Igor Dodon has been Moldova’s president for three years, while the Socialist Party, which he has led, is one of the biggest parliamentary formations for five years. During this period, neither Igor Dodon nor his wife, first lady Galina Dodon, made any purchases of movable or immovable property to register on their behalf.

However, along with the Socialist Party and Dodon’s evolution into politics, the President’s Men, beginning with the President’s brother, sister-in-law, godson and goddaughter, godparents, or faculty classmates of the presidential couple, have secured businesses and assets worth millions. The presidential family also benefits from many of these businesses. 

The political statements from television and election campaigns about fighting poverty and corruption were replaced by an amalgam of group interests. In addition to the political relations, the socialists around the president are linked to each other by chains of companies and economic advantages that, in the end, all meet at one common point-the President’s family.

On December 23, 2016, Igor Dodon became Moldova’s President. On the same day, the State Security and Protection Service employed two persons, Serghei Juncu and Lilian Filipov, to ensure the safety of the newly appointed head of state.

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Before reaching the president’s State Security Service, Juncu worked as a security guard at a private security company, and Filipov was a lawyer at another company.

The President’s godson and the brother of his godmother – in the State Security Service

Sergiu Juncu has previously worked in the State Security and Protection Service, returning to the institution when Igor Dodon took the office. Juncu is also the brother of Ina Catană, the godmother of the presidential couple Igor and Galina Dodon.

The president has close personal relations with the other security officer, also paid for by public money, the presidential couple are the godparents of Lilian Filipov and his wife.

However, the relations between the families of the two, but also the relations between the Filipov family and the Socialist Party, are much closer. Vadim Filipov, Lilian’s brother, is a member of the Central Election Commission (CEC), delegated by the Socialist Party in 2017.

Lilian’s father, Grigore Filipov, is the president of the Dubăsari district, a city in the breakaway Transnistrian region being elected to this position in November 2019, also from the Socialist Party.

A few months before entering in the State Security Service, Lilian Filipov purchased, from Barcom company, managed by the family of the socialist deputy Alla Dolință, an apartment of 129.5 square meters on Columna street, downtown Chișinău.

As of 2019, Lilian and Diana Filipov couple have a car that costs over 61,000 euros, a Volvo XC 90, manufactured in 2019 and purchased in lease, until 2021. From 2016, the Filipov family also owns a Skoda Superb, manufactured in the same year. They also have a loan contracted from Victoriabank, worth around 20,800 euros (400,000 lei). 

The undeclared business of the president’s godson

Aside from being a State Security officer, Filipov is also a businessman. According to the Public Services Agency information Filipov is a founder of two companies and a member of the Board of Directors of a Joint Stock Company, which he did not indicate in any of his declarations of assets and interests filed at the request of the National Integrity Authority in the period 2016-2018. 

Lilian Filipov owns 50 percent of the share capital of Real Estim company, dealing with activities in the real estate field. Filipov’s partner in this business is Petru Burduja, another key person close to the Socialist Party. The company is managed by Petru Burduja’s son who is also a Socialist Party deputy. 

Who is Filipov’s business partner

Lilian Filipov is associated with a 50 percent stake in Tom-Min Grup company, which tried in 2013-2014, to obtain contracts with state institutions, selling cleaning products, but, in recent years, it has refused to participate in the tenders.

Lilian Filipov’s partner in this business is a relative of his family, Andrei Minciuc, who since 2016 manages Water Group company, which produces and markets drinking water Aqua de luxe.

In the last three years, the company has won three tenders worth around 20,000 euros (379,000 lei) for supplying the Parliament with purified drinking water. 

The Filipov-Teterea relation

Filipov is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Avicola Gallinula company, located in Gura Galbenei village, Călărași district, central part of Moldova. The official share capital of the company is more than 200,000 euros (4.4 million lei) and in 2012, the last year in which data on sales revenues were published, it reported revenues of around 500,000 euros (11.3 million lei).

The company was managed, for several years by Oleg Teterea, a socialist deputy. Now the factory is managed by Oleg’s son Boris Teterea, who before becoming the factory’s manager was an assistant to a socialist deputy in the previous parliament.

The families of Lilian Filipov and Oleg Teterea are relatives, both coming from the left bank of the Nistru river.

The president’s friend and a 500,000 euros loan

Oleg Tetera, currently a deputy is also an old friend of the president.  

