The severing of one of Russia's last gas export routes to Europe is being felt most painfully in a small, mainly Russian-speaking breakaway region of Moldova that has for decades looked to Moscow for protection.

Russia’s state-owned energy giant Gazprom says it will halt gas supplies to Moldova starting on Jan. 1, citing alleged unpaid debt by the east European country.

Russian Gazprom's decision to halt gas supplies to Moldova resulted in a heating outage in the Russian-controlled region of Transnistria, prompting Chisinau to seek alternative sources of electricity.