News
photo source:
Posted by: Rusica Viorica
News / Political
07 Nov. 2022 / 16:17
Rise investigation: Kremlin allegedly financed Igor Dodon with about five million lei
Kremlin financed Igor Dodon with about five million lei in the last year. Investigative journalists revealed that the money was transferred through the organization founded by former president Dodon together with other associations controlled by the Russian special services. The financier is Igor Ceaika, recently included in the US sanctions list, reports Moldova 1.
Last fall, Igor Dodon renounced his parliamentary mandate and announced his retirement from politics, and a few days before Russia attacked Ukraine, Dodon launched the Moldovan-Russian Business Union. However, the NGO announced by the former president of the country has been active for many months as a front for Russian money transfers. The organization was officially registered in June 2021.
"Initially, we began to verify this version in April, because our sources informed us that Russia continues to finance the activity of Igor Dodon even after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began. And it became interesting who was sending this money", says Vladimir Thorik, journalist, Rise Moldova.
The money came from the Russian NGO Delovaia Rossiia, more precisely from Igor Ceaika - the son of the former prosecutor general of the Russian Federation. On the organization's website, Ceaika is presented as a business ambassador in the Republic of Moldova and the Transnistrian region.
He is also the chairman of the civil society council at Rossotrudnicestvo - the agency of the Russian foreign ministry that serves as a cover for FSB agents.
Ceaika was also an investor in the media companies affiliated to Dodon, and a business partner with the former president's brother. He was included by the American government on the same list of sanctions as Vlad Plahotniuc and Ilan Şor, for interference in the elections in the Republic of Moldova. Delovaia Rossia made six transfers in Russian rubles to the Moldovan-Russian Business Union led by Dodon, three before the outbreak of the war and three more after - a total of 5.4 million lei. However, the last transfer was refused by the bank from Chisinau due to sanctions. According to it, Ceaika pays Dodon a monthly salary of over 200 thousand lei.
Criminally investigated in several cases, including for treason, Dodon did not comment on the revelations made by Rise.
According to the secret documents of the Russian services, debunked by Rise and the Dossier center, Russia has six scenarios for the Republic of Moldova. In the current conditions, Moscow relies on soft influence through politicians and energy blackmail. However, if it takes control of the Odesa region and make the junction with the Transnistrian enclave, the Kremlin is considering either the federalization of the Republic of Moldova, or the recognition of the Tiraspol regime, or the military occupation of the entire Republic of Moldova to prevent the Union with Romania.
Show Comments