Moldovan Democrats' leader says Russia's pressures start after Chisinau authorities began investigations on Laundromat

Chisinau, 23 January /MOLDPRES/ - Great pressures, including the opening of a file against me, as well as colleagues, and requests at Interpol started after the Moldovan authorities had began investigations on the case of the Russian Laundromat. The leader of the Democratic Party of Moldova, (PDM), Vlad Plahotniuc, has made statements to this effect in an interview.

According to Plahotniuc, when the authorities undertook concrete actions as regards the people involved in this case and when this subject became famous internationally, the pressures started. “Certain persons from Russia, directly interested in this case, attempted to prompt the governance of Moldova to intervene to block this investigation. There were also quite direct pressures on some lawmakers when the laws on tightening the security of the banking system were voted, as this meant the blocking of the work of groupings from Russia which used our banking system on illicit purposes. The pressures were boosted also after the anti-propaganda law, as well as other initiatives had been brought for discussion,” the PDM leader said.   

Plahotniuc noted that Russia last year had submitted over 20 demands to Interpol. “You see how much imagination they needed to invest so many different deeds. A charge did not work; they looked for another one and so on, until they saw that Interpol was keeping rejecting them, on grounds that they are actions of political harassment. Afterwards, they got those court rulings, hoping that they will be more convincing at Interpol, and these ones were also turned down for the same reason. There are also other colleagues, from government or parliament, who were concerned in such actions of political harassment, some of them also, with a lot of demands sent to Interpol.”  

Vlad Plahotniuc denied information published in media, alleging that the files opened by the Russian authorities are nothing but personal settlings of accounts. “I, before being the leader of the Democratic Party and coordinating the political activity of the Coalition, had no conflicts with those from Russia. On the contrary, we had a balanced relation, even if some people falsely accused me of trying to get Moldova out of the pro-European way, in partnership with the Russians. Presently, everybody can judge according to my actions and understand how false those charges were. And if you want to have a better clarity as to what disguised media instruments Moscow has been recently working with, I recommend that you analyze which are the two so-called pro-European televisions which they use. These are televisions which, on the one hand, demand European financing, on the other hand, they work in these schemes of political harassment, carried out by the Russian intelligence services. I think that the electoral year will bring us more clarity also as to some persons who work in the interest of these services. They harder and harder hide they activities, the ears are already seen,” Plahotniuc added.     

(Reporter A. Zara, editor A. Raileanu)