Moldovan governor given 7 years in prison for role in Russian funding of banned pro-Kremlin party

A court in the Moldovan capital Chisinau has sentenced the governor of the autonomous region of Gagauzia to seven years in prison after finding her guilty of accepting funds from Russia to support the now banned pro-Russian Șor party, Moldovan news agency IPN agency reported on Tuesday.

The court found Evghenia Guțul guilty of funnelling undeclared funds from Russia to finance the Șor party in Moldova between 2019 and 2022, while working as party secretary. Guțul was also found guilty of “knowingly receiving” about $2.5 million “from an organised crime group”.

The prosecution had requested a nine-year prison sentence for Guțul, though she herself predicted that she would be acquitted. Approximately 100 of her supporters gathered to protest against her sentence on Tuesday, according to Reuters.

Guțul, who has governed the region since 2023, is to serve her sentence in a minimum-security facility where she will be able to work, take part in reintegration programmes and, in some cases, even leave the prison with the prison authorities’ permission.

Describing the sentence she was handed by the court as having “nothing to do with justice”, Guțul accused the Moldovan government of meting out political revenge that had been “planned and executed on orders from above”.

“Today I am behind bars, and tomorrow anyone who dares to criticise the authorities could be there. This is not a verdict on me — it is a verdict on the entire democratic system of Moldova,” Guțul added.

Moldova’s pro-Russian former president Igor Dodon accused the country’s pro-European President Maia Sandu of jailing “a woman, a mother, a regional leader elected by the people” and described the sentence as a means “to avenge the president’s deep personal grievances and hatred”.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova called the sentence “a misfortune”, and an “attack” on Moldova and its people, while Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said he considered the outcome of the trial “an example of a politically motivated decision and attempts to exert undisguised and illegal pressure on political opponents during an election campaign”.

Since being elected governor of Gagauzia in 2023 as a representative of the Șor party, Guțul has been sharply critical of Moldova’s pro-European leadership and has met with senior officials in Moscow, according to Reuters. Both the EU and the Moldovan government have accused Guțul of having ties to the Kremlin, and after her arrest in March, Guțul reportedly asked Vladimir Putin to put pressure on Chisinau to release her.