Heir, fraudster, playboy

For more than ten years, the star of Ilana Shor, a pro -Russian businessman and leader of recent anti -government protests, has not entered in Moldavian politics. We tell his story

Since September last year, large anti -government demonstrations have been held in Chisinau - the energy crisis, partially caused by the war in Ukraine, has been guilt. Since Russia has reduced gas supplies to Moldova over the past year, electricity accounts for residents of the country have grown six times, and inflation reached 33%. The difficult economic situation in Moldova made it possible for some politicians to cash in on a crisis and try to get control of the country.

Protests are organized and financed by the Moldavian oligarch Ilan Shor, who is better known in Russia, is better known as the husband of the singer Jasmine. Shor himself cannot go out at the demonstration: in Moldova he was sentenced to 15 years for the scheme to withdraw one billion dollars from the republic. Protests are organized by his associates, some of which are also under investigation, and the Shor coordinates them from Israel, where it is hidden from the authorities of Moldova. Especially for Novy-Europe, the Moldavian journalist and writer Paul Erizan understands the political biography of Ilan Shor and his connections with Moscow. With this material, the editorial office opens up a series of publications about key, but little -known Kremlin allies in Europe.

Ilan Mironovich

During anti -government protests in Moldova on September 18, a man appears on the screen on the TV screen, which people, like an icon, carry on their shoulders. He is quite young, with green eyes and chubby cheeks. He tells people that he loves them and that he will soon return to them, to Moldova. This man's name is Ilan Shor. He is forced to contact people on TV, because he himself is in Israel. There, Shor was forced to leave there to avoid a 15-year prison term for participating in banking fraud, which deprived Moldova of 12% of its GDP.

Ilan was born in Tel Aviv in 1987 in the family of the Moldavian businessman Miron Shor. His father worked as deputy head of the Chekhov Russian-language theater in Chisinau and emigrated to Israel in the 1970s, where he opened several enterprises and began politics, representing the interests of Jews from the former USSR. In the early 1990s, the family returned to Moldova. By 1994, Miron Shor owned brands of clothing and perfumes, and cosmetics stores combined under the Shorholding brand. Shor organized fashion shows and art exhibitions, and also opened the Rotary Club department in Moldova.

According to the memoirs of the family of the family and the head of Sputnik Moldova Margageta Zvik,

During conversations with business partners, Miron often turned to his seven-year-old son Ilan to ask if he agreed with any proposal.

“I never forbade him to do anything,” Miron said about his son. According to family friends, by the age of 16-17, Ilan went with his father to all negotiations. After the death of Miron in 2005, Ilan, who was only 18 years old, became the head of all father's businesses.

“Miron had many influential friends,” says a man from a close environment of Shorov, who wished to remain anonymous. - After his death, they all wanted to help Ilan, whom they knew since childhood. Miron was a modest person, his office was in an ordinary hotel with creaky floors. We did not even know that he owned Duty Fri stores, we thought that he had only a boutique in the San City shopping center. However, the fact that for many years his father hid, Ilan Shor decided to expose. ”

Thanks to the inherited money and the secret acquisition of real estate from the Moldavian Confederation of Trade Unions, Ilan soonbecame a regular in glamorous clubs, visiting them surrounded by personal guards. He occupied hundreds of thousands of dollars from wealthy friends and rolled out pushing parties on the occasion of his birthday. His friend Gabriel Stati, the son of Anatoly Stati, one of the richest people in Moldova, Shore acquired Red Ferrari. According to Schor, in 2008 in the Chisinau night club Flamingo, he met the future Prime Minister of Moldova Vlad Filat.

