EU blasts Russia for weaponising gas in Moldova

Moscow blames Ukraine for halting gas transit and Moldova for financial spat; Chisinau suspects Russia of seeking to influence upcoming elections.

The European Union’s foreign policy chief has accused Russia of weaponising gas against Moldova.

Russia is using “gas as a weapon” in waging a “hybrid war” against the small southeast European country, Kaja Kallas said late on Tuesday, pledging the bloc’s support. Moldova’s breakaway region of Transnistria, which enjoys strong links with Moscow, has been without gas since the beginning of the year amid a financial spat between Chisinau and Russia’s state-owned gas giant Gazprom.

“Russia continues to use gas as a weapon and once again Moldova is a target of its hybrid warfare,” Kallas wrote overnight on social media platform X. “Thanks to EU support Moldova remains resilient and well-connected to European energy networks.”

Russia continues to use gas as a weapon and once again Moldova is a target of its hybrid warfare.

Thanks to EU support Moldova remains resilient and well-connected to European energy networks.

In my call with @DorinRecean I reaffirmed our unwavering solidarity with Moldova.

— Kaja Kallas (@kajakallas) January 7, 2025

For decades, Transnistria, a mainly Russian-speaking breakaway region along the Ukrainian border, had been receiving Russian gas via Ukraine.

But that route was cut off on New Year’s Day after Kyiv refused to extend a transit deal with Moscow that had persisted through nearly three years of war between the pair.

The Moldovan government has blamed the crisis on Gazprom, which it says has refused to supply contracted gas to Transnistria via an alternative and tested Transbalkan route.

Gazprom has blamed unpaid Moldovan debts that Moscow says total $709m as the reason for the disruption. But Moldova disputes that debt and says its position is backed up by an international audit.

In her post, Kallas said that she reaffirmed the EU’s “unwavering solidarity with Moldova” in a call with Moldovan Prime Minister Dorin Recean.

The disruption is now affecting more than 51,000 households in Transnistria. An estimated 1,500 apartment buildings have no heating, and the functioning of the economy is also under pressure.

Regime change

The thin sliver of land of Transnistria has been de facto controlled by pro-Russian forces since the collapse of the Soviet Union, but is internationally recognised as part of Moldova.

Moldova says that Moscow is falsely blaming it for the crisis, which it claims Russia has artificially stoked to undermine the government ahead of parliamentary elections this year.

“The meaning of all of this is for Russia to create instability in the region but also very importantly to influence the results of the parliamentary elections in Moldova … They want to achieve a pro-Russian government …,” Recean said during an online briefing.

Late last year, Russia was accused of meddling in elections that saw Moldova’s pro-EU forces win a slim majority.