Ukraine is unhappy with the fact that the Republic of Moldova has signed with Gazprom an extension of their gas supply contract, several publications in Chisinau write. The narrative is not based on any particular stand on Kiev’s part, it just started from an anonymous comment on Twitter. The news generated by this comment seems to be part of a larger campaign that seeks to undermine the relations between Chisinau and Kiev, which are not to the liking of Moscow.
NEWS: “Ukraine is unhappy with the signing of the agreement between the Republic of Moldova and Russia”, headlines the online publication cenzura.md, close to the Party of Socialists. The article states that the Republic of Moldova has signed a five-year extension of the gas supply contract.
NARRATIVE: By signing the extension of the gas supply contract, the Republic of Moldova betrayed Ukraine.
LOCAL CONTEXT / ETHOS: In the last month, the Chisinau government held talks with Gazprom to extend the gas supply contract, after the previous one had expired on September 30. In October, the Republic of Moldova paid a record price of almost 800 USD per thousand cubic meters, and the quantities delivered by the Russian giant were insufficient, so that gas from alternative sources was needed.The Chisinau government held talks with several countries, including Ukraine, to gain support in the so-called “gas crisis”. The Kiev press wrote that the Ukrainian authorities had agreed to sell a certain amount of gas to the Republic of Moldova in case of need.In general, the relations between Chisinau and Kiev have significantly improved with the coming to power of Maia Sandu and the Action and Solidarity Party. The two states support each other against the background of their territorial conflicts (the frozen one in Transnistria, the semi-frozen one in Donbass, Crimea), which cannot but disturb Moscow.Several articles have been published in the Russian press, as well as in some publications in the Republic of Moldova, close to the Socialist Party and / or Moscow, which apparently are meant to antagonize Chisinau and Kiev. On the same day that the news of Kiev's alleged dissatisfaction with the gas supply contract was published, several media outlets in the Republic of Moldova, affiliated with the Socialists, published a comment saying that the Chisinau government cannot rely on real support from Kiev. Although it was carried by several media outlets, it is not clear what the primary source of this comment is and it seems to have been translated from Russian by google translate.
PURPOSE: To harm the relations between Chisinau and Kiev in order to make both states more vulnerable to Moscow and prevent them from identifying solutions to the territorial conflicts they face.
WHY THE NARRATIVE IS FALSE: The only editorial argument in support of the idea that the signing of the gas supply agreement allegedly bothered Kiev would be the comment on Twitter by an unknown person who wrote “prostitutes”.Even if, in theory, Kiev would rather Moldova had not signed the contract with Gazprom, which would have directly affected the Transnistrian separatist region as well, it is clear that Chisinau couldn’t afford running out of gas in winter and without clear alternatives sources. Kiev cannot blame the Republic of Moldova, which, like most European states, including Ukraine, imports gas from Russia.
Moreover, by importing gas from Russia, the Republic of Moldova uses pipelines that cross Ukraine. The use of these pipelines is vital for Kiev as, on the one hand, it generates revenue, and on the other hand it keeps Moscow co-interested in the proper functioning of the pipelines, thus reducing the risks of a large-scale military intervention against Ukraine.
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