to turn it on,” says Adrian Plesca.

80 percent of the gas comes from Russia

Unheated rooms in offices or schools and poor lighting at home and in public spaces – that is everyday life for many. Just before winter, energy prices have skyrocketed. The reason: Moldova obtains around 80 percent of its gas from the Russian state-owned company Gazprom, which also holds a majority stake in Moldova’s Moldovagaz.

Gazprom has raised prices sharply several times and has recently been supplying around a third less gas to Moldova. Outstanding debts are cited as the reason, which the pro-European Moldovan leadership vehemently denies. In recent months, energy has become more and more expensive – also for companies. And since the beginning of November, people have had to lie down a third more.

“Energy vulnerability leads to blackmail”

The country’s energy supply is a daily challenge, said President Maia Sandu this week in the Romanian Parliament. Even when the government is doing its best to help those on low incomes, a family’s energy bills can still add up to 75 percent of their income, she says.

“Our energy vulnerability leads to political blackmail and interference in democracy, in domestic and foreign policy,” says Sandu. Moldova recently became an EU candidate and the government’s strict European course has long been a thorn in Moscow’s side.

Russia wants to weaken and overthrow the Moldovan government, President Sandu is alarmed. For example, with weeks of protests financed by a wealthy businessman loyal to the Kremlin – according to the public prosecutor’s office.

Puppet regime in the “Republic of Transnistria”

Added to this is the deep division of the former Soviet republic. Since a war in the early 1990s, the self-proclaimed “Republic of Transnistria” has existed in the east, in which 2,000 Russian soldiers are stationed, among others. On the territory of this puppet regime is also the power plant that supplies the whole of Moldova with energy.

Russian President Putin undermined Moldova’s reform government from the start with high energy prices, says Sergiu Tofilat, an energy expert at the Watchdog organization in Chisinau and a former adviser to the current president on energy issues.

“In the current situation, it makes sense to seek a compromise. Both sides – Chisinau and the self-proclaimed Republic of Transnistria – depend on each other when it comes to energy infrastructure,” he says. By the time the war in Ukraine ends, both sides need to start talking. “We can accelerate EU integration even more, but all of this is only possible with Western support, because Moldova cannot do it on its own,” says the energy expert.

Winter is coming, hope remains

Especially since the small Moldova has comparatively taken in the most refugees from Ukraine. In July of this year, a donor conference in Moldova pledged 600 million euros to flow into poor private households, but also into independent energy structures. Another donor conference is scheduled for this year. But winter is also just around the corner, and with it the grueling worry about the harsh energy pressure from Moscow.

Lawyer Ludmila is also concerned. “Personally, we’re doing very badly because prices are going up while wages stay the same. Physically and morally it’s very difficult, especially when you have children that you have to take care of raising and feeding,” she says. Even if she currently does not know how to proceed: she still hopes for a happy ending.

Less space, less heating

Cristina Tocari and her boyfriend Adrian Plesca are both 24 years old and live abroad part of the time. However, they would like to continue building their recycling start-up in Moldova, regardless of unheated office space.

“Last year we moved something that the high ceilings are lower and we have less space for heating,” says Plesca. “We also considered that we would simply use fewer rooms this winter so that we would have to heat even less.”