Make Moldova Great Again | Open Democracy - Nov. 10, 2016 |

Milling around with half an hour to kill, I stopped to take a look at the Russian-language papers at a newsstand. There was little of interest.

That was, until I came across the local edition of the tabloid daily Komsomolskaya Pravda and thought, shocking myself: "Well, I must have a copy of that".

On its cover, Donald Trump and Igor Dodon faced off against Hillary Clinton and Maia Sandu. "According to one theory," began the headline, "Moldova's head of state will be elected depending on the outcome of the US presidential elections".

"Small countries absorb the greatest contradictions of geopolitics" 

Acting Prosecutor General Dumitru Robu ordered to open criminal case against Igor Dodon over video footage, published in June 2019

Former Moldovan President Dodon Not In Custody As Police Search His Home | RFERL - 1 hr ago |

A spokeswoman for the Prosecutor-General's Office, as well as a senior member of the Socialist Party, said earlier on May 24 that Dodon, a pro-Russian politician who was president in 2016-20, had been detained during the raid for 72 hours under suspicion of corruption, illicit enrichment, accepting political funding from a criminal organization, and treason.

At a news conference, members of Dodon's Party of Socialists rejected the accusations against Dodon, which they said were part of a "two-penny show" meant to distract the public's attention from poverty and social issues. They also called for public protests.

Dodon, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom he visited frequently in Moscow, was defeated in November 2020 by Maia Sandu, a US-educated politician who ran on a ticket of closer relations with the West.

Compromising material from an oligarch on the run | Tass |

A few days later, TV channels run by Plahotniuc showed the video footage, made in the Democratic Party's office, accusing Dodon of treason. However, a short while afterwards the oligarch lost power and fled the country to Miami.

A coalition of the Party of Socialists and the ACUM alliance came to power, and Maia Sandu, one of the alliance's leaders, became prime minister. Prosecutors investigated the video, but found "no elements of crime" in it, and a court in Chisinau rejected the case.

Last week, the Appeals Chamber reversed the court's decision.

The Republic of Moldova faced an unprecedented political and constitutional crisis after the Constitutional Court decided to dissolve the parliament, without, as the Venice Commission noted, fulfilling the conditions required | June 21, 2019 |

Additional reading ...

Monitoring the Selectivity of Criminal Justice In Moldova

'Sapere aude'