“In the Republic of Moldova, we have an amorphous civil society and a community of foreign diplomats who are not interested in the processes in the country. These are reproached for not taking sides with the suspended prospector general Alexandr Stoianoglo. Their justification is probably that Alexandr Stoianoglo didn’t insist on the investigation of the case concerning the sequestration of MP Ștefan Gațcan by his mates from PSRM. O tempora, o mores!...”
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Triumphal blundering

The suspension from office and arrest of prosecutor general, Alexandr Stoianoglo, shows once again how hurried and awkward the government of the Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) is. Even if they display their studies in the most prestigious universities, we convince ourselves that the PAS leaders do not obey themselves the most elementary rules – the sensitive things in politics are managed with delicacy, after the thorough examination of the eventual consequences. Currently, we are witnesses to the fact that PAS behaves like a bull in a china shop in the so-called general crackdown.

Definitely, the case of Stoianoglo became emblematic for the PAS government. For now, we do not know if the suspended prosecutor general indeed committed those illegalities in the five counts. What we know for sure is that PAS wanted a lot Stoianoglo to be dismissed from the post he held during the past two years. His term is of seven years. Therefore, Stoianoglo firmly rejected the PAS’s requests. Moreover, the institution managed by this publicly accused the PAS government of incompetence, threatening it : ”The current government’s level of perception of the rule of law principles is unexpectedly low...  The response of the Prosecutor’s Office to any attack on its intuitional and procedural independence will be proportional to the gravity of such attacks.”

We see the delicacy of Stoianoglo’s Prosecutor’s Office does not differ much from that of the initiators of the general crackdown. That’s why the PAS leaders didn’t find anything more original than to invoke the people’s mandate for starting to amend the legislation so as to suspend the prosecutor general from office. As in the Mexican soap operas, a response reaction followed – the suspended prosecutor general accused PAS and the diplomatic corps working in the Republic of Moldova of hatching up against him and the sovereignty of the state.

Ball of hypocrites

The actions of PAS and the response reactions of Alexandr Stoianoglo confused public opinion, creating a favorable context for reanimating the fainted opposition. In the given circumstances, the leaders of the parliamentary and extraparliamentary opposition launched a series of protests with the aim of strengthening their ranks so as to shake the PAS’ monopoly on the power. Anyway, the protests are right if their sincere goal is to ensure the observance of Alexandr Stoianoglo’s rights to defense and a fair trial. What bothers is that discredited political leaders became involved in the protests and these cause more serious damage to the suspended prosecutor general who was placed under arrest for 30 days. For example, the call to take part in the protests in support of Stoianoglo made by the leader of the Party of Socialists of the Republic of Moldova (PSRM) Igor Dodon seems inappropriate because:

• The Prosecutor’s Office should investigate the involvement of the leader of PSRM in the illegal financing of PSRM, which didn’t happen and for which Alexandr Stoianoglo can be reproached;
• Igor Dodon’s call to take part in the protests in favor of Stoianoglo somehow generates a resemblance between the case of the latter and the case of the prosecutor general of Russia Yuri Skuratov. It is something that is fully unwanted for the PSRM’s Russophile supporters. The problem is that in his cajoling effort, Dodon began to envy the Russian people for having Vladimir Putin as President, forgetting that the latter obtained this post owing to sex scenes with a person looking like the prosecutor general of Russia Yury Skuratov. It happened after prosecutor general Scuratov started to investigate the financial crisis of August 17, 1998, probing the activity of 780 high-ranking Russian officials suspected of corruption. Among the suspects were the daughters of Boris Yeltsin, who in 2000 ordered to remove Skuratov from the post. In one of his books, Skuratov depicted the real background of the operation against him and Vladimir Putin’s role as the head of the FSB, who became the executor of the testament of Yeltsin “family”. It should be noted that the members of the family of one of Scuratov’s successors as prosecutor of Russia– Yury Chaika, became a business partner of Dodon family. And this is not all. The son of ex-prosecutor Chaika until recently owned a majority holding in two TV channels associated with PSRM, defending this way the sovereignty and independence of the Republic of Moldova from the involvement of the West;   
• The PSRM’s and Igor Dodon’s calls for protests to defend Stoianoglo also evoke the case of sequestration of MP Ștefan Gațcan by renowned members of PSRM.  The truth is that under the constitutional provisions, MP Ștefan Gațcan was elected directly by the people to represent in Parliament the sovereign people, while the prosecutor general was appointed by the President. In such circumstances, public opinion can decide what is more serious – the sequestration of a people’s representative by members of PSRM or the arrest of the prosecutor general by the state bodies? The question is not trivial and should become a benchmark when those who sequestrated a people’s representative make a call for protests in support of the suspended prosecutor general whose institution didn’t investigate the case of sequestration of the people’s representative till the end etc.

As unsuitable for defending the interests of Alexandr Stoianoglo is the involvement of the  Antimafie Movement in the protests. This way, starting from the ethnicity of Stoianoglo, the leader of Antimafie tries to incite the Gagauz people to separatism (see min 40.50 – 45.00), which would be justified amid the injustice done to the suspended prosecutor general by the Moldovan authorities. Why does he do it? Because this can be profitable as the protest of 2010 against the mafia that helped the anti-mafia protester to come into possession of a BMW X5 car, without this having any official source of income, turned out to be profitable. It should be noted that the leader of Antimafie knows to achieve his goals. For example, he managed to achieve the programmatic objective – the union with Romania – it’s true that partially only, when he managed to unite the members of his family with the Embassy of Romania, even if for one year only. As he is known to be a courageous fighter for ideals, he can also succeed in the process of inciting the Gagauz people to separatism. It is not yet clear if Alexandr Stoianoglo has any luxury cart to reward his supporter.

Conclusions

The PAS government continues its triumphal march, committing all the possible blunders. After the case of Stoianoglo, it’s clear that PAS does not have the potential to rise to the level of a dominant party for a longer period of time that can be enough to ensure a firm path for the Republic of Moldova to come closer to the European Union. Surely, PAS has several years at its disposal to remedy the situation and to improve its image in front of the people, but this hope meets with the arrogance and unbeatable infatuation of the party’s leaders.

The way and speed at which the case of Stoianoglo is being dealt with will suggest the possible political developments. The collapse of the investigation against Alexandr Stoianoglo and an eventual return of this to the post of prosecutor general will mark the decline of PAS that will be as impetuous as its ascension. In such conditions, the reform of the prosecution service will become less topical and the PAS’s mandate will be irremediably compromised. The proving of Stoianoglo’s guilt in at least one count is the only chance for PAS to remain afloat. However, given the intestine struggles between the clans inside the unreformed prosecution service, this thing seems unachievable.

Alexandr Stoianoglo needs the support of society against eventual abuses in the investigation of his case. What Alexandr Stoianoglo does not need is the support of discredited political leaders and parties, primarily of those who illegally finance their parties and sequestrate the own MPs, as it happened to MP Ștefan Gațcan. Stoianoglo also does not need the support of those who incite subtly to separatism for distinguishing themselves. He also does not need the support of dubious persons like Veaceslav Platon and his concubine who recently showed that the profession of journalist can be turned into the oldest profession.   

In the Republic of Moldova, we have an amorphous civil society and a community of foreign diplomats who are not interested in the processes in the country. These are reproached for not taking sides with the suspended prospector general Alexandr Stoianoglo. Their justification is probably that Alexandr Stoianoglo didn’t insist on the investigation of the case concerning the sequestration of MP Ștefan Gațcan by his mates from PSRM. O tempora, o mores!