Evghenia Guțul

Evghenia Guțul
Evgeniya Guțul
Guțul in 2024
Governor of Gagauzia
Assumed office
19 July 2023
Preceded byIrina Vlah
Personal details
Born (1986-09-05) 5 September 1986 (age 37)
Etulia, Moldavian SSR, Soviet Union
(now Gagauzia, Moldova)
Political partyȘor Party[1]
(2018–2023)
Independent[2]
(before 2018 and after 2023)

Evghenia Guțul (born 5 September 1986; Gagauz: Evgeniya Guțul[3]), also rendered Yevgenia Gutsul (Russian: Евгения Гуцул)[4][5] and Eugenia Guțul,[6][7] is a Moldovan Gagauzian jurist and politician, who has served as Governor of Gagauzia since 19 July 2023.

As Governor, she has sought to have closer relations with Russia. Following her party's banning by Moldovan authorities, she is an independent.[2]

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.[8] Guțul's maiden name is Buiucli.[9] She is married and has two children, and continues to maintain Etulia as her permanent place of residence.[8]

Prior to her 2023 election, Guțul had no significant political background. 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. Gutsul only entered politics when she worked as a secretary for her local Shor branch in 2018.[10]

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.[1] 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 Mikhailov,[1] as well as Leonid Slutsky, the leader of the Russian ultra-nationalist LDPR.[10]

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.[1][11] In her victory speech, Guțul affirmed her intention to align the region closer with Russia.[11] Following the banning of Șor on June 19, 2023, Guțul announced that she would take office and govern Gagauzia as a political independent.[2]

Guțul assumed the position of governor on 19 July 2023.[12]

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.[10]

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.[10]

Evghenia Guțul with Russian president Vladimir Putin in 2024

On March 13, Guțul announced that she was organizing a meeting with the notable Russophiles of Moldova, namely Igor Dodon, Vladimir Voronin, Ilan Shor, and the leadership of the Moldovan Revival Party. This quadrumvir of Dodon, Guțul, Shor, and Voronin, are, at the behest of the Russian government, 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.[10]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Carasiucenco, Georgeta (15 May 2023). "Cine este bașcanul Găgăuziei și ce promisiuni a făcut". www.moldova.org (in Romanian). Retrieved 15 May 2023.
  2. ^ a b c "Găgăuzia nu mai are guvernator de la Șor: Evghenia Guțul va fi bașcan independent". stiripesurse.ro. Retrieved 20 June 2023.
  3. ^ "Gagauziya Başkanı Evgeniya Guțul TDBB Administrativ nasaatın oruşunda pay aldı". gagauzia.md (in Gagauz). 23 October 2023.
  4. ^ "Pro-Russian regional leader in Moldova seeks closer ties with Moscow". Reuters. 2023-05-15. Retrieved 2023-05-17.
  5. ^ ""We will be friends with Russia." Yevgenia Gutsul has become the new leader of Gagauzia". The Eastern Herald. 2023-05-15. Retrieved 2023-05-17.
  6. ^ "Date preliminare: Eugenia Guțul a câștigat alegerile bașcanului". stiri.md. Retrieved 2024-04-22.
  7. ^ "DOC. Deși se află în arest la domiciliu, Marina Tauber a fost înregistrată ca reprezentant oficial al candidatului Eugenia Guțul la alegerile pentru funcția de bașcan în UTA Găgăuziei". TVR Moldova (in Romanian). Retrieved 2024-04-22.
  8. ^ a b Conovali, Mihaela (15 May 2023). "(DOC) Cine este și ce avere declară Evghenia Guțul, câștigătoarea alegerilor din Găgăuzia, potrivit rezultatelor preliminare" (in Romanian). NewsMaker. Retrieved 15 May 2023.
  9. ^ https://nokta.md/kandidatka-v-bashkany-gagauzii-evgeniya-gutsul-biografiya-podarki-na-tysyachi-evro-i-samaya-dorogaya-predvybornaya-kampaniya/
  10. ^ a b c d e Bailey, Riley; Harward, Christina; Wolkov, Nicole; Hird, Karolina; Kagan, Frederick W. "Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, March 13, 2024". Institute for the Study of War. Retrieved 14 March 2024.
  11. ^ a b "TASS: Evghenia Guțul vrea să deschidă reprezentanța Găgăuziei la Moscova". Realitatea.md (in Romanian). 15 May 2023. Retrieved 15 May 2023.
  12. ^ "Ce planuri are Irina Vlah după sfârșirea mandatului său: "Până pe 19 iulie îmi voi îndeplini atribuțiile de bașcan al Găgăuziei"" (in Romanian). TV8. Retrieved 2023-05-15.
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