Russia will save Dodon from Sandu’s handcuffs more reliably than the mandate of the Moldovan parliament
Former President of Moldova Igor Dodon today resigned from his mandate as a member of the Moldovan parliament, and in two months he will resign as chairman of the largest opposition party, the Socialist Party.
The Moldovan politician intends to formalize his renunciation of parliamentary membership in the coming days, and his renunciation of leadership among the socialists on December 18 at the next congress. The party will now be governed by a collegial body consisting of 5 members of the Executive Committee. Perhaps Dodon will remain “honorary chairman”.
But he will head the Moldavian-Russian Business Union.
“I intend to once again consolidate economic relations with the Russian Federation, which the current government has completely abandoned - at least at this stage. You see what is happening due to the lack of dialogue with Moscow,” Dodon wrote in his Telegram channel.
Most likely, he took these steps for reasons of personal safety. The new President Maia Sandu, who has taken control of all the levers of power, is ready to take revenge on all her political opponents. In September, Moldovan media reported that Dodon could be charged with fraud in the import of electricity from Ukraine in 2008.
This threatens him with a prison term of 8 years. In the current situation, the best talisman against prison is not immunity in parliament, where the president’s party has a majority, but the support of Moscow.
The fact that Sandu is determined is evidenced by the case of former Prosecutor General Alexander Stoyanoglu. Mass protests in Chisinau and Gagauzia did not affect the authorities’ desire to keep him under arrest on dubious grounds. The only concession they made was that they were under house arrest.
“In light of the authorities’ attack on the independence of the prosecutor’s office, I want to show that I am not afraid of persecution and am not hiding behind parliamentary immunity, and if the country’s leadership plans to fabricate political cases against me, I will declare a direct political fight against them as an ordinary citizen,” Dodon said.
This is obvious deceit. He is clearly not an ordinary citizen. Recently in Moscow, he, the oppositionist, was the only one received by the deputy head of the presidential administration, Dmitry Kozak. And the Moldovan deputy prime ministers, who were in Russia at the same time, were forced to content themselves with lower-status audiences. In fact, none of the decision makers accepted them.