ZdG previously wrote that Oleg Teterea was one of the owners of Hunter Elit Club. In 2008 the company managed to lease 168.7 ha of forests in Călărași, Bravicea Forest, with annual fees of only 16 euros (315 lei) per hectare. Dodon, who is known for his passion for hunting, was the Minister of Economy, at that time. 

In 2013, the Superior Council of Justice ordered the termination of the lease between Moldsilva, the central administrative authority in forestry and Hunter Elit Club.

The company Hunter Elit Club, was founded in 2008 by Oleg Teterea and Ghenadie Merineanu, the president’s brother-in-law. The company has been in dispute for several years with the Canned Food Factory in Călărași, led by Mihail Vlădicescu, another relative of the president. Hunter Elit Club, which owns 5.7 percent of the shares of the Canned Food Factory in the process of insolvency, sued the company for a debt of about 500,000 euros (10 million lei), which, meanwhile, increased. 

The representatives of the company motivated the request to sue because in August 2008, the Canned Food Factory in Călărași loaned, for a period of two years, about 500,000 euros from Oleg Teterea.

Subsequently, on April 12, 2010, Teterea, through a contract of assignment of the debts, ceded the debt to the Hunter Elit Club, which then went to court to recover its money.

In the process, Hunter Elit Club was represented, by Maxim Lebedinschi, the current secretary of the Central Electoral Commission, who was named by the Socialist Party. The process has no end yet.

In addition to Hunter Elit Club, Alina Boțoc, a faculty colleague with Galina Dodon and a relative of the presidential family, owns 32.07 percent of the shares of the Canned Food Factory in Călărași. 

Boțoc is also the owner of 18.29 percent of the shares of Proura Vin also in Călărași, the center of Moldova. Alina Boțoc is the head of the Investment Projects Directorate within the Public Property Agency. 

The documents consulted by ZdG show that during 2010-2013, Ghenadie Merineanu, Galina Dodon’s brother was the one in charge of managing Hunter Elit Club.

In 2013, the owner and administrator became Veaceslav Anghel, Igor Dodon’s villager. Anghel was also the Socialist Party’s candidate for the position of mayor of Strășeni. He officially manages Consacces company, with activities in the field of construction. At the same time, he is also a lawyer at Exclusiv Media, the only job from which he had, in 2018, official income. 

The properties of the brother-in-law of President

Ghenadie Merineanu, the president’s brother-in-law doesn’t hold the status of founder or administrator of companies on Moldova’s territory today. He previously managed the Hunter Elit Club and the renovation work of the Sadova, center of Moldova, camp. Merineanu owns a residential house in Ciorescu commune, a suburb of the capital, put into operation in 2016, but also a 138 square meters apartment on Sfatul Țării street, center of Chișinău, obtained in 2009. In 2017, Merineanu sold another apartment for sale of 42 square meters, located on Grigore Vieru Boulevard, downtown Chisinău, which he has owned since 2000.

Socialist deputy, a relative of the president’s friend

In addition to the poultry factory and the links with Hunter Elit Club, Oleg Teterea officially owns 90 percent of the Tedar Investment company which had until September 2019 the name of Tedar-Auto, dealing with car repairings.

Teterea’s partner in this business is his sister-in-law, Alla Darovannaia. Larisa Teterea, Oleg Teterea’s wife, has been, for many years, deputy chief accountant at Victoriabank.

Ala Darovannaia became a member of the Socialist Party lists following the February 2019 parliamentary elections.

Andrei Stețco, the husband of Ala Darovannaia’s daughter is also part of the Board of Directors of Avicola Gallinula. The Steţco family manages several businesses in Moldova in the field of tableware and bedding.

Oleg and Larisa Teterea are the godparents of Andrei and Cristina Stețco couple. 

Deputy Alla Darovannaia, Oleg Teterea’s sister-in-law, also owns 50 percent of the share capital of the Export Invest company. The company deals with brokerage being registered in 2002.

Representatives of the Gura Galbenii village were the farm is located mentioned to ZdG that, in fact, Export Invest, whose founder was, formerly, Oleg Teterea, is the one who previously privatized the poultry farm and that the company now owns 91 percent of the Avicola shares. 

However, in recent years, the factory has not functioned at full capacity. Lately, the halls of the factory have been leased to another economic agent, but, even so, for several months, practically, there is no activity.

President’s godfather – 12 years financial director at Metalferos 

Darovannaia’s business partner in the Expert Invest company is Sergiu Catană, the godfather of the couple Igor and Galina Dodon.

Catană is the financial director of Metalferos, a state-owned company. Metalferos has been, in recent years, the target of several accusations of fraud of hundreds of millions of lei.

