On Monday May 11 Chisinau Mayor Ion Ceban dismissed his Deputy Mayor Irina Gutnic. No reason was given. This action was the first public indication of a major rift within Mayor Ceban’s team and MAN party, a rift that has now morphed into an ongoing series of public scandals for the mayor.
Today we’re going to unpack what we know so far and look at where this political crisis might be heading.
Who is Irina Gutnic?
Until last week, Irina Gutnic was among the most senior members of Ion Ceban’s City Hall administration and the MAN political party. In October 2022 Mayor Ceban asked Gutnic to join his administration as Deputy Mayor. At that time, Irina Gutnic had just 4 months before become the director of Apă-Canal Chisinau - the capital’s water and sewage utility. She accepted the job as Deputy Mayor but chose not to officially leave Apă-Canal and instead suspended her activity there. This means that she remained the director on paper and had the right to return to her position later.
Her appointment as Deputy Mayor was blocked twice by the municipal council before she was appointed by mayoral order in order to bypass the councilor’s objections. Some in Mayor Ceban’s Socialist Party1 had opposed her appointment, but Councilor Eugenia Ceban, Ion Ceban’s Mother, had rallied support for her. Since becoming Deputy Mayor Irina Gutnic has appeared alongside Mayor Ceban, often seated at his right hand, at nearly all the public events he attends.
While Gutnic’s exact portfolio at City Hall was never publicly defined, her past and recent statements imply that she was heavily involved in administrative coordination, questions around procurement, management of municipal enterprises, emergency commission matters and more. In short she played a major behind-the-scenes role in Mayor Ceban’s administration.
In addition to her job in City Hall, Irina Gutnic was also the leader of the MAN party’s Chisinau territorial organization. For most political parties, the head of the Chisinau territorial organization would be among the most senior. For MAN this is even more true as Chisinau is by far their most important region of support.
In December 2025 TV8’s show “Black Box” reported an investigation into her clothing, wealth and lifestyle. In their exhaustive reporting they identified luxury clothes and shoes owned by the Deputy Mayor worth well over 1 million lei. They also noted the string of new BMW cars that she has parked at her house and compared all of this to her official salary of 27,000 lei / month.
For her part, Irina Gutnic claims that she lives within her budget, owns no cars but has generous friends and family who lend them to her, and that those €950 shoes or €2500 euro dresses are actually just simple clothes custom made for her by her tailor for mere 100s of lei.
Timeline of Events
Before digging into her specific accusations, it is worth briefly outlining the timeline of events here:
May 11 - Mayor Ceban dismisses Deputy Mayor Irina Gutnic with no reason given.
May 12 - Apă-Canal Chisinau convenes an Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders to terminate her employment there. Apă-Canal Chisinau is structured as a joint stock company that is owned and controlled by the city.
May 13 - Irina Gutnic gives a press conference with a series of accusations against the mayor casting herself as a whistleblower.
May 14 - Irina Gutnic submits a complaint to the Anti-Corruption Agency accusing Mayor Ceban of abuse of power in her firing.
May 14 - Irina Gutnic resigns from the MAN territorial organization.
May 15 - Irina Gutnic claimed that Ceban’s team tried to intimidate her into resigning on May 11. She claims that they offered her the position at Apă-Canal where “there would be no pressure, no blackmail, and I would just sit quietly there.”
May 15 - Irina Gutnic gave an extended interview to “Black Box” on TV8 with further accusations against Mayor Ceban.
May 18 - Mayor Ceban begins making vague claims that this is all a “coup attempt” organized by PAS
May 19 - Irina Gutnic gives another press conference, alleging that on May 15th her house was broken into in order to gather information on her. She then stated that on May 18th her facebook account was hacked from multiple devices located in foreign countries. She went on to detail more accusations of wrongdoing against Ceban.
…and she doesn’t appear to be done. This story remains alive and Gutnic has clearly indicated that she has more information to share in the future. So what has she said so far?
