Moldova ready to pay Gazprom only $9M of $700M debt

Moldova is ready to return only $9 million of the more than $700 million debt to the Russian company Gazprom, Moldovan President Maia Sandu said on the Vocea Basarabiei TV channel, Report informs referring to TASS.

“It is Gazprom's problem that they did not recognize [the debt audit]. We have evidence, the audit was carried out by well-known companies in this field. Moldovagaz can pay Gazprom $9 million, not $700 million or something,” she said.

One of the main conditions on which Gazprom management agreed in October 2021 to extend the contract for gas supplies to Moldova for the next five years was repayment of the debt for fuel and timely payments. Then the official representative of Gazprom, Sergei Kupriyanov, reported that Moldova’s debt amounted to $433 million, but taking into account late payments, the total amount reached $709 million.