Sergiu Catană holds the chair of the financial director of Metalferos from 2007, when his godson, the current head of state, was Minister of Economy and was responsible for the company.

Catană kept his position regardless of the color of the government, even if new people came to the front of Metalferos.

The Dodon-Catană relation

Sergiu Catană and Igor Dodon met at the faculty. Catană studied at the Faculty of Economy, the specialty of accounting and auditing, colleagues with Igor Grigoriev, former head of the Public Property Agency.

Igor Dodon and Viorel Melnic studied during the same year and also lived in the same dormitory. Viorel Melnic is the former head of the Customs Service.

Melnic was a deputy elected following the parliamentary elections of February 2019, leaving the parliament immediately when the prosecutors carried out searches at several people suspected of being involved in the bank fraud.

Export Invest founded by Darovannaia and Catană, is, in its turn, one of the founders of the Universal Commodity Exchange of Moldova, an entity that was run, in 2002-2005, by Igor Dodon himself. 

Three penthouses and a house

The relationships between the Dodon, Teterea, and Catană families are not only business relations but also personal. All of them meet together in the evening after everyone finishes their work and comes home.

The Dodon family lives in a house on the ground, about which ZdG previously wrote. The Teterea and Catană families live near, in two penthouses located in two neighboring blocks of Onisifor Ghibu street, downtown Chișinau. 

Spouses Oleg and Larisa Teterea live in a five-room apartment with a surface of 165 square meters, located on the 10th floor. They have been investing in the apartment since April 2006, and in 2014 they registered it on their name.

The spouses Sergiu and Ina Catană live in the neighboring block, also on the 10th floor, also in a five-room apartment with an area of ​​164 square meters. They invested in the home in December 2006, and in 2010 they registered their property rights.

The President’s brother’s penthouse

In the same complex of blocks lives the president’s brother, Alexandru Dodon, and his wife, Ecaterina. The two spouses also live on the 10th floor, in the same block as the Catană spouses, also in a five-room penthouse. The only difference is that the home of the Dodon spouses is larger, 202 square meters.

The president’s brother started investing in this apartment in November 2006, and in November 2009 he registered the property. The president’s house, and the two blocks in which the Dodon, Catană and Teterea families live, were built by the same construction company Reconscivil. 

The headquarters of Galina Dodon’s charity foundation, Din Suflet, is also located in an apartment registered under the name Reconscivil.

In 2015, Sergei Juncu, the president’s security officer and the brother of the president’s godmother, bought a 78 square meters apartment also from Reconscivil.

The relation between the president’s brother and another socialist deputy

Alexandru Dodon is the president’s younger brother. He was, until 2010, deputy director of the Sanitary-Veterinary Agency, an entity headed at that time by the current socialist deputy Radu Mudreac, another man from the Dodon family, whose wealth has increased substantially in recent years. 

Mudreac completed, in 2018, the construction of a dwelling in Chișinău, and in 2015, the Gradioni company in which he owned a 50 percent share, built a shopping center near the Central Market in Chișinău.

Today, its share belongs to Kashalot & Cemir company registered in Romania owned by veterinarian Iurie Samson, one of the founders of the Vig-Vet company which owns a veterinary clinic in the capital. Samson is also one of the Socialist Party’s constant donors.

Radu Mudreac also owns a 103 square meters apartment, obtained in 2011 through a donation contract from his parents, who bought the house in 2009, when their son was head of the Sanitary-Veterinary Agency.

Alexandru Dodon was dismissed from the position of deputy director in 2010, in the same period in which Radu Mudreac was dismissed, for multiple serious violations, found according to an act from July 1, 2010, regarding the results of the evaluation of the sanitary-veterinary opinions of export/import, signed by him between January 12 and February 17, 2010. Although Alexandru Dodon appealed the lawsuit, the courts rejected his claims.

From politics – to business with the son of the Prosecutor General of Russia

In recent years, Alexandru came close to politics and more recently – with business. He was an unsuccessful candidate for mayor of Călărași, he was assistant to the deputy Mudreac, and in the last year, he launched, vertiginously, in business. 

First, on July 18, 2019, Alexandru Dodon obtains a 15 percent stake in the Arhpley Development company, registered in Moscow. The company was founded a few years ago, and one of the owners is Igor Chaika, the millionaire son of Russia’s controversial Prosecutor General, Iurii Chaika.

According to the information on its website, the main activity of the company is real estate, including the construction of housing blocks in Moscow. 

