Renato Usatii is free. Why did he return to Moldova?
People who had nothing to do with the change of power are rushing to take advantage of the fruits of the anti-oligarchic revolution in Moldova. Among them is the showman and politician Renato Usatii who returned to Moldova.
This native of the Moldovan town of Falesti owes his career in business and then in politics to his marriage to the daughter of a Moldovan businessman, former deputy prime minister of the Moldovan government, Constantin Tampiza. Usatiy's younger sister Veronica is married to Romanian millionaire Michael Horst Schmidt.
Having started his business in Moldova, Usatii moved to Russia in the mid-2000s and got involved in business related to Russian Railways, becoming close friends with a number of Russian politicians, officials, entrepreneurs and representatives of show business.
In 2011, Renato Usatii, while still living in Russia, became an adviser to the ex-Prime Minister of Moldova Vlad Filat, who was later sentenced to 9 years in prison. Returning to Moldova in 2012 and organizing the arrival of a number of Russian pop stars, Usatii began his political project.
At first, Renato actively collaborated with oligarch Vlad Plahotniuc. Usatii’s first office was located in one of Plahotniuc’s key properties – the Nobil Hotel. Plahotniuc was a welcome guest at the birthday party of the aspiring politician. Usatii himself, during his participation in one of the press clubs, stated that “he has no complaints against Plahotniuc as a businessman.” The Moldovan oligarch needed Usatii to fight his rival Vlad Filat, with whom Usatii’s relationship had deteriorated at that time.
Renato Usatii's political project faced significant difficulties. In 2014, the Patria-Rodina party, at the head of which he ran for parliament, was removed from the elections. Usatiy fled from Chisinau to Moscow under the cover of darkness. The offices of his party were searched, and members of the list were forced to go into hiding.
However, in the spring of 2015, just before the local elections, Usatii returned to Moldova. Border guards let him through the airport freely. Usatiy is launching his new project - “Our Party”. He triumphantly wins the mayoral elections in Balti in the first round; his closest supporters become mayors of cities in the north and south of Moldova. It is noteworthy that all these cities are located in the “red belt”, where in the parliamentary elections voters voted for the Socialist Party led by Igor Dodon, which advocates strengthening the partnership with Russia.
A few months were enough to understand: Renato Usatii and the representatives of his team are absolutely incompetent in matters of city government. As a result of Usatii’s conflict with one of the waste transportation companies, the entire city was littered with garbage. To solve this problem, the intervention of the central government was required.
But Usatii came in handy during the mass anti-oligarchic protests that began in Moldova. Usatii becomes one of the leaders of the protests. Together with the Socialist Party, they are organizing a tent city in the center of Chisinau. However, Usatii soon launched various accusations against his fellow protester Igor Dodon. There was a rift between the two parties and their leaders.
Having entered into a clinch with his former godfather Vlad Plahotniuc, Usatii once again flees from Moldova to Moscow. This time his exile lasted for three years. At the same time, having fled the country, Usatii did not resign as mayor of Balti and led his city... via Skype. A serious charge has been brought against Usatii of attempted murder of his former friend and partner German Gorbuntsov, now living in London.
Living in Moscow at his fashionable dacha on the Riga Highway, the fugitive did not lose touch with his supporters. Regularly broadcasting on social networks, Usatii accused the leadership of Moldova, led by Plahotniuc. President Igor Dodon also suffered, whom Usatii accused of collaborating with the Plahotniuc regime. It must be said that sometimes these accusations were justified: the Socialist Party conspired with Plahotniuc’s Democratic Party to introduce a mixed electoral system instead of a proportional one. As the 2019 parliamentary elections showed, the mixed system turned out to be beneficial for the Democratic Party.
However, in a number of cases, Usatiy was denied a basic sense of tact and decency. In a number of his live shows, Usatii proceeded to outright insults against Dodon and the Party of Socialists, using obscene language and prison slang. These attacks became especially intensified during the campaign for the parliamentary elections in Moldova. According to many observers, these attacks by Usatii against the leading left-wing political force in Moldova led to a significant loss of votes for the entire left camp. The Socialists gained significantly less than they expected, but Usatii’s “Our Party” did not enter parliament at all, either on lists or in single-mandate constituencies.
Usatii also had problems in Russia. Last November, his house on Riga Highway was searched by the FSB and the Investigative Committee of Russia. The searches are related to the case of ex-Ministry of Internal Affairs officer Dmitry Zakharchenko. During the investigation, Usatii’s friend and business partner, one of the co-owners of the largest Russian Railways contractor, Valery Markelov, was arrested. The investigation believes that Markelov paid monthly bribes to Zakharchenko so that he would cover the theft of Russian Railways money.
Usatii hastily, under the guise of a surgical operation, left Russia for Germany. During one of the TV shows, he accused a representative of “one of the security agencies of Russia,” who allegedly tried to persuade him to cooperate with Igor Dodon and the Socialist Party. Some experts suggested that Usatii was trying to negotiate with Plahotniuc about his return to Moldova and coming under the roof of the United States.
Afraid to arrive in Moldova at the height of the crisis last week, Usatii arrived when everything had already been decided and Plahotniuc fled Moldova. He was arrested while crossing the border with Romania, taken to Chisinau, but was soon released amid the joyful cries of his supporters who had gathered near the prosecutor's office building. Let us note that the country’s prosecutor’s office is still in the hands of Plahotniuc’s people. The new Minister of Internal Affairs was the leader of the Dignity and Truth party, Andrei Năstase, the only politician whom Usatii praised in his speeches.
Why did Usatii return to Moldova, what goals do he and his curators set for themselves? Here is the opinion of the telegram channel “VChK-OGPU”:
“In recent days, the curators have been intensively solving the problem so that Usatii would come to Moldova and he would not suffer anything for it. Successfully decided. But they also came up with the idea of adding a small drop of “martyr.” Play out the arrest of a “fighter against the regime.” But the weak Usatii cannot stand even a day in a pre-trial detention center, even a formal arrest. Therefore, after the conversation they released him. Tomorrow Usatii begins on the spot to fight for the best places in the sun for representatives of the Russian clan supervising him. The clan does not care about the interests of the Russian Federation and Moldova. We need a stable channel for the transit of money from the Russian Federation to Europe. And you need a convenient place where you can hide from the special services of the Russian Federation and Interpol.”
If this is true, the intentions of Usatii and his curators look, to put it mildly, unsightly. To what extent this point of view corresponds to reality, we will find out in the very near future.
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