Moldova’s PM orders legislation changes on nationalization
Prime Minister Dorin Recean has instructed the Ministry of Justice to prepare amendments to the legislation on the nationalization of strategic enterprises within the next three weeks.
This request was made in the context of the ongoing energy crisis, including Gazprom’s demand for payment of an alleged debt exceeding 700 million US dollars.
"We must do our homework, and we are doing it to rid ourselves once and for all of any instrument of blackmail. In this context, Minister Mihailov-Moraru, I ask you to review all the nationalization legislation in the next three weeks so that we can take action, particularly where we have strategic assets—assets that, by the way, were also seized through force and blackmail, and we must recover our assets."
The Prime Minister did not specify which objectives were being referred to but made these statements in the context of Gazprom conditioning the delivery of natural gas on the alleged debts of Moldovagaz, which amounted to over 700 million US dollars.
"This debt does not exist. If it exists, it was probably spent on yachts and vacations, but it was not spent by the citizens of the Republic of Moldova," said the Prime Minister.
It should be noted that, on Saturday, December 28, Gazprom officially confirmed that it would suspend the delivery of natural gas to the Republic of Moldova, starting at 07:00 on January 1, 2025. In a notice sent to Moldovagaz, in which it is the majority shareholder, the Russian energy giant invoked the Moldovan side’s refusal to settle the debts for gas deliveries, claiming that this constitutes a "significant" breach of the existing contract. Gazprom avoided specifying how long it would maintain the decision to suspend deliveries but suggested that it might reconsider the decision and would notify Moldovagaz.
Translation by Iurie Tataru
