Posted on 11/22/2022 8:49:12 AM PST by Cronos
At the peak of his power, Russian President Vladimir Putin thought he could use his energy weapon to impose his will across Europe.
Now Moldova — with a population of only 2.5 million — is emerging as the last truly vulnerable energy target in his flailing campaign to destabilize governments in the neighborhood taking a pro-EU trajectory.
But no matter how hard Putin tries to turn the energy screws to topple the administration, Moldova’s government is doggedly resisting. Only last week Russian missile strikes triggered blackouts in half the country and last month Gazprom slashed gas supplies by a third, but engineers and politicians are working round-the-clock to ensure that energy networks keep running.
...Gazprom, which has traditionally supplied all Moldova’s gas, slashed flows by one-third in October to 5.7 million cubic meters (mcm) a day. It also warned it could cut off supplies entirely “at any time” — something Gavrilița admitted was now “very real possibility.”
The reasons for this reduction are “geopolitical,” Spînu said, adding that Gazprom is “becoming not a trustful partner for Moldova.”
“There are some political interests of Russia toward Moldova,” he said. “They don’t want us to keep going on the European Union path … they want to keep Moldova under their zone of interest.”
Romania provides 80%-90% of Moldova's energy needs
(Excerpt) Read more at news.google.com ...
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there was NO missile strikes in Moldova. This article is intentionally misleading, or just a crock of $hit reporting.
Seems logical for Russia.
Previously, Ukraine provided 30 percent of Moldova's electricity needs. However, Russian attacks on the country's energy infrastructure have forced Kyiv to halt all exports
A whole lot of purple prose in there. The author certainly is a drama queen.
On sleepless nights I’m sure Putin wishes he had gone after an easier target like Moldova.
The Russian army could have handled them.
Maybe, but unlike the Ukraine, Moldova is historically Romanian and not Russian.
Last week’s Russian missile strikes in Ukraine caused blackouts in Moldova. It’s a poorly written sentence but it is accurate.
“they want to keep Moldova under their zone of interest”
If Russia keeps on their current path, they’re going to have trouble keeping anything in their “zone of interest”.
Putin is using energy as a weapon? He’s not the one the started the sanction war. The Biden regime and West did and it has been a spectacular failure.
True - But he is the one who started the "invading, rocket-bombing, seizing territory, and killing innocent civilians"-war.
That should count for something, dontcha think?
Regards,
Depends on what you mean by historically. For a long time Belarus and much of Ukraine was Lithuanian.
Should they be reunited with Lithuania?
Vigo? Who is that? First it’s Harry Potter Orcs, and now this. All the Uke/EU advocates are really into children’s books.
Weird.
He also didn’t blow up the pipelines....
“”invading, rocket-bombing, seizing territory, and killing innocent civilians”-war.”
The Ukes started doing that in the Donbass 8 years ago for the crime of opting out of the coup, but nobody cared.
Like we did twice in Iraq, Afghanistan, Serbia, Syria and other places?
And, other than Afghanistan, the Russians have better reasons to have gone into Ukraine that we did in all those other places.
No. But Belarus and Ukraine were and are East Slavic, not Baltic like Lithuania. Ethnically, Moldova is Romanian. It was originally part of the Romanian pricipality of Moldavia, same as Wallachia, and Transylvania. Modern Moldova, then known as Bessarabia, was taken by Russia from Moldavia in 1812 following a war between Russia and the Ottoman Empire.
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