In the company has any practical interest in our bows, Igor Dodon saidCHISINAU, December 28. /TASS/. Russian gas giant Gazprom has never put forward any political preconditions during talks on gas supplies to Moldova, Moldovan ex-president Igor Dodon told TASS on Tuesday.Dodon, who currently heads the Moldovan-Russian Business Union, commented on latest remarks by Moldovan Parliament Speaker and the ruling party leader Igor Grosu, who claimed that the Russian gas company reduced its gas supplies to Moldova “to force its government to bow [before Gazprom].””During my tenure as the president, and prior to that as the deputy prime minister in charge of economy, I travelled to Moscow several times to negotiate a gas price reduction for Moldova. Gazprom has never put forward any political preconditions. And no one in the company has any practical interest in our bows,” he said.”What we need to do is just to go to Moscow and negotiate, <…> and to honor the commitments that we had undertaken,” the former president added. “Regretfully, President Maia Sandu nor Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilita <…> failed to do so during their first two years in office.”He added that the Moldovan delegation praised their latest contract with Gazprom, signed in October 2021, as a “huge victory” of the incumbent government.”By signing this document, they undertook obligations to pay for current deliveries in time and to agree on paying the debts, which accumulated mostly during the rule of the pro-European coalition that included members of the country’s incumbent government. We honor our commitments regarding the current payments, but no progress has been made regarding the debt,” Dodon went on.”They undertook to commit to paper the overall amount of the debt by March and to draft the schedule of repayments in spring,” he said. “If they had honored their commitments, we would have been receiving full amounts of gas now, and at a much cheaper price.” Gaz supplies and debtsMoldovagaz and Gazprom extended their gas supply contract for another five years in October, 2021. The contract has a modified formula to determine the purchasing price, now taking into account the current spot market situation in European countries. Chisinau assumed that would help it cut costs but the market situation has changed drastically, causing prices for Moldovans to rise almost sevenfold since last year.Earlier, the sides agreed to coordinate the payment of outstanding fees by May 1, however, the Moldovan government did not have time to conduct an independent audit and asked for a postponement until October 2022.From October 1, Gazprom accused Moldova of non-compliance with its contract obligations and reduced the daily volume of gas supply to Moldova by 30% to 5.7 million cubic meters, while the country needs 8.06 million cubic meters. The Russian company also attributed that to technical problems associated with the restriction of transit through Ukraine. In November, gas supplies from Russia remained at the same level, and the shortage in Moldova rose to 50%.Official spokesman of the gas holding Sergey Kupriyanov reported that currently Moldovagaz owes $433 mln and taking into account delayed payments, the total debt amounts to $709 mln. Moldova’s Audit Chamber estimates the debt at $590.8 million.
This article was originally published by TASS.
