Zakharova advised Moldova to pay for Russian gas

Moldova needs to pay for the gas used in the country instead of inventing fairy tales about Russia's "blackmail". This was stated by Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova at a briefing on December 18.

She noted that despite Moldova's neutral status, the country's authorities "continue their blatant flirtation with NATO." According to her, the republic's President Maia Sandu complained about "gas blackmail" from Russia during her visit to Brussels last week.

"Some kind of gas blackmail, it is incomprehensible at all. It's time to pay the money for what we used. And not to make up any fairy tales about someone blackmailing them," Zakharova said.

Refusal is formalized: Moldova evades joint gas solution with DMR

How Chisinau and Tiraspol can receive fuel and what scenarios are possible in case transit through Ukraine is stopped

Earlier, on November 29, Stanislav Mitrakhovich, a leading expert of the National Energy Security Fund and the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, said that the Russian company Gazprom may refuse to supply gas to Moldova if Chisinau does not pay its debts. This is how he assessed Moldovan Prime Minister Dorin Recean's statement that the country "does not have a $709m debt to the Russian holding company".