The shop sold flowers and gardening supplies to visitors from down the road, where a small separatist region of Moldova has stood apart for more than 30 years with the support of Russian troops.
Since the gas cut from Russia on New Year’s Day, the store has been selling mostly electric heaters to residents of the freezing Transnistrian region, a self-proclaimed microstate in eastern Moldova.
Cheaper models have already sold out, but high-end heaters are selling fast as the Transnistrian region’s 350,000 residents endure an energy crisis that has shuttered factories and left Soviet-era housing without heat and hot water, raising questions, the seller said. about the survival of their lone, Russian-speaking enclave.
The situation is so bad that the president of the region, Vadim Krasnoselsky, who heads the body, which is not recognized by all other countries, including Russia, tried to reassure his people on Thursday: “We will not allow society to collapse.”
“It’s tough,” Mr. Krasnoselski said, listing the thousands of businesses, schools, farms and homes struggling without heat. Citizens showed “great responsibility” by “going out into the forest to collect dead wood” to burn at home.
The The crisis started on January 1When Russian energy giant Gazprom stopped shipping natural gas from Ukraine, the main remaining export route to Europe, after Ukraine refused to renew a five-year gas transit contract.
In most places once dependent on Russian gas, such as Hungary, the consequences of the gas cut have been mitigated by alternative suppliers from the West. But Transnistria, a small territory built on unwavering loyalty to Russia, is facing an existential crisis.
The Prime Minister of Moldova, Dorin Recean, who has been demanding the region to give up its statehood claims for a long time, accused Russia of pushing into an “anticipated humanitarian crisis”.
“By jeopardizing the future of the protectorate it has supported for 30 years to destabilize Moldova, Russia exposes the inevitable outcome of betrayal and isolation for all its allies,” Mr Recean said. he said on friday.
Avoiding the war in Ukraine and being more cautious about investing in resources, Russia has recently increased its desire to cut its losses. especially in Syria was sidelined last month as rebels toppled Moscow’s closest ally in the Middle East.
Alexandru Flencea, the former deputy prime minister of Moldova, responsible for the attempt to reintegrate Transnistria, assessed Russia’s use of military and political pressure on Moldova and said that it is not yet ready to leave the region.
According to Mr. Flencean, Russia’s desire for leverage has been exacerbated by the modest support of Moldovan voters in October. Amending the Constitution to close the country’s exit from Moscow’s sphere of influence by connecting more closely with the West.
But, Mr. Flenchea added, Russia’s willingness to allow Transnistria to freeze the region without gas or its main source of revenue — electricity sales from a gas-fired power plant to Moldova — shows the region is in serious trouble.
“The whole model in Transnistria is based on free Russian gas. There is no free Russian gas, everything is falling apart,” he said. “But I don’t think Russia will allow it soon. He still needs them.”
Others see Transnistria’s suffering as a sign of Russia’s retreat from its determination to divert Moldova from its pro-European course.
Also cut off from Russian gas, Moldova last week switched to more expensive alternatives, including electricity from Romania. That saved Moldova from the cold but doubled the price of electricity for consumers, which could carry a heavy political price for the pro-Western government in elections this year.
Vladislav Kulminski, a former government official at the Institute for Strategic Initiatives, a Moldovan think tank, said Russia’s goal is to “keep us in a gray zone by getting an election result that will bring another government to power.”
“Everything was blown up,” he said. “We don’t know what shape it will take when all the pieces fall.”
A retro police state with its own currency and passport – and a successful football team funded by local tycoons – Transnistria has an extensive security service reinforced by the Russians and has worked hard to control what people hear.
The Transnistrian mass media, repeating the Russian negotiations, blame the government of Ukraine, the United States and Moldova for the gas cut. Whispers that Russian President Vladimir V. Putin may also be guilty are taboo.
Looks like the media blitz is working.
“Putin will never leave us,” said Grigory Kravatenko, a resident of Bender, an industrial town bordering the territory controlled by Moldova.
Asked whether it would be better if the Transnistrian region aligned less with Moscow, he added: “We are not pro-Russia. We are not supporters of Moldova. We are not supporters of Ukraine. We are for ourselves and we all suffer.”
Even after the shutdown on January 1, the cooking stoves continued to work for a while thanks to the gas remaining in the pipes. But now they are also acting capricious.
The Transnistrian resident, named Yulia, who walked along the abandoned railway with her baby daughter on Friday, said she was confident Russia would come to help soon. “Of course they won’t let us die,” he said.
Viktor Ceban, an Orthodox Christian priest in charge of churches along the zigzag border, said he avoided saying who was responsible. “Whatever you say to one person, you become another’s enemy,” he said.
In some places the border is marked by concrete barriers manned by tired Russians. But in other places it is not so clear, it is easy to go to Transnistria. Passed through a checkpoint last week by a soldier with a Russian flag over his shoulder, reporters asked people at the bus stop if they were aware of the problems in Transnistria.
“Of course we do. This is Transnistria,” said the old woman.
Mr. Ceban, a priest who went door-to-door through the Moldovan-held village of Varnita on Friday, gave a blessing ahead of Orthodox Christmas and prayed that his mostly elderly flock would not suffer long without warmth.
When the Transnistrian region, the most prosperous part of Moldova when both were part of the Soviet Union, first broke away to create a renegade state in the early 1990s, the region boasted that it would become a Russian-speaking version of Switzerland. the turmoil surrounding deeply impoverished Moldova.
The separatist region has since become a template for Russia’s desire to maintain its influence by supporting separatists in former Soviet territories: first in Moldova, then in Georgia and eastern Ukraine. In all three countries, local militants backed by Russian muscle declared their own micro-states.
The deployment of Russian troops in Transnistria, initially as peacekeepers but still decades after the cessation of hostilities, ensured that Moldova could never regain the territory by force and doomed diplomatic efforts.
Equally important to the Transnistrian region’s survival was Russian gas, which was provided virtually free of charge to keep the steel mill and other industries running and to fuel the power station that sold electricity to Moldova.
Before the current crisis, electricity produced in Transnistria met about three-quarters of the country’s needs and provided about half of the breakaway region’s budget, Moldova’s Energy Secretary Constantin Borosan said.
“These people lived on subsidized gas from Russia. “Now it seems that Russia has abandoned them.” He noted that “Gazprom” ignored Moldova’s suggestions that it could still buy gas to Transnistria if the Kremlin wanted to, using an alternative export route through the bottom of the Black Sea.
“I don’t know what is in Putin’s head,” he said.
Whatever Russia’s intentions are, it is causing widespread pain not only in Transnistria, but also in the territories controlled by Moldova.
Alexandru Nichitenco, mayor of the energy-dependent village of Varnita, surrounded by Transnistria, said most of its 5,100 residents could no longer heat their homes. They face disaster, he said, especially if normal winter temperatures — usually many degrees below freezing — sweep the country.
He said that he did not blame Transnistria: “They cannot do anything. Moscow controls everything there.”
Mother Veronika Ostap, who struggles to feed her family without a working stove in Varnita, said she is waiting for her salary next week to buy an electric kettle. He heated a room with an electric heater so that his three young sons could sleep.
A Baptist Christian, he thanked God for keeping the temperature below zero, at least during the day. “The Lord is trying to help us,” he said.
Rukhanda Spatari contributed reporting from Chisinau, Moldova Natalia Vasilyeva From Berlin.
