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Russia said on Wednesday it will stop cheap gas supplies to impoverished Moldova from 2006 in a first major sign of retaliation by Moscow against a pro-western shift by the country's leader. The move comes just days before President Vladimir Voronin, a former Russian ally, seeks election to a new term by the new Moldovan parliament. Russian news agencies quoted deputy chief executive of Russian gas monopoly Gazprom, Alexander Ryazanov, as saying the giant firm would begin selling gas to Moldova at prices it currently charges European customers.
The cost of fuel could therefore almost double from the current $70 per 1,000 cubic metres. Russia supplies around 5 billion cubic metres of gas a year to Moldova.
The Russian parliament, the Duma, had called on the government to take punitive action and Moscow's foreign office said ministries were reviewing their options.
Ahead of Moldova's parliamentary election on March 6, the Duma demanded the government halt imports of Moldovan spirits and tobacco and stop selling natural gas to the state at preferential prices.
It has also urged the government to scrap visa-free travel arrangements with Moldova, putting in question the status of up to 1 million Moldovans - a quarter of the population - currently working in Russia.
Russia has linked the proposed sanctions to what it says is a blockade imposed by Moldova on the separatist Dnestr region, a Russian-speaking enclave that in the 1990s broke away from Moldovan rule with tacit support from Moscow.
Moldova, wedged between Ukraine and Romania, the ex-Soviet state where parliament wields most powers, including the right to elect the president, has scheduled a vote for next Monday.

Copyright Reuters, 2005

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