Breakaway Moldovan region says it has agreed gas supplies backed by Russian loan

By Alexander Tanas

CHISINAU (Reuters) - Moldova's pro-Russian breakaway Transdniestria region will start receiving natural gas supplies via a Hungarian company under a loan provided by Moscow, separatist authorities said on Monday.

Residents of Transdniestria, a sliver of territory run by pro-Russian separatists along Moldova's border with Ukraine, were plunged into crisis on January 1 when shipments of Russian natural gas were halted, leading to widespread power cuts.

The delivery of gas "was made possible by Russian credit and functional support," Transdniestrian leader Vadim Krasnoselsky wrote on Telegram, without providing further details.

Moldovan Prime Minister Dorin Recean said his country would not block the gas flows to Transndniestria under an arrangement involving Hungary's MET Gas and Energy Marketing AG.

There was no immediate comment from Russia, which has blamed the crisis on Moldova's pro-European government. Moscow has troops stationed in the breakaway territory, which it supported with gas supplies until transit via Ukraine stopped this year.

Neither Moldova nor Transdniestrian authorities have disclosed the origin of the gas involved in the new arrangement.

Recean said supplies of 3 million cubic metres of gas per day could start from February 13 and had so far only been agreed for 16 days.

He said Transdniestria rejected a European Union offer of 60 million euros to fund gas purchases on the grounds that it would have required consumers to gradually pay more for gas.

"The inhabitants of the Transdniestria region will continue to live in a state of unpredictability and worry about gas supply," Recean said. "It's a solution that doesn't solve the problem long term."

Moldova supplied the region with gas from February 1-10, buying it on European markets and using part of a 30 million euro grant from the European Union.

Russian gas flows to Transdniestria via Ukraine stopped at the start of January when Kyiv refused to extend a transit agreement.

Moldova said Moscow should send the gas through other routes, such as one across the Balkans. Russia's Gazprom then halted exports to Transdniestria, citing an unpaid debt held by Moldova, which Chisinau does not recognise.

Transdniestria, which broke free from Moldova's control after a short war in the 1990s, had benefited for decades from cheap Russian gas used to heat homes and produce electricity sold to the rest of Moldova.

(Reporting by Alexander Tanas, Anastasiia Malenko, Yuliia Dysa; Editing by Gareth Jones, Peter Graff and Christina Fincher)