Nevertheless, at the end of the zero Shor, he was known only among the financial elite of the republic. The rest of Moldova found out about Ilana Shore after the wedding with the popular Russian singer Jasmine in 2011 - the events that many media wrote about. Ilan was 24 years old. The celebration took place in the Republican Palace - in the same place where the Moldavian parliament met, while work was underway in a historical building destroyed during 2009 protests. The “Wedding of the Year” was attended by Presidents of Moldova Peter Luchinsky, Vladimir Voronin, Igor Dodon, deputies of the parliament of the entire political spectrum and Russian stars, including Nikolai Baskov and Philip Kirkorov. Dodon told reporters that this was one of the most beautiful weddings that he saw.

In the period from 2009 to 2019, the Government of Moldova was formed by pro -European forces. Their main achievement was the 2014 agreement on the Association with the EU, according to which a visa regime with countries entering the Schengen zone was canceled for Moldovan citizens. But at the same time, Shor and his allies turned the largest corruption schemes in the history of Moldova: a concession deal to buy Chisinau airport and theft of a billion dollars.

Capture of flights

In 2013, during the premiership of Vlad Filat, Chisinau Airport was transferred to the concession for 49 years of the recently created Russian Aviavest Russian company. It was officially stated that this company should invest in the development of the airport infrastructure. But in reality, the only money that was invested in the development of the airport was the profit made from its operation. At the same time, part of the income went to companies belonging to Schora. Only at the end of 2022, the Arbitration Court in Stockholm ruled that the airport should return to the property of the republic. As a result, this happened.

However, Shor structures were controlled and continue to control the aviation industry of the republic in another way - through the Airmoldova operator. According to Deschide.md and TV8 investigations, at the time of privatization in 2018, Airmoldova had an income of $ 150 million, owned eight aircraft (two of her own and six rented) and performed half of all flights to Moldova and Moldova.

By March 2023, the Airmoldova debt amounted to 115 million dollars, which is three times higher than its income, and every month the debt continues to increase by $ 5 million.

The largest creditor of Airmoldova, to whom she supposedly owes $ 30 million, is Avianst - Shor, which previously owned Chisinau Airport.

Now Airmoldova has no more own aircraft: the company rents only two aircraft, because due to debts, partners refuse to lease aircraft. Flights are constantly deposited and canceled. In a recent public statement, Airmoldova accused the government of attempts to intervene in the affairs of the company.

But control over the aviation industry fades in comparison with what Ilon Shor made in the banking sector of the republic.

Fifteen years in one billion

According to the position of the state prosecution of Moldova, the scheme, with the help of which Shor withdrew a billion dollars from the republic, looked like this. In 2012–2014, Shor took irrevocable loans from the three largest banks in Moldova - Banca de Economii, Unibank, Banca Socială - transferred money to Latvian banks, offshores and companies in Malta, UK, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Russia. When in 2014-2015 the Moldavian government decided to save banks from bankruptcy due to the crisis, they transferred a billion dollars from state reserves. This still did not save from the ruin of the bank. There were suspicions and accusations that assistance to banks became the second stage of the financial scheme to withdraw assets.

In 2016, a billion stolen by Shor was transformed into public debt, which Moldovan citizens will pay from their own taxes until about 2041.

In May 2015, Andrian Kandu, the speaker of the parliament and the godson of the Moldavian oligarch Vladimir Plahotnyuk (is under US sanctions), published a report in his blog, allegedly released by the investigator company Kroll. According to the document - which, according to many , was changed for political purposes - the chief beneficiary was the chief of the criminal scheme. The next day, Shor, who then held the post of head of the administrative council of Banca de Economii, was placed under house arrest for abuse of official position.

A week later, Shor announced the beginning of a political career. He became the head of the Equality party, replacing Valery Klimenko, a journalist with Russian roots in this post, who, in particular, stated that "Moldova can only exist within the boundaries of Russia." Shor escaped house arrest, and the party changed her name, becoming a party of Shor.

By June 15, 2015, Ilan Shor was elected mayor of the small Moldavian city of Orhei, who, during the election campaign, promised to turn into ... Monaco. Shor also vowed to repair all roads, provide free public transport and free Wi-Fi-everything at his own expense.

