Evghenia Guțul

Evghenia Guțul (born 5 September 1986; or ), also rendered Yevgenia Gutsul () and Eugenia Guțul, is a Moldovan Gagauzian jurist and politician, who has served as Governor of Gagauzia since 19 July 2023. In April 2024 she was indicted in a criminal case with the Anticorruption Court of Moldova. As Governor, she has sought to have closer relations with Russia. Following her party's banning by Moldovan authorities, she has been an independent.

Early life

Guțul was born on 5 September 1986 in the village of Etulia, a Gagauz village in the Moldavian SSR of the Soviet Union. Guțul's maiden name is Buiucli. She is married and has two children, and continues to maintain Etulia as her permanent place of residence.

After attending school to become a lawyer, she worked as a telephone operator from 2012 to 2014. Afterwards she worked as a telecommunications operator, commercial representative, and archivist. Guțul only entered politics when she worked as a secretary for her local Șor Party branch in 2018. Prior to her 2023 election, Guțul had no significant political background.

Political career

Guțul has built her political career as a pro-Russian activist. On 22 March 2023, she was selected as candidate for Governor of Gagauzia by the Șor Party. During the election campaign, Guțul promised that if she is elected, she will build an airport worth 100 million euros, increase the salaries of budget workers by 30%, build an amusement park and that there will be other investments in infrastructure, education, and other sectors of the economy. Some journalists described many of the promises as unrealistic, as in their assessment the implementation of such projects are beyond the powers of the Governor. Guțul was supported in the elections by oligarch and party Chair Ilan Șor, lawmakers Marina Tauber and Reghina Apostolova, as well as several Russian performers and artists, such as Nikolay Baskov, Philipp Kirkorov, and Stas Mikhaylov, as well as Leonid Slutsky, the leader of the Russian ultra-nationalist LDPR.

Political views

In March 2024, she met Vladimir Putin to ask for Russia's help "in defending agauzia'slegitimate rights, powers and positions" against the "lawlessness of the authorities in Moldova". When meeting with Putin, Guțul discussed "complex regional and geopolitical issues, in the epicentre of which the region is located".

Guțul said she was ready to open a representative office of Gagauzia in Moscow, to which she was reminded in Chișinău that Gagauzia is not a separate subject of international law and is part of Moldova.

Guțul said that in case of a potential unification of Moldova with Romania, she wants to initiate secession from Moldova and is ready to ask Russia for “protection” if this is prevented. Guțul said Gagauzia opposes unification with Romania, and “many residents of the autonomy and the whole of Moldova oppose Moldova's accession to the EU.” The American Institute for the Study of War said that Guțul's remarks about the possibility of Gagauzia seceding from Moldova in the event of unification with Romania are an attempt by the Kremlin “to use pro-Russian players in Moldova to destabilize Moldovan democracy and society, prevent Moldova's accession to the EU, or even to justify future hybrid or conventional operations against Moldova.”

Moldovan President Maia Sandu said that Guțul's visits to Moscow mean that she supports Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Başkan of Gagauzia

In the 2023 Gagauz gubernatorial election, she finished the first round in first place with 14,890 votes (26.47%), but given the fact that a majority was not met, the second round took place on 14 May. In the second round, Guțul obtained 27,376 of the votes (52.39%), defeating the independent candidate Grigorii Uzun, supported by the Party of Socialists of the Republic of Moldova, who had 24,926 votes (47.66%), thus winning a 4-year mandate at the head of the autonomous unit. In her victory speech, Guțul affirmed her intention to align the region closer with Russia. Following the banning of Șor on June 19, 2023, Guțul announced that she would take office and govern Gagauzia as a political independent.

On July 19, 2023, the inauguration of Guțul as Bashkan of Gagauzia took place. The event was not attended by Irina Vlah, who had completed her mandate as bashkan, and therefore the symbolic procedure of transfer of power did not take place. Prime Minister Dorin Recean, President Maia Sandu and PAS MPs said they would not attend the inauguration. Representatives of the Comrat Court of Appeal, which approved the election results, were also not present at the event. According to the Statute of Gagauzia, the oath of office is taken no later than 30 days after the official announcement of the election results, in a solemn atmosphere at a special session of the People's Assembly and Tribunal of Gagauzia, in the Gagauz language. Instead, the results were announced by the head of the CEC of Gagauzia, Jana Covalenco, in Russian. Also, representatives of Moldovan diplomatic missions were absent at the event. During the oath of office, Guțul forgot to put her hand on the Constitution, she was helped by Speaker Dmitri Constantinov. In addition, when she finished reading the oath, Guțul kissed only the flag of the Gagauz autonomy, without kissing the flag of Moldova. The bashkan promised to hold a press conference and answer journalists' questions. The main question of the press representatives was the source of funding for this event. However, Guțul and PAG speaker Dimitri Konstantinov left the stage in a hurry.

