“The sanctions against the oligarch who fled the country are a good signal that had been awaited from the Western partners for which we are grateful to them. We made repeated relevant approaches to them, including directly in the United States,” President Igor Dodon stated for the TASS Russian News Agency, commenting on the Secretary of State Michael Pompeo’s statement on the public designation of Vladimir Plahotniuc. He noted that attentive, sometimes invisible work, especially on the part of the law enforcement agencies that provided the necessary arguments, was needed to achieve such a result, IPN reports.
Igor Dodon thanked Moldova’s partners for the decision to impose sanctions against the former leader of the Democratic Party of Moldova. He reminded that this problem was discussed in detail after the meeting of the Supreme Security Council last yearend. He noted that this decision will be an additional stimulus for stepping up the fight against corruption and the oligarchic regime’s inheritance launched by the current administration of the country. “This is not an easy task, but our country does not have a future otherwise and it is our duty to carry it out,” stated President Dodon.
In a post on Facebook, the leader of the Action and Solidarity Party Maia Sandu thanked the U.S. Government “for accepting our request to punish the former Democratic leader, doing this way justice to the citizens of the Republic of Moldova”. “Igor Dodon, who is trying to take over the corrupt system of Plahotniuc, should be cautious as those who commit crimes against the own people will be punished sooner or later,” wrote Maia Sandu.
The leader of the Party “Dignity and Truth Platform” Andrei Nastase wondered on Facebook “ who thought that something like this will be witnessed last year at this time or in 2016 at this time?”.
Former Moldovan official Vladimir Plahotniuc was designated publicly due to involvement in significant corruption and is ineligible for visas to the United States, says a statement issued by Secretary of State Michael Pompeo in the evening of January 13. His wife Oxana Childescu, his son Timofei Plahotniuc and his minor child were also designated.
