Weekly Roundup: Plaha Detained, PAS Publishes their List and Other Updates
Weekly Roundup: July 23, 2025
New Details on Plahotniuc’s Detention in Greece
Yesterday the news broke that fugitive oligarch Vladimir Plahotniuc and his associate Constantin Țuțu were detained in Athens on the basis of an Interpol Red Notice.
Initial reports included multiple errors or mischaracterizations. In those reports, 2 Moldovan men, Vladimir Plahotniuc and Constantin Țuțu were detained while attempting to transit through the Athens airport flying to Dubai from an unknown point of origin. Reports indicated that it was here that their forged documents were detected and they were detained.
Unconfirmed reports from Euronews Greece now say that there was a 3rd person detained with them, Elisaveta Kuznetsova, Miss Moldova 2019. This assertion has not yet been confirmed by the Greek authorities.
Greek journalists have reported that Plahotniuc was not transiting through Athens, but that the men had been living just outside the city in a luxurious villa. This has been confirmed by the Greek police and the house was identified by RISE as a 1400 sq meter villa in a wealthy suburban neighborhood with a view of the Aegean Sea.
RISE does not believe that Plahotniuc owns this house, but that he was a tenant. According to the Greek police:
"The 59-year-old man [Vladimir Plahotniuc] lived with the 38-year-old man [Constantin Țuțu], also wanted, who, in order to minimize the risk of detection, remained in the house for a large part of the day. A characteristic of the precautionary measures they took was that, at the slightest suspicion that they were being monitored, they would change their country of residence,"
The Greek press reported that Plahotniuc has changed his country of residence 22 times since 2023.
According to one paper, the men hastily called a cab on the evening of July 21st and departed for the airport taking only a small backpack each. Evidently they were already being monitored because the police interpreted this as an attempt to flee and arranged for their plane to be delayed so that they could be taken into custody.
When they were arrested they were carrying false passports and documents from Bulgaria, Romania and Russia. The Greek police subsequently published video showing searches conducted at the house. There they found €155,000 euros in cash, 17 fake passports and IDs from various countries, lots of phones, including Vertu luxury phones, computers, luxury watches and more.
Extradition Proceedings Begin
Moldova’s Ministry of Justice has begun the process of requesting Plahotniuc’s extradition. From the moment of his detention, Moldova has 40 days to make an official request for extradition. All indications are that the Ministry will move quickly, but the process is complex and will likely take some time. Experts have speculated that if Plahotniuc accepts extradition and does not contest it in court, then it will take another 2 months following the official request. Much more likely, he will fight extradition in Greek court, in which case this process could drag on well into 2026 or beyond.
Interestingly, Constantin Țuțu is not wanted by the Moldovan authorities at this time. He is a defendant in multiple ongoing criminal cases, but these cases are proceeding and he is not considered a fugitive. He was arrested on an Interpol Red Notice put out by Russia, where both men are wanted in connection to a large scale drug trafficking operation they allegedly organized.
Reactions in Moldova
President Sandu praised the detention of Plahotniuc and called for a speedy extradition saying:
"Six years later, we finally have good news. And now it is very important that all responsible structures achieve his extradition as soon as possible, of course, in compliance with all procedures. Now the Moldovan justice system has no reason to delay the administration of justice,"
The predominant reaction to the news is celebration that “the biggest criminal in the country's history" is finally facing justice. At the same time, there has been an explosion of speculation and conspiracy theories. Some have accused PAS of somehow arranging his arrest in order to boost their electoral chances. Mostly though, the conspiracy goes something like this: Plahotniuc was not captured, but he arranged this all himself as part of a 4D chess scheme to return to Moldova before the elections, run, get elected and take over the country again. Some version of this is being pushed by well known media and political figures - and numerous people sent me messages yesterday with some version of this theory.
Former Anti-Corruption Prosecutor Veronica Dragalin, whose work finally got Plahotniuc on Interpol’s wanted list at the beginning of this year, pushed back on these theories stating:
"regarding some comments that he actually surrendered and that this was part of a major plan to return to the Republic of Moldova, in politics, I can tell you that I have not seen a single case in my career when someone voluntarily surrenders for arrest in another country. If someone has the intention to cooperate, to surrender, to appear in court, these things are coordinated in advance with the authorities in the countries that have active arrest warrants, because the lawyers and the accused know these things. In my professional opinion, this was not part of a major plan of Vladimir Plahotniuc. I believe that the law has finally caught up with him, because it is not so easy to travel around the world when you already have a warrant in INTERPOL."