Guțul named Sergei Ibrishim as the head of the Main Directorate of the Agro-Industrial Complex of Gagauzia, the governmental branch in charge of agriculture and industry. A noted Russophile, Ibrishim personally wrote a letter to the Kremlin urging Russian intervention to allow Gagauzian goods to be sold in Russia at the same rate as that prior to Moldova's withdrawal from the CIS in December 2023.

One of Guțul's first acts in office was to perform a state visit to Russia, where she met with Russian officials from March 1 to March 8, 2024. Guțul outlined three key economic policies that would be created as a result of her visit, the first was a "special gas tariff", independent from the tariff on Moldova, without input from Moldovan officials, bypassing sanctions placed on Russian gas companies. Secondly Gagauzia, and its residents, would be integrated into the MIR payment system. Lastly, Gagauzia will have an independent excise taxes and duties on Russian goods, without input from the Moldovan government. The ''Institute for the Study of War'' (ISW) has deemed this a form of "energy blackmail" against Moldova, as the lower tariffs would make it nearly impossible for the Moldovan government to reduce dependence on Gagauzia's four Gazprom natural gas power plants.

On 13 March 2024, Guțul announced that she was organizing a meeting with prominent pro-Russian politicians of Moldova, such as Igor Dodon, Vladimir Voronin, Ilan Shor, and the leadership of the Revival Party. This quadrumvir of Dodon, Guțul, Shor, and Voronin, are possibly organizing into one singular opposition movement against the pro-European Party of Action and Solidarity to contest the 2024 presidential and the 2025 parliamentary elections.

On 9 April 2024, Guțul and the chairman of the People's Assembly of Gagauzia Dmitry Konstantinov signed an agreement in Moscow on the use of Mir cards in Gagauzia. According to Guțul, “these measures will allow to overcome the economic blockade organized by Chisinau and to bring to Gagauzia funds for financing social, infrastructural and economic projects”.

On 21 April 2024, a congress was held, which brought together about 500 supporters of a fugitive Moldovan oligarch who had taken refuge in Moscow. The agreement to unite the opposition political forces into the “Victory” bloc was signed by Guțul, who became the executive secretary of the national political council, in addition to the Shor party, which is banned in Moldova. For the Russian press, the event was described as “a congress of Moldovan politicians supporting Chisinau's accession to the Eurasian Economic Union.”

On 24 April 2024, the Moldovan anti-corruption prosecutor's office announced that it referred a case against Guțul to the anti-corruption court. She could "face up to seven years in prison and a prohibition for up to five years from holding certain positions or engaging in specific activities."

International sanctions

On 12 June 2024, the U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control imposed sanctions on Guțul, freezing any assets held by her in the country and banning its citizens from dealing with her.

On 14 October of 2024, the EU Council imposed personal sanctions on Guțul citing her continued and persistent attempts to upend Moldova's constitutional order by promoting separatism in Gagauzia and receiving illegal financial support from and maintaining ties to fugitive oligarch Ilan Shor and Russia, thus constituting a threat to Moldova's security, stability and democracy.

Criminal case

In January 2022, a criminal prosecution was launched. The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office of Moldova brought charges against Guțul for receiving and smuggling money from Russia to finance the now banned in Moldova pro-Russian Shor party. According to the investigation, in 2019 - 2022, Guțul, while working as a secretary in the “Shor” party, systematically imported into Moldova money received from an organized criminal group from Russia. Subsequently, this money was integrated into the party's activities in order to support its activity in the Moldovan political arena. There is another accusation, according to which Guțul, as an accomplice, in the period from October to November 2022, coordinated the activity of some territorial branches of the former party “Shor” in the districts of the Republic of Moldova. She was responsible for verifying, approving lists and remunerating protesters in front of state institutions in Chișinău - Parliament, Government, Presidency, Prosecutor General's Office, etc. (at the same time, the actions were organized by a party declared unconstitutional in the country). Thus, she knowingly accepted funding for the political party from an organized criminal group for a total amount of about 42.5 million lei (converted into more than 2.2 million euros).

On 24 April 2024, the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office of Moldova announced that it had completed the investigation and submitted the case against Guțul to the court. The hearing of the case has already been postponed several times, the accused was unable to attend the court session for health reasons. If proven guilty, Guțul faces imprisonment from 2 to 7 years with a ban on holding public office.

Court hearings are held four times a week in Chișinău, requiring Guțul to travel from Gagauzia, significantly limiting her ability to fulfill her duties as regional governor. Her lawyers argue that this frequent scheduling is part of a broader destabilization effort by prosecutors.

The court has repeatedly denied requests for video recording of the proceedings, restricting public oversight of the case. Guțul has criticized the hearings, stating that lengthy sessions — up to two hours at a time—are spent reviewing low-quality video evidence in which both visuals and audio are unclear, making it difficult to establish relevance to the charges.

