Power lines on the outskirts of Chisinau.
Photographer: Andrei Pungovschi/BloombergJust ‘17 People and a Dog’ Stand Between Ukraine’s Neighbor and Energy Meltdown
A hastily cobbled team in Moldova is racing to lessen the small state’s reliance on Russia for power.
The group at Moldova’s electricity utility tasked with keeping the country’s lights on were out of breath, literally running between meetings.
Backed by a staff of just 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 in Ukraine took out the substations providing almost a third of Moldova’s electricity imports.