She went on to congratulate her former colleagues for their work and to express confidence that Moldova’s justice system is ready to hold the oligarch accountable.
Election Updates: PAS Publishes Their List
This week PAS has submitted their documents and party list to the Central Election Commission. Speaker of Parliament and PAS President Igor Grosu published the list and wrote about the party’s candidates saying:
"We have united because the things that unite us are stronger than those that divide us. People from health, education, sports, culture, business, agriculture, public service, people from diplomacy, local public administration, Moldovans from the diaspora – we have united with all the best in us so that Moldova can win."
"September 28 is A DECISIVE STEP for MOLDOVA to be in the European Union. This is why we have united – for peace in the European family. The PAS EU 2028 list means our duty to ensure that Moldova wins,"
Immediately prior to announcing the final list, the leadership of the Platforma DA party announced that they “accepted the political partnership” with PAS. Two candidates from DA were included in the PAS Party list, in places 42 and 47. They called the decision difficult but necessary, and PAS welcomed them while noting that the leaders of other pro-EU opposition parties, the Party of Change and LOC, had refused a similar offer.
With this move Platforma DA was removed from the Together Bloc, which has pledged to compete in elections themselves. With LOCs recent departure from the bloc, this leaves only the Party of Change and the Green Ecological Party of Moldova as members. They expressed regret that PAS did not join them in a common pro-EU bloc1.
Of the 61 PAS MPs currently serving in parliament, 24 of them are not on the party’s new list. Some spoke to the press and expressed disappointment, with one saying that she felt that there were no thanks for their service just a “kick in the ass." No reasons were given by the party for their choices on the list, or its ordering, but such a large scale change, and the inclusion of new, popular figures such as Nicu Popescu and Marcel Spatari, indicate that the party is trying to remake itself somewhat for this vote.
The “Left Wing” “Sovereignists” Create a Bloc
Yesterday Igor Dodon (Socialist), Vasile Tarlev (Future of Moldova Party), Irina Vlah (Heart of Moldova) and Vladimir Voronin (Communists) announced that their parties would form a new electoral bloc for the elections. Igor Dodon called it a "consolidation of left-wing and center-left political forces" while explaining the common ideology as the following:
"We are statists, we protect the Moldovan identity, we protect the Christian faith, we advocate for neutrality and we are sovereignists"
Author’s Note: Moldova has a long running problem with the ideas of “left” and “right” wing. I will address this more once the party programs are published, but it is worth noting that none of these parties are at all plausibly left wing. This identification is a hangover from the Soviet Union when socialists and communists were rather obviously of the left. Now these parties are predominantly fueled by nostalgia for the past, a desire to prevent change, anti-LGBTQ, anti-immigrant, anti-vax and pro “traditional families.” In reality, Moldova has centrist parties like PAS, parties of power / one individual like Shor and right to far-right parties like these 4. There’s nothing on the traditional left at all. I wrote about this prior to the last elections, most of the conclusions hold up but as I said there will be an update in the coming month.
All 4 leaders gave remarks, with Tarlev speaking about how the country is in existential danger, and Vlah calling on all opposition parties to promise never to work with PAS. Mr. Voronin gave the most surprising remarks when he departed dramatically from the script of the Bloc’s launch stating:
“I'm not as optimistic as my colleagues. Forming an electoral bloc is a very difficult and complicated process. If, during this process, any of us demonstrates selfish interests, group interests, interests that our party is the best, only the memory of our meeting at this conference will remain.”
He went on to clarify that he is pessimistic both about whether or not they will even form the bloc they were announcing, and about the election in general.
No name or branding was announced for this new bloc, with organizers saying that this would all happen soon. The internet did not wait and the strange announcement and lack of a name inspired many memes.
Igor Dodon later indicated that he was rather offended that the news of Plahotniuc’s arrest stole the news cycle from the announcement of the unnamed bloc that Voronin thinks is kinda doomed. He claimed that PAS orchestrated the arrest in order to distract from this momentous news conference. The police released a statement in response noting that the Greek authorities operated on their own, and that the Moldovan police quote “perform important duties for citizens and do not monitor the nomination of politicians.”
