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The candidates supported by the former president Igor Dodon, and the fugitive oligarch Ilan Shor respectively, got the largest number of votes in the first round of the elections for the office of Governor of Gagauzia. According to the preliminary results of the first round, held on April 30, Grigori Uzun, supported by the Party of Socialists, and the representative of the Shor Party, Evghenia Gutul, each got approximately 26.4% of the votes. The campaign was marked by the promotion of Russian propaganda narratives, the involvement of some Russian politicians and artists, but also by a diplomatic scandal between the Republic of Moldova and Russia.
Igor Dodon's ally and the anti-Western narratives
Grigori Uzun, aged 36, lived a long time in Russia, where he graduated from a school of engineering, and owns a family business. He used to be an MP in the Comrat legislature (People’s Assembly of Gagauzia), but also, for a short while, in the Chisinau Parliament, representing the Party of Socialists. In 2019, Guzun was prosecuted for hooliganism and bodily harm, but was not convicted.
Uzun was campaigned including by the leader of the Socialists, the former president Igor Dodon. Both promoted Russian propaganda narratives about the Moldovan language, the Soros network, the imposition of “the study of LGBT values in schools”, etc. The support from Dodon, with connections in Moscow , ended up in a scandal, after he stated, during an electoral meeting held to support Uzun, that “our guys are close”, which was interpreted as referring to the Russian army. He later said his statement was taken out of context. .
Uzun started campaigning with the slogan “Gagauzia decides for itself” and is a supporter of the idea of more autonomy for Gagauzia. As regards foreign policy, he particularly advocates the development of the relations with Russia, but does not rule out a good collaboration with the West. However, during a televised debate, he emphasized the risks entailed by the support of the West. "The grants we receive, the credits from the IMF are granted on certain conditions: to raise the retirement age, to promote LGBT values in schools."
Evghenia Gutul: a no-name promoted by Russian artists
Evghenia Gutul is a "no-name", who is only known to have been born somewhere in Gagauzia. The biographical information she submitted to the CEC only say that she is 37 years old (which, in fact, she will be in September), that she is a lawyer, married, with two children. She was proposed and supported by the Shor Party, the party led by Ilan Shor, the fugitive politician recently sentenced to 15 years in prison for his involvement in the 2014 in the 1-billion-dollar bank theft. In October 2022, the US Administration imposed sanctions against both Shor and his party, under the Magnitsky Act, for attempts to overthrow the government in Chisinau in favor of Moscow and to hijack the European course of the Republic of Moldova.
Evghenia Gutul’s campaign focused on promises such as the construction of an Airport in Comrat (the capital of Gagauzia), 500-million-euro worth of investment (when the annual budget of Gagauzia is approximately 50 million), free transport, higher pensions and salaries for state employees, social housing, etc., similar to those with which Ilan Shor and his team won the local elections in Orhei and other localities ever since 2015. Several Russian performers, supporters of the Kremlin, such as Filip Kirkorov, Nikolai Baskov, Jasmin (Ilan Shor’s wife, herself on the US sanctions list) sent messages of support for Gutul.
Diplomatic scandal between Chisinau and Moscow
Evhenia Gutul was not the only one to count on the support of Russian personalities. On the eve of the campaign, one of the eight candidates in the race, Serghei Cimpoies, had a meeting in Moscow with the vice-president of the Russian Duma, Piotr Tolstoy, and another one, Victor Petrov, went to Tatarstan, a Russian federal republic. Its leader, Rustam Minnihamov, came to the Republic of Moldova in the middle of the campaign, with the intention of participating in an event organized by Petrov, but, at the Chisinau airport, the authorities sent him back, saying he would get involved in the election campaign. The situation triggered a diplomatic scandal. Chisinau expelled an employee of the Russian Embassy, Moscow responded accordingly, and imposed an entry ban for three deputies and the Minister of the Interior. Later, Prime Minister Dorin Recean announced that there was a list of undesirable people from the Russian leadership, including President Vladimir Putin.
Gagauzia, a region dominated by pro-Russians for three decades
Gagauzia has its own Electoral Code and Election Commission for the ballots held in the region. For example, the Electoral Code of the Republic of Moldova forbids the involvement of the Church in the election campaign and the association with foreign officials, but the candidates ignored that, resorting to the provisions of the local legislation.
The electoral lists don’t match either. According to the Central Election Commission in Chisinau, there are some 130 thousand voters in Gagauzia, but the Central Election Commission in Comrat organized the elections based on lists of only 92.5 thousand voters.
Some experts claim that the Comrat authorities reduced the number of voters in order to ensure the minimum threshold necessary for validating the elections - 50%. If the election had been organized based on the number of voters presented by Chisinau, this threshold would not have been reached.
The elections in Gagauzia showed how the views of the Russian-speaking Gagauz population keep being totally different from those of the majority of citizens of the Republic of Moldova. The Gagauz remain connected to the Russian world, and the Russian propaganda narratives (the Soros network, sexual minorities, the Western/American danger) have grown deep roots in the collective mentality of this ethnic minority group.
The election results have confirmed the drop in the popularity of the Party of Socialists and Igor Dodon in favor of the Shor Party. The PSRM thus loses the quasi-monopoly of the left segment of the electorate, which it held during the last years.
No matter who wins – Uzun or Gutul – the future governor will have a formidable opposition force behind it and will not be a comfortable dialogue partner for the pro-European government in Chisinau. The Governor of Gagauzia is ex officio a member of the Government.
Who are the Gagauz and what does Gagauzia represent?
The Gagauz are a people of Turkic origin, settled in the 13th century in the region of Dobrogea and who adopted Orthodoxy. In the 19th century, the Tsarist Empire offered them incentives to move to Southern Bessarabia, which it had annexed in 1812, in the land called Bugeac. During the Soviet period they were Russified, and when the Soviet Union collapsed, they tried to proclaim their independence. The legal relations between Chisinau and Comrat were established only at the end of 1994, after the predominantly "agrarian" parliament (center-left, formed mostly by former Soviet nomenclaturists) adopted the controversial Constitution instating the “Moldovan language” and the status of permanent neutrality, and then adopted a law "on the special legal status of Gagauzia (Gagauz-Yeri)".
The political preferences of the population of Gagauzia have always favoured the pro-Russian parties and politicians even though, over the years, the European Union has invested in dozens of projects in the region. Moreover, in a 2014 referendum, not recognized by Chisinau, 99% voted for the accession of the Republic of Moldova to the Eurasian Union and about the same number against European integration. Also 99% opted for the independence of Gagauzia in case the Republic of Moldova lost its statehood (which should be read as the union with Romania). Moreover, there are also forces in Gagauzia that are pleading for separatism.
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