Restive pro-Russian Moldovan region holds elections

Detailed summary

CHISINAU, Nov 15 - Voters in Moldova's restive, pro-Russian Gagauzia region were electing a new regional leader and legislature on Sunday after the previous leader, Evgenia Gutul, was jailed for electoral fraud. Read more at straitstimes.com.

FILE PHOTO: Supporters of Evgenia Gutul (Yevgenia Gutsul) hold a rally outside a court building in Chisinau, Moldova, July 3, 2025. One of the placards reads: \"Freedom to Bashkan (administration head) Yevgenia Gutsul\". REUTERS/Vladislav Culiomza/File Photo

CHISINAU, Nov 15 - Voters in Moldova's restive, pro-Russian Gagauzia region were electing a new regional leader and legislature on Sunday after the previous leader, Evgenia Gutul, was jailed for electoral fraud.

Eight candidates were vying in early elections for the position of bashkan, or leader, of Gagauzia, a region in Moldova's south inhabited mainly by ethnic Turks who adhere to Orthodox Christianity and generally favour close ties with Russia.

Gutul last year was given a sentence of seven years in prison on charges of illegally channelling money from Russia to finance a political party that former Soviet Moldova says was a front for Russian meddling. Gutul regularly visited Moscow while in office.

Russia has long denounced Gutul's sentencing and incarceration and accused Moldova's pro-European authorities of suppressing opposition.

Two candidates, both lawyers and seen as pro-Russian, are seen as frontrunners. Fiodor Gagauz represents the pro-Russian Socialist Party. Alexandr Stoianoglo ran against Moldovan President Maia Sandu in her successful 2024 reelection campaign.

Gagauzia, which secured autonomy after the collapse of Soviet rule, has a history of opposition to authorities in Moldova, one of Europe's poorest countries lying between Ukraine and European Union member Romania.

Sandu's government, which hopes to secure EU membership by 2030, has fiercely opposed Russia's war in Ukraine and accuses Moscow of interfering in its affairs.

Moldova also tackles separatist sentiment in the Transdniestria region on the Ukrainian border, where pro-Russian forces proclaimed an independent state in 1990, when Moldova was still a Soviet republic.

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