It comes after Ukraine declined to renew a contract that allowed Russian energy giant Gazprom to export fuel via a strategic pipeline that runs through Ukrainian territory.
As a consequence, Moldova is set to be cut off from its main energy source from January 1, leaving the country at risk of power cuts and electricity rationing.
Prime Minister Dorin Recean has blamed Russia for the crisis, although he added that supplies could be delivered to Moldova through other routes.
The state of emergency will allow the government to respond rapidly and curb energy exports, Reuters reports.
Key power plant in Transnistria
Moldova’s key energy facility is a crucial gas-fired power plant which, despite being located in the pro-Russian separatist region of Transnistria, fuels homes and industries all across Moldova.
According to the International Energy Authority, it met 77% of the state’s energy demand in 2020 – but it could be taken out of use if Russian gas supplies are switched off.
Recean, Moldova’s pro-Western prime minister, described the situation as an “artificial problem” because Russian gas could be supplied to Moldova via distribution routes that avoid Ukraine – for example, through pipelines in Turkey.
He said that Friday’s close-run vote in favor of a state of emergency wasa decision to end “gas blackmail” from Russia.
“Moscow is doing this to destabilize the situation in Moldova," said the prime minister.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, he added, "wants to leave the population of Transnistria without gas and electricity and hold them hostage.”
The separatist province, which occupies a thin strip of land on the left bank of the Dniester River, declared independence from the rest of Moldova following a brief war in 1991.
A deal struck in 2022 between the breakaway state and the central government in Chisinau means that all Russian gas imported by Moldova – estimated at 2 billion cubic meters a year - flows to Transnistria, where it fuels the country’s key power plant.
Moscow has historically held major influence in the unrecognized nation, by keeping peace-keeping troops in the country and making it energetically dependent on its gas.
Some fear that the frozen conflict between Moldova and Transnistria, whose own government declared a state of economic emergency on Tuesday, could flare up again, throwing the region into social and political unrest as well as an economic crisis.