On March 12, 2025, the 60th hearing on the case took place, to which the Prosecutor of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office again did not appear, but petitioned in writing that Guțul’s evidence not be accepted in court.

Escalation of legal battles

On 25 March 2025, Guțul was detained at Chișinău International Airport as she prepared to depart for Istanbul to attend an event hosted by the Global Journalism Council. The arrest marked a dramatic escalation in her ongoing conflict with Moldova’s central authorities, led by President Maia Sandu and the pro-European Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS). Moldovan police held her for an initial 72-hour period without immediate charges, a move Guțul’s legal team decried as unlawful. Subsequently, the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office accused her of illegal financing of her 2023 gubernatorial campaign. Guțul has firmly denied these charges, labeling them as politically motivated attacks on Gagauzia's autonomy.

On March 26, the People's Assembly (Parliament) of Gagauzia issued an emergency statement condemning the detention of Guțul. The deputies called the incident a politically motivated persecution aimed at weakening the region's autonomy, and demanded the immediate release of the head of Gagauzia.

On 28 March 2025, the Ciocana District Court in Chișinău ordered Guțul’s pre-trial detention for 20 days, rejecting defense arguments that the prosecution lacked concrete evidence and was driven by political vendetta.

Guțul was transferred to Prison 13 in Chișinău, a facility notorious for overcrowding, unsanitary conditions, and human rights violations, as documented by international organizations.

Critics, including Gagauz officials and human rights advocates, condemned the decision to place her in such a facility — rather than the National Anticorruption Center’s own detention center — as a deliberate act of humiliation. Guțul herself labeled the proceedings a “legal absurdity” and an attack on Gagauzia’s autonomy, a sentiment amplified by her supporters who see her detention as emblematic of Chișinău’s broader campaign to suppress regional dissent.

On April 9, 2025, a court in Chișinău changed the detention measure from pre-trial detention to house arrest for 30 days.

Historical context of Gagauz resistance

The legal actions against Guțul reflect a deeper historical rift between Gagauzia and Moldova’s central government, rooted in the region’s cultural and economic orientation toward Russia. Since gaining autonomy in 1994, Gagauzia — a predominantly Turkic, Orthodox Christian region of 140,000 people — has maintained strong ties with Moscow, viewing these connections as vital to its economic survival and cultural identity. This orientation has repeatedly clashed with Chișinău’s pro-European trajectory. In a 2014 referendum, 97.23% of Gagauz voters rejected Moldova’s EU integration, while 98.47% endorsed joining the Customs Union of Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan. This sentiment persisted into the 2024 EU membership referendum, where 94.84% of Gagauz voters opposed EU accession, and only 2.26% supported Sandu in the concurrent presidential election — stark evidence of the region’s rejection of her administration’s policies.

Protests in Gagauzia and beyond

Guțul’s arrest ignited widespread unrest, underscoring the profound divide between Gagauzia and Chișinău. In Gagauzia, mass protests broke out across Comrat, Ceadîr-Lunga, Vulcănești and every little villages, with thousands of residents waving Gagauz flags and denouncing Sandu’s government as authoritarian. Demonstrators accused the PAS of weaponizing the judiciary to dismantle Gagauzia’s autonomy and silence its elected leader. In Chișinău, supporters rallied outside the courthouse for days, with some protests turning violent, resulting in clashes with police and fines for over 60 participants in related Comrat demonstrations.

On 27 March and 30 March 2025, a large protests unfolded outside the Moldovan Embassy in Moscow, where the Gagauz and Moldovan diasporas demonstrators condemned Guțul’s detention as an assault on democratic principles and Gagauz rights.

On April 16, 2025, approximately 5,000 residents gathered in Comrat, the capital of Gagauzia, for a mass rally in support of Evgenia Gutsul, protesting her house arrest and perceived pressure from Moldovan authorities. The demonstrators, including local parliament deputies and government members, adopted a resolution demanding Gutsul’s release and the restoration of Gagauzia’s autonomous rights.

The international reaction underscored Gagauzia’s historical dependence on external backing, particularly from Russia and Turkey, both of which have maintained close ties with the region. Turkish media portrayed the arrest as an attack on democracy and civil liberties, raising concerns about Moldova’s political stability and the potential erosion of the Gagauz people’s cultural autonomy. These reports also emphasized Turkey’s long-standing support for Gagauzia.

Russia condemned the arrest, with presidential spokesperson Dmitry Peskov calling it a breach of democratic norms and an act of political pressure against pro-Russian figures in Moldova. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova alleged that the case was part of a broader crackdown on dissent ahead of Moldova’s parliamentary elections.

The United Nations (UN) is monitoring the situation with the arrest and stresses the need to respect legal procedure and the rule of law.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gutul, Evghenia
1986 births
Living people
People from Gagauzia
Moldovan politicians of Gagauz descent
Moldovan individuals subject to European Union sanctions
21st-century Moldovan women politicians
21st-century Moldovan politicians