The searches of the house of the former President of Moldova, Igor Dodon, are an internal matter of this country, Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation, said on May 24.
“This is an internal affair of Moldova. We are alarmed that once again this practice is applied to those who are in favor of developing friendly relations with Russia. We would like to hope that all legal rights of Dodon will be respected,” he told reporters, answering a question about the Kremlin’s reaction to searches in the house of the ex-leader of Moldova.
Earlier that day, Marianna Kerpek, a spokeswoman for the country’s Prosecutor General’s Office, reported on the searches at Dodon’s house.
According to Vlad Batryncha, the executive secretary of the Socialist Party, of which Dodon is the honorary chairman, searches at the ex-leader of Moldova are taking place because the authorities of the republic are fighting the opposition. Batryncha called the incident a cheap show.
In turn, Moldovan political scientist Vitaly Andrievsky explained to Izvestia that everyone will look at the case against Dodon in their own way, based on political convictions.
Prior to that, on May 18, a representative of the Prosecutor General’s Office stated that a criminal case had been opened against Dodon, the ex-leader of the republic was suspected of corruption. She explained that Acting Attorney General Dumitru Robu ordered a criminal prosecution because of the videos that appeared in the public space in the summer of 2020.
The video, which the representative of the Prosecutor General’s Office spoke about, was made on a hidden camera in June 2019. On it, at that time, the leader of the Democratic Party, oligarch Vladimir Plahotniuc, discussed with Dodon the situation in the country after the parliamentary elections. Plahotniuc then tried to give the former head of Moldova a black package, which, presumably, contained money. Dodon then refused to accept the bribe.