Whistleblower(?) Accusations Against the Mayor
Former Deputy Mayor Irina Gutnic has had a lot to say about her former boss since her first press conferences on May 13. At that event, she opened by stating that she does “not know exactly what the true reasons for my dismissal were,” claiming that she learned of it from the press. She stressed that her firing was illegal because the process of firing a Deputy Mayor goes through the municipal council. At the same time, Gutnic stated that she offered to resign in January but her resignation was not accepted.
“The decision to go public was not an easy one, but it is an inevitable one, given the decision of the general mayor.”
In her statement she claimed that she would sue over her wrongful termination, not to get her job back but to uphold the law.
Author’s Note: Already there is a lot going on here so look to the footnotes in this section for some analysis starting here2.
Here are some of the claims that Gutnic has made about Mayor Ceban:
“The “Alternativa” bloc is a camouflaged project.” She claimed that many in the MAN party are sincerely pro-EU and that they were blindsided when Ceban chose to form the Alternative Bloc with obviously pro-Russian political forces. Gutnic claimed that MAN party members were not consulted and that Ceban’s unilateral decisions caused confusion and disillusionment.
Chisinau City Hall is politicized to support Ceban and the MAN party. “Employees are politically exploited. They are made to work 7 days a week for the personal image of Ion Ceban.” She claimed that City Hall employees, including herself, were sent to campaign for MAN during work hours. She suggested that at times all staff but 1 or 2 people from departments around the city would be sent to campaign - bringing public work to a standstill.
Ceban funds a network of influencers with public money. Gutnic claims that the anti-PAS anti-Sandu Telegram channel “Casa de Nebuni” (“House of Madmen”) is run by MAN party member Andrei Oțel. And that this channel and others are funded via indirect contracts with the municipal enterprise Autosalubritate (Chisinau’s trash company). She claims to know of 5-7 Telegram channels that are coordinated by City Hall and funded in similar ways. Andrei Oțel denies any connection to this or other Telegram channels. Autosalubritate says it is unaware of such contracts.
Actions that “go beyond the limits of legality.” Gutnic referenced various actions taken in City Hall that exceeded legal limits or outright broke the law. These allegations are technical and procedural in nature - using non-existent emergency powers to circumvent the city council or other process. The actions taken - road repair, trash removal, etc are not themselves abnormal, but she alleges the process involved abuses.
Ceban’s connections with Russia. Gutnic referenced Ceban’s Russia connections cryptically saying:
“Regarding relations with the Russian Federation, we will come back with more details, but given Axerov’s [Nidjat Askerov] presence in Chișinău City Hall, things speak for themselves. He appears in the conviction decision of Dan Cuclescu [Denis Cuculescu] in the treason case.”
This statement references Denis Cuculescu’s treason conviction earlier this year. In that trial various witnesses connected him to the FSB and to Nidjat Askerov (subject of a parallel trial) and him to Ceban and Dodon. Gutnic implies that she knows more about this connection as a City Hall insider but does not elaborate3.
Serious Claims, Missing Substance
This is only a sampling of some of the most serious claims that Irina Gutnic has been making. Many claims, such as those about Ceban’s connections to Russia are really teasers - letting people know that she has more to say. Others are simply very personal - she claims that Ceban is a tyrant, that everyone in city hall is terrified of him, that he is a danger to Chisinau and Moldova as a whole, etc.
In Moldova, the public element of political scandals such as this one is usually only the tip of the iceberg. It is possible that Irina Gutnic has a lot to say and simply wants to drag it out over a few news cycles. It is also possible that she is calibrating her statements to cause damage but also imply that she has much more - presumably be in service of negotiating a deal behind the scenes.
We’ll have to wait and see how this plays out.
The Primaria’s Response
Initially Mayor Ceban tried to avoid responding to the accusations saying:
“We are not going to respond to a lady who is angry that she no longer has a position and who came out to vent all this anger in public. I personally announced her resignation.”
At the same time, he also vaguely insinuated that Irina Gutnic was being controlled by outside forces - claiming that she is friends with former PAS party member Andrei Spînu.
By May 18 however the response got more forceful and had a new (if not clearer) narrative. Ceban stated that “They were planning a coup attempt within the Chisinau City Hall” and that “they” apparently is PAS. He stated that this whole thing has been orchestrated to force his resignation and said that Irina Gutnic had been wearing a wire and recording all conversations in the building. He provided no evidence for these statements.
