17 people and a dog between Ukraine's neighbour and blackout: Report

The group at Moldova’s electricity utility tasked with keeping the country’s lights on were out of breath, running between meetings. 

Backed by a staff of 17, acting Energocom general director Victor Binzari and his two sidekicks have been scrambling to find new sources of power since mid-October, when Russian missile strikes took out the substations providing almost a third of Moldova’s electricity imports. 

The remaining two thirds disappeared earlier this month, after Moscow reduced natural gas supplies to the city.

Alomost overnight, Moldova had to start buying about 80 per cent of its power and half its natural gas from Europe.

On Tuesday, Russia’s energy giant Gazprom threatened to cut gas supplies further as of November 28. On Wednesday, Moldova was without power for two hours after missile strikes interrupted emergency flows from Europe.

Cuts to cost Maldova $1 bn

The 400 kilovolt cable from Romania through which the country now gets most of its power threads either side of the border with Ukraine before landing at a power station in Transnistria, a separatist territory. 

Until November 1, the mainly gas fired power station — run by the Russian-owned Moldavskaya GRES — provided the rest of the country with over half its electricity.

Now it’s a de facto distribution hub for power on its way from Romania to Chisinau. A well-aimed Russian missile, or just the flip of a switch in Transnistria, could cut Moldova’s new European lifeline.