PMR DEBT TO GAZPROM EXCEEDS US$6 BILLION

The Gazprom published the annual financial report, which says that the Transnistrian region of Moldova accumulated a debt of around US$6 billion for the consumed blue fuel.

According to the document, as of December 2018, the debt of the Moldovagaz company accounted for 431.66 Russian rubles (around US$6.21 billion). Over 2018, the company’s debt to Moldovagaz grew by over US$320 million. Most of debts (over 90%) accounts for the Transnistrian region, which is not paying the money to Moscow since 2006. They are accumulated on the so-called gas account, from where the authorities of the unrecognized Transnistrian Moldovan republic (PMR) are taking them for social needs.

The Gazprom report says that the accounts receivable of Moldovagaz is zero, while the US$6.21 billion debt was included in the category “reserve for credit losses”.

The report also says that in 2018 the Gazprom payments for transporting Russian gas through the territory of Moldova to other states fell by more than 22% - to US$47.1 million. This was due to reduction of the transported volumes through Ukraine and Moldova to European countries. At the same time, in 2018 the volume of the gas bought by means of Moldovagaz grew approximately by 35%, accounting for US$423.5 million.

Gazprom periodically initiates court proceedings against Moldovagaz in the Moscow arbitration court for nonpayment for the supplied gas. The last such hearing took place on August 24, 3018, when the court obliged Moldovagaz to pay US$475.8 million for the blue fuel, supplied in 2015. By means of court decisions, the Gazprom legalizes the Moldovagaz debt, including for the Transnistrian region’s debts.

During his first official visit to Moscow as President of Moldova in January 2017, Igor Dodon stated that the Transnistria’s debt for gas belongs to Moldova. Later, he clarified that this is the debt of economic agents, but not the state.

Before, ex-president of Transnistria Yevgeny Shevchuk stated, commenting on the debt for the Russian gas, that only cowards pay the debts.