The Black Sea

According to the letter, signed by Tiraspoltransgaz director Igor Lisachenko, Moldova's Moldovagaz offered to facilitate "the purchase of gas from European gas platforms" to meet local needs. However, the response reads, transitioning to non-Russian gas "actually means moving from stable supplies from Gazprom to purchases on speculative terms at much higher and unstable prices."

Currently, Transnistria is receiving no gas from either Russia or Moldova, and Moldovan government officials say the region's leaders have also refused offers of humanitarian aid, including generators.

"I find it extraordinary that given the gravity of the crisis, where schools and kindergartens are shut and people freeze in their homes, the authorities in Tiraspol refuse to accept Moldova’s help," said Aura Sabadus, a nonresident senior fellow at the Washington-based Center for European Policy Analysis.

"Instead of working with Moldovan authorities to find the best solution to protect the population at this very difficult time, they prefer to wait for Russian help, which may or may not come," she added. "Moldovan companies have clearly proven there are solutions to solve the issue, with the cost to bring the gas calculated by Moldovans at anything between €20 million to €45 million for this cold season."

Last summer, Moldova's then-energy minister, Victor Parlicov, told POLITICO that Transnistria had been put in a precarious position as a result of changing energy supply routes, but that the Moldovan government continued to fund the separatists' budget with electricity purchases to avoid what he called a "humanitarian crisis."