A few months later, on October 13, 2015, Shor publicly stated that in five years he paid to the former Prime Minister Vlad Filat $ 250 million for various services, for example, the sale of gasoline without taxes on the border, and called Filat the accomplice of the “theft of a billion”. Two days later, Filat was arrested. Shor also testified against Vyacheslav Plato, after which Plato, who was in Kyiv, was arrested and deported to Moldova in the summer of 2016. He spent 4 years in prison and was released only in 2020.

These arrests prepared the ground for the authoritarian rule of Vladimir Plakhotnyuk from 2016 to 2019. People from the environment of Filat claim that Shor’s statements were part of the Plahotnyuk plan to get rid of competitors, as well as a way to distract the public and judicial authorities from its subsequent corruption schemes.

In 2017, Shor himself was found guilty of fraud and money laundering, and sentenced to seven years in prison. The court later increased the term to 15 years.

In 2019, a new coalition came to power in Moldova, which included pro -European forces, primarily Maya Sandu and Andrei Nastas, the leaders of the Acum electoral bloc (consisting of PAS and Platforma DA parties). Sandu and Nastas united with the pro -Russian politician Igor Dodon from the Party of Socialists to remove the plahotniuk from power. The parliamentary commission, which investigated the theft of a billion dollars, came to the conclusion that the main beneficiaries in this scheme were: Plahotnyuk, who received the lion's share of money, Vlad Filat and Ilan Shor, as well as his other allies.

After changing the political landscape in 2019, Plakhotnyuk and Shor left Moldova non -agent. Now Shor lives in Israel and at the same time leads anti -government protests throughout the republic.

Marina Tauber: From tennis into custody

In the Kroll report, which reveals some mechanisms for the withdrawal of stolen billions from Moldova, Marina Tauber is mentioned, against which EU sanctions are also imposed. According to the report, Tauber received three transfers worth about 1.5 million dollars, which she used to purchase 4.6% of Unibank shares. While Shor remains in Israel, Tauber heads his party in Moldova. The ally of Shor is under house arrest, but this does not prevent her from participating in demonstrations. “We are dying of hunger, and they [the government] hold millions,” Tauber chanted three iPhones in her hands on one of the protests.

Tauber studied at the private Chisinau Lyceum “Logic”, founded by Miron Shor, and wanted to become a professional tennis player. Having studied eight years instead of the usual five, in 2011 she graduated from the State University of Moldova with a degree in Physical Culture and Sports. Since 2007, Tauber began working as a tennis coach. In 2010, I went to work in the Federation of Moldova tennis as a development manager and deputy head.

In 2011, the director of the Federation Igor Tsurkan, who owned the construction and tobacco business, died in the hospital after the car exploded at the exit from his office in the center of Chisinau. After that, the federation was headed by Tauber. Kurkan killers have not yet been found. Three months before his death, Tsurkan mentioned that "everything that happened in the field of tennis over the past few years concerned a plot of land of a specialized tennis school," and promised that "under any circumstances would not allow the seizure of this site." Tauber was the director of this school in 2015-2017.

In 2016, Tauber joined the political project of Ilan Shor, becoming the vice-headed party. In 2018, she took the post of mayor of the village of Zhora de Jos. According to the non-governmental organization Promo-Lex , Tauber exceeded the budget limit established by law by more than three times. But the Kishinev appeal court rejected the investigation of the case. In addition, in 2018, Tauber attacked two journalists with a broom during a protest demonstration. In 2019, she was elected a member of the Moldavian parliament. In 2022, she was temporarily deprived of legal immunity and placed under house arrest for involvement in billionths. Last month, it was deprived of immunity again.

Tauber is under investigation for receiving illegal party funds from a criminal organization and forking party reports.

She does not plead guilty.

