Energy expert Victor Parlicov believes that, by reducing gas supplies to the Republic of Moldova, Gazprom would try to put Chisinau in a dilemma, including making the Moldovan authorities responsible for a humanitarian crisis in the Transnistrian region.
In an interview for Free Europe, the former director of the National Energy Regulatory Agency said that the 5.7 million cubic meters of natural gas, which are delivered in October by Gazprom, would be enough in the cold season for the right bank of the Dniester
“Gazprom is pushing the authorities in Chisinau to make a difficult decision: to take all the gas for the right bank and leave Transnistria without gas,” Parlicov said, noting that this is technically possible.
The expert says that one of Russia’s calculations would be to create a narrative to say that the “bad guys from Chisinau” committed “genocide” against Transnistria.
FOR THE MOST IMPORTANT NEWS, FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK!
Victor Parlicov believes that this behavior of Gazprom, which violated the contractual provisions with the Republic of Moldova, would be part of a strategy adopted by the Kremlin to put Chisinau in check. “[The Kremlin] …has put us in the situation in which we have to choose between two bad options,” says the expert.
On the other hand, according to Parlicov, Gazprom does not seem to have decided to terminate the contract with the Republic of Moldova, because from a legal point of view it was entitled to do so already in May, when the audit on the historical debts of Moldovagaz was not done.
Gazprom does not want to take responsibility, including a political one, for triggering a humanitarian crisis on the left side of the Dniester. “What they want is to put this responsibility on Chisinau”, declared Victor Parlicov.