Moldova to Lose Cheap Russian Gas — Gazprom CEO

MosNews ^ | 30.03.2005

[jb6]

Russia will stop cheap gas supplies to Moldova from 2006, chief executive of Russian gas monopoly Gazprom Alexander Ryazanov announced Wednesday.

Experts say it is a first major sign of retaliation by Moscow against a pro-western shift by the country’s leader. The move comes just days before President Vladimir Voronin, a former Russian ally, seeks election to a new term by the new Moldovan parliament.

Ryazanov told journalists that Gazprom would begin selling gas to Moldova at prices it currently charges European customers. The cost of fuel could therefore almost double from the current $70 per 1,000 cubic meters. Russia supplies around 5 billion cubic meters of gas a year to Moldova.

Ahead of Moldova’s parliamentary election on March 6, the Russian State Duma [parliament] demanded the government halt imports of Moldovan spirits and tobacco and stop selling natural gas to the state at preferential prices.

It has also urged the government to scrap visa-free travel arrangements with Moldova, putting in question the status of up to 1 million Moldovans — a quarter of the population — currently working in Russia.

Russia has linked the proposed sanctions to what it says is a blockade imposed by Moldova on the separatist Dnestr region, a Russian-speaking enclave that in the 1990s broke away from Moldovan rule with tacit support from Moscow

[jb6]

For all actions, reactions. I'm sure the All Caring EU, who ignored the blatent vote rigging by the Moldovan Communists, will shoulder this cost of gas.