Other Elections News
Here’s a roundup of the other top elections stories of the week:
Elections watchdog NGO Promo-Lex has released a report on pre-election campaigning. They note that while the official campaign begins on August 29th, multiple parties have launched shadow campaigns already. Notably, PAS is running a major information campaign promoting the party’s achievements and the future benefits of EU integration. Meanwhile, the Socialists have launched a campaign promoting neutrality and sovereignty. In Chisinau, Mayor Ceban has also launched a campaign promoting his work in city hall. The NGO noted that technically campaigns promoting the parties, but not candidates or election platforms are legal, but that these are stretching what was intended under laws defining the campaign season. They also warned that the government’s public information campaign “Moldova poate” (“Moldova Can”) could be understood to be shadow campaigning using administrative resources2.
Former PAS MP Olesea Stamate has registered to run as an independent. The MP, who was kicked out of PAS over the amnesty scandal, claims that this is the first step towards building a new political party "which will truly promote European integration, but also the moral and Christian values that are the foundation of a just society."
Andrei Nastase has registered to run as an independent. He did so with an *intense* announcement claiming that “No one, ever, since this country exists, has done what I will do if you” and saying of PAS “I WILL BE THEIR NIGHTMARE."
Author’s Note: Andrei Nastase continues to claim to be a pro-EU candidate who better represents Moldova’s ambitions to join the EU than PAS. It is worth noting that his right hand man, Stanislav Pavlovschi, has deep and complex connections to Ilan Shor, and that Moldova Matters has reported on how Pavlovschi conducted influence campaigns promoting Shor and his messages across Western Europe and the United States. You can read this investigation here:
The Central Election Commission (CEC) has rejected the registration of Ilan Shor’s Pobeda (Victory) Bloc. The CEC noted that they had been provided information by the Security and Intelligence Service (SIS) confirming3 that all parties within the Pobeda Bloc were connected to Ilan Shor and the unconstitutional Shor Party. They also noted that some of the applications were incomplete and no one responded to their requests for additional information and clarification4.
Updates on Ceban’s EU Travel Ban
Mayor Ceban and members of his political party have continued to angrily denounce Romania’s decision to bar him from entry, and thereby ban him from the entire Schengen zone for 5 years. Romanian Foreign Minister Oana Țoiu commented again on the ban saying:
"For reasons related to national security. In the case of Mr. Ceban, because he is the only public name I can talk about, there have long been documented complicated connections between him and representatives of the Russian Federation. For Romania, it is extremely important that this type of influence be limited on our territory"
Ceban responded angrily to this statement with a facebook video where he stated:
“This type of complicated connections does not exist and they know this. As proof of this fact, there are people, politicians, both in Romania, the Republic of Moldova, but also in the EU states, who do not necessarily have complicated connections, if we are to speak in your terminology, but they do have these open connections and nothing happens to them. This is the first thesis based on which I affirm that it is a political command. Thesis no. 2 is directly related to the passing of responsibility from one institution to another (…). To this day, I have not been presented with any evidence that there is something, because that something does not exist. This is happening exactly during the electoral period for the parliamentary elections in the Republic of Moldova. Any type of interference of this kind can be qualified as direct involvement in influencing the public of the different opinions of the people who will go to cast their vote (…)”
Romania’s Foreign Minister Oana Țoiu responded to this, and to Mayor Ceban’s criticism that they had not provided him any documentation about the visa ban, saying:
“Romania is not obliged to explain anything to Mr. Ceban, because he is not a Romanian citizen and is unlikely to ever become one. He is not an EU citizen either.”
Mayor Ceban is furious about this response and has threatened to sue Romania’s Foreign Minister.
It’s worth noting that PAS offered them spaces on their list. These parties are tiny, and regularly garner far less than 1% of the vote in elections. It is really unclear that PAS would have gained anything by creating an official bloc, but it would have required a rebranding and the launch of a whole new structure. Reporting this week has indicated that PAS felt this was a risk not worth the potential rewards. As I wrote earlier this week, PAS itself has become a sort of national emergency coalition under one party.
PAS claims that this is simply an information campaign about the benefits of joining the EU. Many commentators have noted (correctly) that if PAS was in opposition and the government did this then they would call it out as illegal use of administrative resources in a campaign.
I don’t quite think SIS was required for this information, but its good they got official confirmation.
I don’t believe that Ilan Shor or his people had any illusions about being allowed to participate in the election. The process of applying always had the goal of getting rejected and using this as an element of Russia’s propaganda claiming that Moldovan democracy is a facade, etc.
I think that classifying parties as left or right is no longer useful anywhere, not just in Moldova...
Interesting, thanks for sharing!!