The Kremlin said on Thursday that Russia was ready to provide gas to Moldova's breakaway Transdniestria region, but needed logistical support from Moldova to make that happen.

Moldova's breakaway Transdniestria region expects to receive Russian gas again soon to meet its needs, its leader Vadim Krasnoselsky said on Wednesday, two weeks into crippling power cuts in the Russian-backed enclave.

Once proud, go-it-alone and richer than their neighbors in Moldova proper, Transnistrians are now burning wood to keep warm through hours-long blackouts as winter bites. The crunch began when Moscow stopped pumping natural gas through pipelines in Ukraine ...

Russia is prepared to supply gas to Transdniestria but needs Moldova's logistical assistance to do so. Gas supplies were halted due to unpaid debts, leading to tension between Moldova and Transdniestria.

The end of Russian natural-gas transit across Ukraine is a blow to Moscow, but it could provide the Kremlin with sharpened tool for economic and political influence over a key target country: Moldova.

More than 51,000 households were left without gas and 1,500 buildings had no heating in Moldova’s separatist region Transdniestria.

The move was connected with, but not required by, the expiration at the end of 2024 of Russia’s contract with Ukraine for transit of natural gas to Europe. The looming energy crisis is likely to have a strong negative effect on Moldova’s ruling pro-European Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) in parliamentary elections due in the second half of 2025.

Moscow denies using gas as a weapon to coerce Moldova but said last month, as the gas cut-off loomed, that it would take steps to protect its citizens and troops in Transdniestria and "react ...

The Moscow-controlled breakaway region of Moldova will receive gas as a "humanitarian gesture" from the Kremlin, while the rest of the country will remain cut off after Russia halted supplies on 1 January,

The self-proclaimed republic has been unable to provide heating and hot water to residents since Jan. 1, when Moscow cut off gas to Moldova over a financial dispute.

The crisis prompted a question: will the breakaway region, occupied by Russia since 1992, survive without Russian gas? Free-of-charge Russian gas had been the backbone of Transnistria's economy and ensured the preservation of the breakaway region and its de facto independence from Moldova.