CHISINAU -- Moldovan oligarch Vladimir Plahotniuc has been extradited to Chisinau to face long-running criminal charges, jolting the country just days before a tense general election already roiled by allegations of Russian interference.
Plahotniuc, who has been implicated with a decade-old bank fraud case known as the "theft of the century," arrived in the Moldovan capital on September 25 after being extradited from Greece where he had been held since July.
Plahotniuc is the lead suspect in a long-running investigation into the disappearance of some $1 billion from banks in the small, impoverished former Soviet republic in 2014. The sum was estimated to amount to around 12 percent of the country's total gross domestic product.
Plahotniuc has fought the charges for years. He was expected to make his first appearance at a Chisinau court on September 26.
In a comment to his Facebook page, Plahotniuc's lawyer, Lucian Rogac, asserted that the arrest took place "in violation of national and international law" and transformed "into a senseless, immoral and illegal televised public trial."
President Maia Sandu made no public comment about the arrest. But she posted a short message on her Facebook page that read: "If you don't give up when things are hard, and you keep fighting - all of society keeps fighting - even the criminals who seemed invincible are brought to justice."
The businessman's arrival in Moldova came as the country braces for parliamentary elections scheduled for September 28, a vote that will determine if the country moves closer to the European Union or if it falls further into Russia's political orbit.
Sandu and her pro-European Party of Action and Solidarity are trying to hold onto their majority in parliament, amid a strong push by a political bloc led by former President Igor Dodon, who has maintained close ties with Moscow.
Dodon, who was arrested briefly in 2022 on corruption charges, has accused the current government of being a "criminal regime."
In a speech this week, Sandu warned that the country's independence and future with Europe were in danger as she accused the Kremlin of "pouring hundreds of millions of euros" into the country to spread disinformation.
Those sentiments were backed up by the European Union on September 25, which accused Russia of "deeply interfering" in the elections.
"It's not the first time that Russia is employing textbook manipulation and disinformation tactics, but they're resorting to much more," EU Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Anitta Hipper said.
"They are deeply interfering in the electoral process."
Russia has claimed NATO is preparing to "occupy" Moldova, though it gave no evidence.
Also this week, Moldovan police said they had confiscated weapons and explosives around the country and arrested 74 people, accusing them of involvement in a plot to stoke disorder.
Some of those arrested reportedly had traveled to Serbia for training by Russian instructors, including with firearms.
Poland, meanwhile, announced on September 25 it was banning a Moldovan politician known for her pro-Russian views.
Irina Vlah, who used to head an autonomous Moldovan region called Gagauz, will be barred from entering Polish territory due to her efforts "helping the Russian Federation interfere in the preparations for the parliamentary elections," the Polish Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
"The Russian Federation is interfering in political processes in an unprecedented and illegal manner," the ministry said.
There was no immediate reaction to the announcement from Vlah, who had previously been sanctioned by Canada and Lithuania. The Moldovan government had petitioned to ban her from the September 28 elections.
Political Asylum Plea
Though the charges of bank theft hung over Plahotniuc for years, he served multiple times in parliament as a member of the Democratic Party.
In 2019, he left the country shortly before receiving a criminal summons from Moldovan prosecutors.
He spent months living quietly in the United States, and applied for political asylum, according to a lawsuit he filed in US federal court. That asylum request was rejected.
In January 2020, his US visa was revoked after then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared that his "corrupt actions undermined the rule of law and severely compromised the independence of democratic institutions in Moldova."
He was living in Miami at the time.
The US Treasury Department imposed financial sanctions on Plahotniuc and another influential oligarch, Ilan Shor, in 2022, accusing them of "capturing and corrupting Moldova's political and economic institutions and...acting as instruments of Russia’s global influence campaign."
The announcement alleged that the son of Russia's prosecutor general, Yury Chaika, worked with the Kremlin's chief spokesman to undermine Sandu in the run-up to the 2021 presidential election, which Sandu won.
