"Moldovagaz" announced the recognition of a historic debt to "Gazprom" of $709 million

Moldovagaz JSC recognizes a historical debt to Gazprom of $709m, which refers to the period from the 1990s to 2014. This was stated on January 15 by Vadim Ceban, acting chairman of the Moldovagaz board of directors, on air of Moldovan TV channel TV8.

"There is an unsettled debt, which refers to the periods of the 1990s, 2000s and a part from 2010 to 2014. <...> The debt on the right bank is $709 million, but it is historical," he said.

According to Cheban, at the moment this debt has not been canceled and is on the books, and all documents confirming this are signed.

"Commercially, Gazprom has every right to demand this (debt payment. - Ed.)," he explained.

Also, the acting head of Moldovagaz said that the issue with debts at this stage should be put aside, the status quo should be preserved and attention should be focused on natural gas supplies to the Transnistrian region.

At the same time, Ceban noted that the Moldovan company has not accumulated any payment obligations to Gazprom since 2016.

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The day before, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russia was ready to help Transnistria in the fight against the gas crisis. At the same time, he stressed that Chisinau should ensure the conclusion of relevant contracts, as well as offer certain logistical solutions for the implementation of supplies.

On January 1, centralized heating was cut off in Transnistria after Gazprom stopped Russian gas supplies via Ukraine. Gas stopped flowing also to Moldova because of the country's outstanding debts. For his part, Moldovan Prime Minister Dorin Recean did not recognize the debt and threatened to sue.

On the same day, the president of the unrecognized Transnistrian Moldovan Republic (TMR), Vadim Krasnoselsky, said that Moldova was unreasonably shifting its debt to Gazprom to Transnistria.

"Gazprom and Moldovagaz signed a five-year contract for gas supplies in the fall of 2021. It stipulated Chisinau's payment of debt for supplies in the past few years. The entire volume was estimated at $709 million, of which Chisinau officially recognizes only $8.6 million.