Dina Tsurkan: New Protest Leader

The most unexpected member of the Shor party was Dina Tsurkan, the head of the Orhei district. Tsurkan joined the Shor party in 2019, while completely changing his political views. Ten years earlier, in 2009, Tsurkan was a representative of the so-called “ magnificent seven ” of young politicians who were designed to revive the People’s Christian Democratic Party (CDNP). This party gained fame due to its public commitment to the idea of ​​the reunification of Moldova and Romania, but lost popularity after it formed a coalition with the pro -Russian communist party in 2007-2009.

In the two elections of 2009, the CDNP did not receive a single place in parliament. Yuri Roshka, who led the CDNP in the nineties and zero, recently began to work on Sputnik Moldova, promoting the Pro -Putin , anti -Ukrainian and anti -precipitory ideas.

Tsurkana graduated from the National School of Political and Administrative Research in Bucharest, where he studied NATO's activities. At first he was a consultant to Roshka, who served as the vice-speaker of the parliament in the coalition with the Communists. In 2010, Tsurkana seemed to be a second person in the hierarchy of the CDNP. Having defeated in 2009 and 2010, he again tried to become a deputy from the CDN in 2014, but to no avail. Departing for a short time from politics, in 2019 he joined the Shor party. In 2022, the party called Tsurkan one of the "leaders of anti -government protests."

"Kolachi" in exchange for votes

In December 2022, the independent newspaper Ziarul de Gardă (ZDG) published an investigation called Orheileaks . Private telephone conversations to Tsurkan were revealed in it. In them, Tauber and Tsurkan seemed the main people in the party after the Shor, whom they called them (“Ilan Mironovich”) or Mr. President (always with a capital letter). According to ZDG, this indicates the cult of the personality of Shor. It turned out that almost every decision of politicians, starting from the size of the budget for local street lighting projects and ending with the announcement that Tsurkan was infected with coronavirus, was agreed with Shor.

In discussions of financial issues, even more interesting details were found. The investigators of ZDG who worked under the cover found out that the demonstrators of Shor paid money (the so -called "spray", literally "bread") for participating in protests. In merged conversations, Taurkan asks Tauber money - under the code words “bread”, “gasoline”, “car rental” and “salary” - for himself and his team, which includes a former colleague in the CDNP Rada Bushile. Two days before the parliamentary elections, in which the majority of the PAS PAS PAS received the majority of votes, Bushile asked for money for the “subcurators”, “observers” and “heads of quarters”.

In January of this year, the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said in Brussels that he read reconnaissance reports that refer to the Russian plan of the destruction of Moldova.

Maya Sandu confirmed this information, saying that foreign citizens with military or sports training were supposed to participate in the coup. It was planned that they would join the protests and begin riots. In March, the Moldavian police said that she tore off the conspiracy on the organization of riots created with the support of Russia. Shor denies such plans.

Merișor stores

Однако протесты Шора против проевропейских реформистских партий в Молдове начались не в прошлом году. В 2018 году в видеоролике на своей странице в Facebook Шор достает ремень Hermes стоимостью 1500 долларов и грозит «дать по жопе» тогдашним лидерам оппозиции Майе Санду и Андрею Нэстасе. Шор заявил , что ремень был подарком от жены. Такой же ремень замечен и у Марины Таубер. В то же время сторонники Шора вышли на улицы , обвиняя Санду и Нэстасе в том, что они якобы закрыли «социальные магазины» Шора, — хотя тогда те не были во власти, возглавляли внепарламентские партии и не занимали официальных должностей.

Магазины Merișor — это игра слов с фамилией «Шор», которая переводится буквально как «маленькое яблоко», — были открыты в 2015 году. Партия «Шор» утверждает, что это дешевые магазины для помощи пенсионерам и уязвимым слоям населения. Однако для того чтобы там закупиться, необходимо зарегистрироваться в партии, предъявить удостоверение личности и карточку пенсионера. За это покупатели получают карточку с логотипом партии «Шор».

