Russian Advisers ‘Working for Moldovan President’s Re-Election Campaign’

Political advisers close to Kremlin are working for pro-Russian President Igor Dodon in his re-election campaign, claimed an investigation published on Monday by the Dossier Centre in Moscow and RISE Moldova.

The investigation alleges that a team of Russian political consultants close to Kremlin came to Chisinau and joined Igor Dodon's political staff to assist in the campaign for the presidential elections on November 1.

The investigation says the Russian consultants have been working at the headquarters of Moldova's Socialist Party, PSRM, and at the presidency.

RISE Moldova took photographs of Dodon leaving the PSRM headquarters, while on the building's second floor, on the balcony, was one of the strategists from Moscow, Yuri Gudilin and the Socialist MP, Bogdan Tirdea.

In another photo, Gudilin is pictured next to the mayor of Chisinau, the the PSRM's Ion Ceban. Gudilin is in Chisinau together with other two Russian consultants, Olga Grak and Sergey Perfiliev.

The investigation also alleges a relationship between Dodon and the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation, the SVR.

It includes documents that it says show that the Moldovan president and his inner circle are under the influence of the Kremlin, particularly when it comes to foreign policy.

It claims that in February 2019, three days before he made a speech at the Munich Security Conference, Dodon sent the text of his speech to SVR general Vladimir Chernov via the Russian ambassador to Chisinau, Oleg Vasnetsov.

Dodon also sent Chernov his presentation for a set of measures aimed at resolving the conflict in the Moldovan breakaway region of Transnistria and for developing Moldova's cooperation with the West and Russia.

The...