Socialist Party of the Republic of Moldova
Founded: June 29, 1997 by former members of the Socialist Party of Moldova
On November 18, 2011 was created parliamentary group of the Socialists by three former Communist deputies Igor Dodon, Zinaida Greceanii and Veronica Abramciuc. Since November 23, 2011, Igor Dodon has officially become a member of the Socialist Party of the Republic of Moldova.
During 2009-2010, the PSRM refused to participate independently in three electoral campaigns for the parliamentary elections and supported the Communist Party of the Republic of Moldova. However, the party participated in the general local elections of 2011 refusing the PCRM political support.
In the same year, the PSRM youth team created – the “Young Guard”, a year later, in 2012, the veterans group and the Equity association.
During 2011-2016 the president of the political party was Igor Dodon, and after being elected as head of state, the interim leader of the PSRM was taken over by Zinaida Greceanii. On December 18, 2016, Greceanii was officially elected president of the PSRM. At present, the party has 13794 members, according to the data of the Central Election Commission. The figure is higher with one thousand people compared to 2017.
“Bătrîncea’s guard”
The founder of the “Young Guard”, and the non-governmental organization “Young people love Moldova” is the Socialist deputy Vlad Bătrîncea. The purpose of these organizations is to promote the image and politics of the PSRM among the youth and not only. The “young guard” organizes and actively participates in actions to promote pro-Russian values. It activates especially during the period of electoral campaigns and makes electoral agitation.
In January 2019 the young representatives of the party published an open letter accusing the founder of the “Young Guard” Vlad Bătrîncea of using high school and students as a cheap labor force, even during school hours.
The Socialist Group in Moscow
In the middle of April 2019, during the period when consultations on the creation of the parliamentary majority were held in Chisinau, the PSRM faction left for Moscow. The press service of the Parliament then stated that the visit is not organised by the legislature and will not be financed from budgetary sources. The PSRM announced late about this departure, but did not mention anything about the expenses, the travel period and the visit schedule. Such departures to Moscow of PSRM members are not unique.
Over two million lei for the rent of offices
The Socialist Party has 45 offices rented (according to the report for the year 2018, presented to the CEC). The maintenance of the spaces costs over two million lei. The headquarters of the PSRM is located on 25 Serghei Lazo street. According to the data of the cadastral service of Chisinau municipality, the building on this address belongs to the socialist deputy Alla Dolință, through a company that it represents. The building of over 800 square meters, estimated by the cadastre at a cost of six million lei, is owned by the Dolință family since October 2007, through the company “Foradex Plus”.
Where the money comes for PSRM: offshore business
Investigative journalists from rise.md have plotted a scheme through which PSRM receives money from offshore areas or from dubious characters. According to the investigation, the party would have benefited from sponsorship of millions of lei from secret businesses with an offshore company in the Bahamas, which has links with the Russian Federation. The company transferred over 30 million lei, and the money arrived in Moldova a few months before the presidential elections through the company “Exclusiv Media”, which belongs to the socialist deputy Corneliu Furculiță and is managed by another PSRM deputy Petru Burduja.
PSRM sponsors
Of the 30 million lei received from Westerby Limited and deposited for a short period of time on the Exclsuiv Media accounts, 20 million were raised from the bank by the administrator of the company Petru Burduja and, at the same time, based on the documents signed by Corneliu Furculiță’s wife, Ludmila.
Corneliu Furculiță, the owner of Exclusiv Media SRL, borrowed 6.5 million lei from his company based on 13 contracts of 500 thousand lei each. The documents were signed in April-May 2016. According to the wealth statement for 2015, the Furculiță family’s income was 25 times less than the amount borrowed from Exclusiv Media SRL for two months.
In addition to Furculiță, as a lender from Exclusiv Media SRL, deputy Vladimir Odnostalko is also included. According to the contact dated April 22, 2016, Odnostalko borrowed 500 thousand lei from the company. At the same time, in the last four years, he has donated to the party over 350 thousand lei.
