Moldova broadens probe into pro-Russian group after detention of ethnic minority leader

By Alexander Tanas

CHISINAU (Reuters) -Moldova broadened an investigation into the financing of a banned pro-Russian political grouping in the country, two days after the detention of the leader of a pro-Moscow ethnic minority.

The detention at Chisinau airport of Eugenia Gutul, the leader of the autonomous region of Gagauzia, has further strained the former Soviet republic's difficult relations with Moscow.

Gutul is soon to be sentenced in connection with a criminal case into corruption in the financing of a pro-Russian electoral bloc run by a fugitive business magnate from exile in Moscow.

Russia has denounced the detention of Gutul. She has urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to help secure her release.

Gagauzia, a region of 140,000 people in Moldova's south, is dominated by ethnic Turks who favour close ties with Russia, adhere to Orthodox Christianity and have had uneasy relations with central authorities since Moldovan independence in 1991.

The speaker of Moldova's parliament, Igor Grosu, rejected Russian comments, saying that Moldova's legal authorities were simply doing their job.

"All processes, including judicial processes, are an internal matter of the Republic of Moldova," Grosu said. "This country (Russia) should not poke its nose into our affairs."

A Chisinau court postponed until Friday a decision on a prosecution request to extend her 72-hour detention.

Prosecutors on Thursday said they were looking into the possibility that Gutul was trying to evade prosecution.

Another pro-Russian politician, Alexei Lungu, was stopped at Chisinau's airport on Thursday and told he could not leave the country in connection with investigations.

Two other pro-Russian lawmakers, also charged with corruption, have disappeared in the past week and police for a time considered whether at least one might have been hiding in the Russian embassy.

All those under suspicion or facing charges are associates of fugitive pro-Russian business magnate Ilan Shor, sentenced to 15 years in prison in connection with the 2014-2015 disappearance of $1 billion from the Moldovan banking system.

Moldovan authorities allege he has funnelled funds illegally into Moldova to disrupt elections and try to secure the election of pro-Moscow lawmakers in a parliamentary poll later this year.

Sandu is spearheading a drive to secure European Union membership for Moldova, one of Europe's poorest countries, and has never recognised Gutul's 2023 election as bashkan.

The president has denounced Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which is on Moldova's eastern border, and has accused the Kremlin of trying to unseat her.

Russia raised Gutul's detention during a closed-door United Nations Security Council meeting on Thursday.

"The whole region is not stable and we just thought it our responsibility to raise the awareness of the members of the council to this absolutely intolerable situation," Russia's deputy U.N. Ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy told reporters.

Moldova's U.N. Ambassador Gheorghe Leuca told reporters that Gutul's detention had nothing to do with her political role, accusing her of being involved in a criminal organization.

(Reporting by Alexander Tanas in Chisinau; Writing by Ron Popeski; Editing by Rod Nickel, Daniel Wallis and Lincoln Feast)