For now, the inauguration is a concrete, if delayed, step in Chisinau's westward reorientation, and a reminder that energy infrastructure in the region is increasingly a matter of security as much as supply.
Moldova has formally inaugurated a new high-voltage power line linking it to neighbouring Romania and the wider European grid, a step Chisinau presents as a break with decades of dependence on Russian energy. According to Al Jazeera, the 400-kilowatt extra-high-voltage line runs from the southern city of Vulcanesti to the capital, Chisinau, and allows the country to reduce its reliance on the Cuciurgan thermal power plant in the pro-Moscow separatist region of Transnistria.
Speaking at the ceremony in Chisinau on Sunday, President Maia Sandu framed the project in stark terms. “For decades, Moscow used energy to blackmail us,” she said on X, adding: “No more: Moldova buys zero Russian gas.” At the inauguration she said the line strengthens the country's transmission capacity, diversifies supply and reinforces its connection to the European energy system. She also said two more power lines to Romania are on the way.
The political symbolism is considerable. Moldova, a country of 2.6 million people wedged between Romania and Ukraine, long received most of its gas from Russia via Transnistria and pipelines running through Ukraine. Sandu's remark that “every time Moldova dares to choose something other than what Moscow wants, they threaten to cut our electricity” captures the logic behind what officials have dubbed the “energy independence line”. European Commissioner for Energy Marta Kos, present at the ceremony, said Moldova could now “buy energy where it is cheapest”.
The launch is not without caveats. According to the report, the grid came into service two years after the date Moldovan authorities initially promised. Last month, parliament approved a government-requested state of emergency until 20 November as Chisinau tries to ease gas shortages amid soaring world energy prices. The new line addresses electricity transmission, not the gas supply constraints that prompted that emergency, and the two are not interchangeable.
The project also sits within a wider regional contest. Some in Europe have blamed Moscow for skyrocketing gas prices, accusing it of withholding additional supplies to pressure the continent. European-aligned states in the Black Sea region report renewed attacks allegedly carried out by Russia. Last month, Romania blamed Russia for a drone strike that sank a cargo ship off its Black Sea coast, killing one crew member and leaving three others missing. Ukraine, Romania and Bulgaria have asked NATO to fast-track additional surveillance capabilities to protect commercial shipping, and NATO said it would send more maritime patrol aircraft, radar systems and drones to the Black Sea.
What remains unconfirmed is how much of Moldova's electricity will in practice flow through the new line, how quickly the two further Romanian links will be delivered, and whether the gas emergency will be extended beyond 20 November. The report gives no figures on the line's cost or financing. For now, the inauguration is a concrete, if delayed, step in Chisinau's westward reorientation, and a reminder that energy infrastructure in the region is increasingly a matter of security as much as supply.
