By Alexander Tanas
CHISINAU (Reuters) – The new leader of Moldova’s region of Gagauzia expressed gratitude at her inauguration on Wednesday to a wealthy magnate jailed in absentia for fraud and stood by her calls for closer ties with Russia.
Moldova, buffeted by the war in neighbouring Ukraine, has set membership of the European Union as its main foreign policy objective since the 2020 election of President Maia Sandu.
Gagauzia, in the south of the country, has its own autonomous assembly and government and is populated by ethnic Turks who adhere to Orthodox Christianity. The region’s 140,000 residents have had an uneasy relationship with Moldovan authorities in three decades of independence from Soviet rule.
Yevgeniya Gutul, Gagauzia’s new leader, or bashkan, was elected on behalf of the party of Ilan Shor, jailed this year for 15 years for his part in a mass fraud.
The party was outlawed last month by Moldova’s Constitutional Court and Shor has proclaimed, from exile in Israel, his plan to form a new group. He has also promised to invest 500 million euros ($560 million) in Gagauzia.
“Let me thank Ilan (Shor) and his movement not just for supporting my candidature but for not abandoning us despite pressure from Chisinau,” Gutul said in her address.
“Ilan Shor is ready to do what it takes so that we may fulfil our election promises … My team and I fully understand the situation in which our country Moldova, finds itself.”
Moldova is seeking Shor’s extradition from Israel.
Gutul pledged to uphold good ties with Turkey and Russia, as well as with Moldova’s neighbours, Ukraine and Romania.
In the election campaign, contested by a slate of pro-Russian candidates, she pledged to build closer ties with Russia and open a diplomatic mission in Moscow.
For the first time since 1993, the inauguration took place with no senior officials from Chisinau in attendance.
Shor’s now-defunct party has staged months of protests to denounce price rises and demand the government’s resignation.
Sandu’s PAS party, which chose not to contest the Gagauzia election, enjoys a large majority in parliament and stands little chance of falling.
The country has also been beset since independence by the presence on its eastern border of a separatist pro-Russian enclave, Transdniestria, where 1,500 Russian “peacekeepers” keep the two sides apart.
(Reporting by Alexander Tanas in Chisinau; Editing by Ron Popeski and Grant McCool)
