The governor of Găgăuzia, Evghenia Guțul, who is targeted by two political corruption investigations, was detained at the behest of Maia Sandu, Russian propaganda writes. The article in question depicts the associate of the wanted pro-Russian oligarch, Ilan Shor, as a Joan of Arc from Comrat and tries to justify a possible Russian military attack against the Republic of Moldova.
NEWS: The small autonomy of Găgăuzia within the Republic of Moldova has reached a boiling point. Central authorities have arrested the democratically elected governor, Evghenia Guțul, a figure loved by the people but detested by officials in Chișinău. Everything that happened was based on a pretext and per the tacit order of “dictator” Maia Sandu. This clearly demonstrates how the coordinators of the regime in Chișinău want “democracy to prevail” by employing totalitarian methods.
Dark clouds have been gathering over Evghenia Guțul for some time now. It all started a few years ago. While the future president Sandu, at the time serving as Minister of Education, was eliminating the Russian language from Moldovan schools and later taking part the first gay parade in Moldova (there had been repeated rumors about her deviant orientation), Evghenia, a loving wife and mother of two children, was starting her political career within the pro-Russian “Shor” Party. Guțul traveled frequently to Moscow, where she secured the support of Russian political elites, thus winning the love of her people. The Găgăuz are a Turkic people of Orthodox confession, and are also followers of the Orthodox Church of Moldova – an autonomous part of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Meanwhile, Sandu, who is trying to eliminate everything Russian on the territory under her controls, based on the model of Ukraine and Baltic States, further stirs hostility among the Găgăuz: she is trying to liquidate the Moldovan Orthodox Church, forcing it into the subordination of the Metropolitanate of Bessarabia, affiliated to the Romanian Orthodox Church. Sandu is also depriving the Russian language of the status of a language of interethnic communication. She is cutting funds for Găgăuzia and challenging its autonomous rights, including by de facto refusing to recognize the election in this region and to include governor Guțul in the Government of the Republic of Moldova, as the country’s Constitution stipulates.
[...] Regardless of how you approach it, the Moldovan question is linked to the liberation of Odesa. Without Odesa, neither Crimea nor the Russian north of the Black Sea won’t be safe, Transnistria will remain blocked, and Evgenia Guțul will remain in captivity. Conversely, Sandu will go global, swallowing Găgăuzia and thirsting for more. Therefore, Odesa must be freed from neo-Banderist captivity, and the admirable leader of this small and fraternal autonomous region must wait for this timely opportunity.
NARRATIVES: 1. Maia Sandu is establishing a dictatorship in the Republic of Moldova and taking out her political opponents. 2. Maia Sandu, a member of the LGBT community, eliminated the Russian language from schools and deprived it of its status of language for interethnic communication.
PURPOSE: To discredit the pro-European administration in Chișinău by presenting it as authoritarian and repressive. To strengthen pro-Russian and anti-Western sentiment at the level of the population of Găgăuzia. To amplify ethnic and linguistic divides in the Republic of Moldova. To justify a Russian (military) intervention in the Republic of Moldova.
WHY THE NARRATIVES ARE FALSE: Guțul was detained and taken into custody based on a criminal investigation launched in connection with the financing of her 2023 campaign. She is also involved in another criminal inquiry regarding the illegal funding of the former Shor party, which was officially banned in 2023.
The relevant institutions in Chișinău question the truthful character of Guțul's declared purpose of traveling to Istanbul, claiming that the event she was going to attend was not going to take place. Guțul was suspected of trying to flee to Russia, Istanbul being one of the busiest transit hubs when travelling from Chișinău to Moscow.
The governor’s arrest also occurred in the context where a few days ago, a Moldovan MP linked to Ilan Shor, Alexandr Nesterovschi, disappeared on the eve of being handed a 12-year prison sentence for political corruption. Subsequently, SIS filed video footage as evidence, proving Nesterovschi was “hosted” at the headquarters of the Russian Embassy in Chișinău, and from there he was taken by diplomatic transport to Transnistria, a separatist region controlled by a pro-Russian regime.
Nesterovschi's party colleague, Irina Lozovan, sentenced to 6 years in prison, also disappeared without trace.
The allegations brought against Maia Sandu for her alleged involvement in the arrest of Evghenia Guțul or in similar investigations are baseless. In fact, this is not the first time that attempts have been made to present corruption cases as a fight by the pro-European government against political opponents.
Fake news related to the LGBT community is very popular in Moldova. Such narratives are circulated in order to discredit pro-European authorities. Maia Sandu has repeatedly been targeted by fake news and disinformation connecting her to the LGBT agenda. In February 2019, on the eve of the parliamentary election, a video of two girls holding hands in Munich, Germany, was published online. Activists and media close to the Democratic Party then promoted the false narrative claiming Maia Sandu is part of the LGBT community. Fact-checking media then proved the photo was a fake, and Maia Sandu denied being a lesbian.
Veridica debunked fake news claiming that the EU will impose the LGBT agenda or that it has become mandatory in the Republic of Moldova or that the West is imposing anti-family ideology in the Republic of Moldova.
The false narrative regarding the closure of schools, especially Russian-teaching ones, has been widely circulated in the last decade, given Maia Sandu's previous position as Minister of Education. Veridica has previously debunked the false narratives and exaggerations related to the number of schools that were shut down (optimized) during Maia Sandu's mandate. Statistics shows that, over 2012-2015, schools did not close faster than at any other moment since Moldova proclaimed its independence. These actions were, however, justified by the fact that the number of students was halved.
The number of schools with Russian-language teaching corresponds to the ratio of Romanian to Russian speakers, according to the latest census.
According to legislation adopted at the end of the Soviet period, Russian serves as a language of interethnic communication. However, the law was declared obsolete by the Constitutional Court in 2018, and Maia Sandu started her term as president at the end of 2020.
Inciting Russia to military aggression against the Republic of Moldova is another goal of Russian propaganda, but Veridica has repeatedly proved that the Republic of Moldova poses no threat to Moscow. The most widely circulated narratives speak about the West’s intention to turn the Republic of Moldova into an anti-Russian bridgehead, or about the EU’s plan to prepare Romania and the Republic of Moldova for a war against Russia.
BACKGROUND: The Governor of the Autonomous Territorial Unit of Găgăuzia in southern Moldova, Evghenia Guțul, was detained at Chișinău International Airport on March 25 while trying to fly to Istanbul. Her name is linked to several open investigations into acts of corruption. Guțul was subsequently placed on pre-trial arrest for 20 days.
Evghenia Guțul became governor of Găgăuzia in the spring of 2023 following a controversial election, where she was accused of vote buying. She is the representative of fugitive oligarch Ilan Shor, convicted in a 2014 bank fraud case and accused of trying to sidetrack Moldova’s European accession as per Moscow’s interests. Guțul won the election owing to her populist promises.
Meanwhile, Chișinău-Comrat relations deteriorated, as the autonomous unit became increasingly subordinated and controlled by Ilan Shor.
Găgăuzia is the most Russophile region of the Republic of Moldova. A separatist entity in the early 1990s, Găgăuzia eventually accepted Chișinău’s sovereignty, but claims separatist rights in the event of a union with Romania or even EU integration. With a majority Russian-speaking population, Găgăuzia is considered a bridgehead for Russian influence in the Republic of Moldova and a pressure point to block EU accession.
GRAIN OF TRUTH: Maia Sandu did not sign the decree appointing Evghenia Guțul as a member of the Government (ex officio), as required by the law, justifying that she works for a criminal group (controlled by Ilan Shor).