Other MAN party members pushed back as well with MP Gaik Vartanyan downplaying the seniority of her role by saying that she was in no position to be privy to the decisions on creating the Alternative Bloc4.
Chisinau Deputy Mayor Victor Pruteanu highlighted some of the contradictions in her statements saying:
“If things were so bad, then why did she remain silent for so many years? And if she hadn’t been fired, would she have continued to remain silent? Until Monday, Ceban posed no threat to Chisinau, and now suddenly he does?5”
How Significant is All of This?
Very. Ion Ceban’s political project relies on a few key pillars:
Technocratic competence - They repair the streets, renovate the sidewalks, reconstruct parks and make sure the buses run on time. Even Mayor Ceban’s sharpest critics usually agree that Chisinau has improved during his terms.
Pragmatic pro-EU stances - Ceban and the MAN party claim to support Moldova joining the EU. The “pragmatic” part generally means that they also promise better relations with Russia.
Being a safe alternative to PAS - it’s right there in the name “National Alternative Movement” (MAN) and Alternative Bloc.
Parts 2 & 3 of the formula largely unraveled over the course of 2025. Ion Ceban as a pro-EU politician was never believable for close watchers of Moldovan politics. His choice to create the Alternative Bloc with a who’s who of the most well known pro-Russian politicians in Moldova further undermined this claim for anyone paying attention. Though most voters probably never read Alternative’s electoral program6, most seemed not to buy the pro-EU story or that they were a real pro-EU “alternative.” In these areas Irina Gutnic’s allegations show that at least some people within MAN were having their own doubts about the pro-EU direction of the party.
More importantly though, her allegations directly attack point 1 - technocracy and competence. Gutnic paints a picture of a city government fully co-opted to burnish the political image of one man. They campaign for him while taxpayers fund their salaries, close down public services when he needs them to fill out rallies and break the law when he tells them to. Most damaging of all - she alleges that online influencers and channels set up to attack Moldova’s president and government are being paid out of tax revenues meant to support trash pickup. If these allegations are true - in whole or in part - they threaten to shatter Mayor Ceban’s image as a hard working public servant only focused on city problems.
At this stage Irina Gutnic’s allegations are just that. It is possible that they will lead to criminal investigations but so far they are only words. What makes this significant though is Irina Gutnic herself. For whatever reason, a very senior member of both the city hall administration and the MAN party is airing out dirty laundry. Her position and seniority lends credibility to what she alleges, even if her own history and the odd manner of her firing pose serious questions in their own right.
For now, this story is still developing. We’ll check back with updates as they come.
Recall, he ran for Mayor as a Socialist and that was his faction at the time.
Where to start. Gutnic will go on to allege major wrongdoing and claim that her moral opposition to all of this caused her to try and resign in January (and also that her attempted resignation had nothing to do with the story about her €10,000 euro dresses from that time). But she didn’t resign because the mayor didn’t accept her resignation. Usually, this situation indicates an underling tendering a resignation to head off a scandal (e.g. €3000 euro shoes) and the boss not accepting it as a sort of forgiveness. When you try to resign because your boss is a crook / “danger to the country” and you give up the plan because they don’t accept it… what is that?
Also - it’s worth noting that she was appointed Deputy Mayor against the express wishes of the Municipal Council by Ceban’s decree. It’s a bit rich that she’s suing because he showed her the door in the same way.
Recall - Nidjat Askerov was allegedly transporting money across the border to supplement party salaries for MAN and city hall employees. In oligarchic political parties, salary top ups help recruit and retain talent and allow political control to be exercised over nominally non-political or independent offices. Parties without an oligarch need a patron, for example Plahotniuc’s alleged funding of Dodon and the Socialist parties. More common of course, is Russia. If we measure Askerov’s success in terms of the fancy dresses and expensive shoes then we might assume the top-up program went well.
Very possibly true… but also her point. If even senior territorial leaders weren’t consulted then the process was not democratic at all.
He has a point.
If they had they would have found almost no mention of the EU at all… except to put up barriers to joining. Moldovan should join the EU but… not before reintegrating Transnistria, etc.