Единственный продукт, который там действительно дешевле, чем в других магазинах, — хлеб по цене 2 лей (около 10 рублей). Но другие товары продаются по рыночным ценам или даже выше. Компания Magazine Sociale SRL, владеющая этими магазинами, зарегистрирована как частный оператор данных, который имеет право собирать ФИО, идентификационные номера, даты рождения, номера телефонов и домашние адреса. В 2016 году кандидата в президенты от партии «Шор» Инну Попенко исключили из гонки из-за незадекларированного дополнительного финансирования — распространения карточек магазинов Merișor на встречах с избирателями. На данный момент, по данным сайта Shor, в Молдове насчитывается 27 магазинов Merișor.

Телевидение Шора

Хотя магазины Merișor продолжают работать, несмотря на использование в избирательных кампаниях незадекларированных средств, деятельность телеканалов Шора в декабре 2022 года была приостановлена. Комитет по исключительным ситуациям постановил, что на время чрезвычайного положения, вызванного вторжением России в Украину, у каналов TV6, OrheiTV, Primul in Moldova, Accent TV, NTV и RTR будут отозваны лицензии «в целях защиты национального пространства и предотвращения рисков дезинформации». NTV и RTR напрямую связаны с российскими государственными СМИ.

TV6 и OrheiTV уже много лет принадлежат Шору, а российские ретранслирующие телеканалы Primul in Moldova и Accent TV сменили операторов и владельцев осенью прошлого года. Местные СМИ писали, что эта смена представляла собой переход прав собственности от партии социалистов к партии Шора. Если бы лицензии каналов не были приостановлены, Шор обладал бы беспрецедентной монополией на рынке телевидения и рекламы в Молдове.

В марте этого года министр юстиции Сергей Литвиненко, член правящей партии PAS, подал заявление о признании партии Шора «неконституционной» за неоднократное нарушение избирательного кодекса. Конституционный суд всё еще рассматривает это дело.

Евгения Гуцул: мать для Гагаузии

Несмотря на продолжающееся расследование финансирования партии Шора и приостановку работы крупнейших российских и связанных с Шором телеканалов, его партия победила на недавних местных выборах в Гагаузии — автономном регионе на юге Молдовы, населенном русифицированными тюрками-христианами.

Новым лидером политических проектов Шора стала 37-летняя мать двоих детей Евгения Гуцул, которая никогда раньше не занималась политикой. В своей декларации о доходах она указала , что за последние два года заработала 200 евро в дополнение к 700 евро пособия по беременности и родам, в то время как ее муж заработал в общей сложности 7 000 евро. Она также отчиталась о «пожертвовании» в размере 20 000 евро и подарке в 5 000 евро для своих детей. На фоне обвинений в подкупе гагаузских избирателей и их организованном подвозе на участки прокуратура и Центр по борьбе с коррупцией провели обыски в домах восьми членов партии «Шор». Однако Комратский апелляционный суд всё равно признал выборы действительными.

В сентябре прошлого года представители партии «Шор» отправились в Москву, чтобы встретиться с высокопоставленными чиновниками Госдумы и заключить с Кремлем экономическое соглашение, в том числе договориться об особой цене на газ. Российские власти подтвердили , что Орхей, в значительной степени контролируемый Шором, будет единственным муниципалитетом Молдовы, который сможет экспортировать сельскохозяйственную продукцию в Россию, пока действует эмбарго на молдавские фрукты.

Следуя примеру Орхея, Гуцул объявила , что намеревается возобновить экспорт местной продукции в Россию и открыть дипломатическое представительство Гагаузии в Москве (что незаконно).

Таким образом, Илан Шор, находясь в Израиле, по-прежнему пытается подорвать власть в Кишиневе и заставить Молдову свернуть с проевропейского реформаторского пути. Вряд ли ему это удастся. Но политическая борьба за умы и сердца жителей Молдовы остается крайне напряженной.