The Socialist deputy Vasile Bolea, also known as the lawyer of the “Solution” joint venture of Igor Dodon, donated PSRM 184.5 thousand lei. His name is included in the loan agreement of April 11, 2016, through which he was to receive 500 thousand lei from Exclusiv Media SRL.
The name of CEC member Maxim Lebedinschi is included in the contact dated March 22, 2016. According to the document, Lebedinschi received 500 thousand lei from Furculiță’s company. The PSRM financial report presented to the CEC before the 2014 elections shows that Maxim Lebedinschi donated 188.1 thousand lei to the party.
The same IP addresses: the party’s connection with the media
According to the specialized sites and the online database nic.md, managed by the state-owned company MoldData, at IP 195.22.228.187 the domains of online television TSN (tsn.md), the newspaper Argumentî i Factî (aif.md), the web pages are connected of the PSRM (socialistii.md and psrm.md), the personal pages of Igor Dodon (dodon.md) and of the socialist deputy Bogdan Țîrdea (bogdantsirdea.eu), the “Young Guard” website, headed by the PSRM deputy Vlad Bătrîncea ( gardatinara.md) and the League of Humorists TVC Moldova, known as KVN Moldova (kvn.md).
Budget of over 17 million lei in 2018
The PSRM declared last year a budget of 17,592,613 lei, of which 7.5 million are state subsidies. The formation collected 3,980,861 lei from donations. Other than six million lei are the contributions paid by the party members. Most of the money, 4,572,179 lei were spent for the press and advertising materials.
The “unofficial” sponsors
In June 2019 Dodon discussed with the former president of the Democratic Party of Moldova, Vlad Plahotniuc, about the external financing of the PSRM and about the formation of the governing coalition. Dodon said that the Party of Socialists was funded by the Russian Federation. According to him, the band received monthly from Moscow, until April 2019, amounts ranging from 700 thousand to one million dollars.
In the video images published by the press, Igor Dodon asks Plahotniuc for money to finance the party. In another video, Dodon says he can reach an agreement with the Moscow authorities to close criminal cases on Plahotniuc’s behalf in exchange for signing the Moldovan federalization agreement. Dodon claims that he has already agreed with Vladimir Putin.
The declarations of wealth of the socialist deputies
22 out of 55 PSRM candidates in the national constituency have impressive assets. Many of them have houses and apartments. One of the most successful candidates on the PSRM lists is Vladimir Turcan, former deputy, current president of the Constitutional Court. In the statement presented to the CEC he indicated a house of 363.9 square meters costing 2.2 million lei, three apartments of 80, 94.5 and 103.5 square meters, valued at a price of 260, 400 and 662 thousands of lei. The Socialist owns two lands that cost 736 thousand lei. Vladimir Turcanu owns a Lexus car, bought in 2016 for 10 thousand euros. In the last two years, 575 thousand lei in salaries and pensions have reached the budget of the Turcanu family.
Alla Pilipețkaia is the president of the Soroca territorial organization of the PSRM and the director of the company Debut-Sor SRL, specialized in the production of salami. According to the statement, she owns a house of 372.5 square meters and five other buildings. Pilipețkaia also owns two plots of land. Together with her husband, who is the employee of the Soroca Police Inspectorate, Alla Pilipețkaia has earned in the last two years an income of 359 thousand lei and received another 63 thousand lei as a pension and compensation. At the same time, the family earned an income of 516 thousand lei as dividends from the company that Debut-Sor SRL founded.
In the declaration of wealth of the Socialist deputy Bogdan Țîrdea is indicated a plot of land, bought in 2017, on which is located a house of 93 square meters. Țîrdea belongs to 2/3 of the house. In 2014, the politician owned an apartment of 67 square meters. The total cost of the buildings owned by Țîrdea is almost one million lei. The deputy has two cars whose cost is 45 thousand euros.
http://ru.crimemoldova.com/news/politika/igor-dodon-oligarkh-za-sotsialisticheskoy-doktrinoy-/
http://crimemoldova.com/news/politika/rise-md-sediul-psrm-n-proprietatea-unor-offshore-uri/
https://ava.md/2019/01/30/skandal-v-psrm-molodaya-gvardiya-obvinyaet/
