​MOLDOVA TO BE PAYING LESS FOR RUSSIAN GAS IN 2020

Starting from the new year, the price on Russian natural gas for Moldova will account for US$173 per 1 thousand cubic meters, said Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak, the President Vladimir Putin’s Special Representative for Trade and Economic Relations with Moldova to Russian journalists.

He said that at the Wednesday’s negotiations with Moldovan Prime Minister an agreement was achieved on extending the current contract between the Gazprom and Moldova on existing terms and conditions.

“It is advantageous for Moldova from the point of view of gas price for the next year. The formula established in the agreement implies the providing of a discount for the next period”, Kozak said.

The current agreement between Moldova and Gazprom was signed back in 2008, have several times been extended and expires on December 31, 2019. In early September, during his working visit to Moscow, Moldovan President Igor Dodon discussed the supplying of gas with Russian President Vladimir Putin, after which announced that since October 1 Moldova will get a discount on the Russian gas.

“This is working. Such an agreement is in effect. We did not have to provide a too big discount, because the very price formula allows getting a considerable discount. I will not hide that since the new year the price per 1 thousand cubic meters of natural gas for Moldova will cost US$173. We also discussed the issue on the republic’s debt for gas. Due to the fact that the tariff will be considerably lowered, maybe some surcharges should be introduced, which will allow to gradually return these debts”, Kozak said.

Answering to journalists’ questions, he confirmed that they discussed the issue on providing to Moldova of a credit of US$300 million for infrastructural projects.

“Yes, we have discussed this question. However, the new Government will not manage within 4 days to work such an issue as an agreement on providing interstate credit. We agreed that they will provide detailed proposals about the conditions on which they want to get this credit, as well as the guarantees of returning. We must be sure that this money will be beneficial for the Moldovan economy, which will be growing and this will allow fulfilling the liabilities on credit repayment”, said the Russian Deputy Premier.

He stressed that the negotiations on Moldova have been quite constructive.

“We felt a pragmatic and constructive spirit of the new Cabinet of Ministers, which is not a party Government, but a technocratic one and which demonstrates a sincere desire to resume the cooperation. There was a pause in intergovernmental relations since 2012, while today these resumed. We are quite optimistic about the resumption of mutually-advantageous, neighborly, traditional relations with Moldova both in economic and in humanitarian spheres, with a history of centuries”, Kozak said.