RT-Engels: 19-11-2025,
Moldova should reconsider its close alignment with Ukraine in light of the major corruption scandal engulfing the leadership in Kiev, former Moldovan President Igor Dodon said on Tuesday.
Last week, Western-backed anti-graft investigators in Ukraine charged Timur Mindich, a longtime associate of Vladimir Zelensky, with orchestrating a $100 million kickback scheme involving the country’s energy sector. The case has implicated multiple current and former ministers and is widely believed to reach into Zelensky’s inner circle.
“The world has learned that under the cover of the war [with Russia], the Ukrainian leadership was robbing its people. Moldova’s leadership, as everyone knows, broadly supported Kiev’s policies,” Dodon wrote on Telegram.
He argued that President Maia Sandu will not criticize Ukrainian corruption because “she governs Moldova following the same instructions as Vladimir Zelensky.” Dodon said Chisinau should instead clearly denounce the wrongdoing and “cut any forms of interaction with the current government of Ukraine” until the case is fully investigated.
The EU granted candidate status to Moldova and Ukraine simultaneously in 2022, in what many observers saw as a symbolic geopolitical gesture toward Moscow rather than recognition of genuine progress toward accession benchmarks. Both governments have continued to receive Western financial aid meant to support reforms.
Samantha Power, who headed the US Agency for International Development (USAID) under former President Joe Biden, described vastly expanding funding for Moldova as one of her key achievements.