Increased pressure: what will happen to the detention of the head of Gagauzia

The Moldovan Victory bloc will appeal to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) if the head of the autonomous Gagauzia, Evgenia Gutsul, is not released. This was reported to Izvestia by the country's opposition structure. Bashkan was detained on the eve of the start of the parliamentary election campaign. A similar situation was observed before the presidential elections in 2024: then the authorities began to open cases against opposition politicians and put pressure on the media. Currently, due to the prolonged economic crisis in the republic, the support of the authorities among the population is falling on a monthly basis.

The detention of Evgenia Hutsul

On the evening of March 25, the Head of Gagauzia, Evgenia Gutsul, was detained at the Chisinau airport. She was taken into custody for 72 hours, and her passport was also seized. Hutsul was on her way to Istanbul for the International Journalism Congress. She will be formally charged in the near future, the National Anti-Corruption Center of the republic reported. Bashkan has repeatedly spoken about her intention to strengthen Gagauzia's friendly relations with Moscow and opposed Chisinau's radical anti-Russian policy.

The Moldovan Prosecutor General's Office later clarified that Hutsul's detention was related to the ban on her departure from Moldova. Marina Tauber, a member of the Pobeda bloc, the executive secretary of the Bashkan national political council, said that the prosecutor's office of the republic is preparing a petition for the arrest of Hutsul for 30 days.

The detention of Yevgenia Hutsul is not just a political massacre, it is an act of outright terror against Gagauzia, the Victory bloc told Izvestia.

— If the Moldovan courts do not stop this circus, the Hutsul case will inevitably end up in the ECHR. Gagauzia will not give up and will fight for its rights," the bloc said.

A week earlier, Moldovan police conducted searches of supporters of the Victory bloc in the case of illegal financing. They are accused of corruption in the elections in the fall of 2024. In the same year, Yevgenia Hutsul was accused of violations in the financing of the liquidated Shor party. The trial in this case is still ongoing. Hutsul herself called the case fabricated.

Supporters of constructive relations with Russia are coming under the fiercest pressure in Moldova, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova commented on the events.

— Assessments of the situation have already been given in the republic itself, directly calling the incident "lawlessness" and "open political terror." As the parliamentary elections in Moldova approach, opponents of the current authorities are increasingly complaining about the arbitrariness of law enforcement agencies, noting that the republic has actually turned into a police state. Criminal cases are opened against undesirable politicians, independent, primarily Russian—speaking media are censored, they are simply closed," the diplomat noted.

The detention of Bashkan is a manifestation of political repression, Natalia Kharitonova, a professor at the RANEPA under the President of the Russian Federation and chief researcher at the Russian State University of Economics, tells Izvestia. It is noteworthy that on the morning of March 25, at a meeting of the Supreme Security Council, Moldovan President Maia Sandu pointed out the need to combat disinformation and attempts of external influence on the electoral process. And that evening, Yevgenia Hutsul was detained, and without charge.

— Now the authorities are frantically coming up with a justification for their decision and trying to give it to the public "retroactively." Of course, nothing is working out yet, because this decision was arbitrary, it is purely political and legally unjustified. Formally, this will be represented by the need to investigate the case in 2023 (that year Evgenia Gutsul became the head of Gagauzia. — Ed.) about the illegal financing of the election campaign, although those elections were recognized as having taken place,— Kharitonova says.

The illegal arrest of Hutsuls is a logical continuation of the course towards establishing a total dictatorship, State Duma deputy Alyona Arshinova, chairman of the Council of the Autonomous Non—Profit Organization Eurasia, tells Izvestia. She recalled that in the last Moldovan presidential election, it was in Gagauzia that Sandu received 3%.

Relations between Comrat and Chisinau deteriorated radically after the autonomy elections in 2023. The Moldovan authorities tried to declare them illegal, and prosecutors from Chisinau came to the Central Election Commission of Gagauzia with searches. Sandu also refused to sign a decree approving Hutsul as a member of the government, despite the fact that this is required by Moldovan law.

Now the political confrontation has reached a new level, and it is no coincidence that on the eve of the parliamentary elections, says Natalia Kharitonova.

— The example of the Hutsuls should probably be a lesson for all opposition politicians. In my opinion, the case, as always happens in Moldova in such cases, will fall apart, however, the politician will not be able to conduct full—fledged activities during the preparation for the elections, and in the case of the Hutsul, even administrative ones," she added.

PAS positions before the elections

The situation now resembles 2024, when about six months before the presidential election, the ruling party stepped up pressure on its rivals. At that time, a number of media outlets were closed, cases began to be opened against opposition politicians, and presidential candidate from the Victory bloc Vasily Bolya was not allowed to participate in the elections at all.

But despite the harassment of the opposition on the eve of the vote, Maia Sandu won the election by only a small margin, gaining 55.33%, and the candidate from the Party of Socialists, who advocated strengthening relations with the Russian Federation, Alexander Stoyanoglo, won 44.67%.

After the vote, the rating of Maia Sandu's ruling PAS (Action and Solidarity Party) party began to plummet. According to the results of the first iData opinion poll in 2025, only 27.2% are ready to vote for the ruling party in the upcoming parliamentary elections. But back in December, this figure was 29.8%.

Moldova is currently experiencing an economic crisis. After the beginning of the policy of moving away from the Russian Federation, which was adopted by the current authorities, Chisinau lost access to the cheap energy market, which provoked an increase in prices. Currently, the republic buys natural gas from European suppliers at their tariffs. But in December 2024, gas prices here have already increased by 27.6%. In addition, after the termination of transit through Ukraine, Moldova stopped receiving most of the electricity from GRES in Transnistria and began to purchase it from Romania at higher prices.

In the last six months, protests have become more frequent in Moldova due to dissatisfaction with the actions of the authorities and falling living standards. So, farmers come out to them. They accuse the republic's authorities of indifference to their problems. Agriculture and animal husbandry are the main industries for the country.

All these problems are harbingers of the defeat of the ruling party in the upcoming parliamentary elections, Alena Arshinova continues.

— Sandu is losing the social and political support of the people. <...> For this reason, the Moldovan authorities have turned on repressive mechanisms to clean up the political field," says the deputy.

On March 26, the Parliament of Gagauzia has already promised mass protests in the republic if the Hutsuls are not released. It is obvious that the protests in the country will not play into the hands of Sandu's team during the preparation for the elections: in this case, her rating will continue to decline. Residents of Gagauzia marched in Comrat demanding the release of the head of the autonomy. According to the security forces, only a few hundred people came.