A court in Moldova has sentenced the pro-Russia regional leader Yevgenia Gutsul to seven years in prison for funnelling Russian money to finance a political party, in a landmark case that will further fuel tensions with Moscow.
Prosecutors said Gutsul systematically funnelled undeclared funds into Moldova between 2019 and 2022 to finance the now-banned pro-Moscow Șor (Shor) party, founded by Ilan Shor, a pro-Russia businessman living in exile who was convicted of fraud in Moldova.
Gutsul, 38, was elected head of the semi-autonomous Gagauzia region in 2023, becoming the region’s bashkan, or governor, in a surprise vote that Moldova’s pro-western government said was tainted by Russian influence and funding.
She has previously been placed on the EU and US sanctions lists on suspicion of destabilising Moldova. Last March, Moldovan police arrested her at Chișinău airport as she was boarding a flight to Turkey, accusing her of electoral fraud.
On Tuesday Gutsul described the verdict by the court as an attempt by the authorities to intimidate the people of Gagauzia. “This is a warning to the entire opposition: go against the regime and you’ll end up in prison, have your property confiscated, and your life destroyed,” she said, adding that she did not recognise the verdict and would fight to clear her name.
She has always denied wrongdoing and her lawyer, Sergiu Moraru, has vowed to appeal against a ruling he called “a public execution”.
Gutsul’s sentencing comes at a crucial moment for Moldova’s pro-EU, western-oriented president, Maia Sandu, who narrowly won re-election last year. Her Action and Solidarity party now faces challenging parliamentary elections in late September against a coalition of Russia-friendly forces.
Since the break-up of the Soviet Union, tiny and impoverished Moldova has gravitated between pro-western and pro-Russia courses, though the shadow of the Kremlin has always loomed large. Moscow also has 1,500 troops stationed in Transnistria, a region run by pro-Russia separatists who broke away from the control of Moldova’s government in a brief war in the 1990s.
Under Sandu, Moldova applied to join the EU and has pursued a decisive break with Moscow, whose invasion of neighbouring Ukraine has raised fears that Moldova could be next.
Sandu has accused Russia of trying to destabilise the country with the help of Shor, a billionaire who has also been sanctioned by the west.
Shor was sentenced in absentia to 15 years in prison last year in connection with his role in the disappearance of $1bn from Moldova’s banking system. He fled to Israel and later to Moscow, where he founded a political movement with Kremlin backing.
Moscow was quick to condemn Gutsul’s sentencing. The Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Moldova had trampled “the rules and norms of democracy” by sentencing her to seven years in prison.
Gagauzia, a small region populated by a Turkic ethnic minority, has emerged as a stronghold of pro-Russia sentiment in Moldova. It has had an uneasy relationship with the capital, Chișinău, since the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991, but unlike Transnistria, which has its own de facto government, has remained under Moldovan control.
Since her election as head of Gagauzia, Gutsul has made frequent trips to Moscow, meeting high-level Russian officials and securing an audience with Vladimir Putin.