On August 30, 2019, Alexandru Dodon partnered with Igor Chaika and another Russian company, became the owner of 10 percent of the shares of Promyshlenyi Ekologicheskii Operator company responsible for waste collection and processing

The brother’s partner, one of the sponsors of the foundation of the first lady

In February 2019, the Romanian Center for Investigative Journalism announced that, according to confidential documents, Chaika was, in 2017, one of the sponsors of the Din Suflet Foundation, managed by Galina Dodon.

Thus, on August 16, 2017, the bank account for euro opened at Victoriabank in Chișinău of the Din Suflet Foundation entered the amount of 70,000 euros, and the money was transferred from an account opened at Absolutbank in Moscow on Igor Chaika’s name. 

Shortly after that bank transfer, Igor Chaika was appointed business ambassador to Moldova and the breakaway Transnistrian region by Delovaya Rossiya, of which Chaika is co-president. He has been to Moldova several times during Dodon’s presidential term. 

The president’s brother launches into agriculture

In December 2019, Alexandru Dodon took the first step towards his official launch in business and on Moldova’s territory. It is included in the acts of the Public Services Agency as the sole founder of the Agrofactory company, having declared activities in agriculture.

The company is registered in Sadova, Dodon’s brothers birthplace, and has a share capital of around 500 euros (10,000 lei). The company is managed by Andrei Bîrcă. 

Alexandru Dodon started a business although, in his last declaration of assets and interests, from when he was a deputy assistant, he did not report that he would have financial sources to start or participate in business.

In 2016, the year his brother became president, officially, the family Alexandru and Ecaterina Dodon reported a cumulative income of only 6,000 euros (120,000 lei), money obtained by the two spouses only from wages. 

The president’s brother opened his agricultural business after, in 2014-2018, his mother, Galina Dodon bought several tens of agricultural land right at the entrance to Sadova, center of Moldova.

Today, there are several ponds on these lands, and recently the construction of a road has been initiated. 

Sadova Resort

In November 2016, ZdG wrote about the interests of those close to Igor Dodon at the Sadovo resort, located in an ecologically clean and picturesque area of ​​Codri, center of Moldova, about 3 km from the center of Sadova village, the native town of Igor Dodon.

In July 2015, Chester Business, a company registered in the United Kingdom purchased the property which covers an area of ​​over 11 ha. Specifically, the British company took over the Sadovo Resort, which owned the entire property, and Mihail Porubin, a close relative of President Dodon, was installed as administrator. 

On the eve of the 2016 presidential elections, the renovation of the resort was in progress. ZdG wrote that the manager was the president’s brother-in-law, Ghenadie Merineanu.

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In the meantime, the renovation of the rest base has been completed, and people in the village say that the head of the state is spending all his free weekends in this location. Although, officially, the manager of the company that owns the resort is Mihail Porubin, de facto, it is managed by a local. 

“He comes often (Igor Dodon). Usually on Friday evenings, with cars, with security, everything. He was last Friday. It is his property. In the village, everyone knows. There are people who make food. There are pigs, goats, more ”, says a person who lives near the road that leads to the camp. 

Filmed with the drone, the property looks expensive. There are several buildings, houses, a well-appointed lake, with a wooden cottage right on the bank, but also some sidewalks. At the camp’s entrance, a barrier is installed, with visible letters being announced that it is private property and access – prohibited.

The guards and workers who came after they saw that we were filming refused to give us the contact details of the person who manages the location. They were unhappy that we were filming and avoided answering questions about Igor Dodon’s connections with the camp. 

“I do not know who comes and who does not come. Why would I be interested in who comes and who does not come? ” The man who initially appeared as a guard, and later – owner told ZdG reporters. A few minutes after the discussion, another car arrived at the scene, in which there were two men who, likewise, did not want to discuss the owner of the camp. 

“At the resort, is an investor from Russia”

In 2016, when ZdG revealed that the president’s men are involved in repairs at the Sadova camp, Igor Dodon said that “at the resort is an investor from Russia, who decided to buy it after someone wanted to sell it a year or two ago. Further, who deals with … well, I recommended one-two persons … All questions to the foreign investor. He is an investor from Russia, if he wants to, he will go out and say. I can’t tell you,” the current president said. 

The documents related to the 2015 transaction show that the price paid by the company registered in the United Kingdom was around 79,000 euros (1.52 million lei), and in the negotiations were included the debts that the former owners had, in the amount of around 365,000 euros (7 million lei). The documents consulted by ZdG show that the English Chester Business company founded, in turn, by two companies from Belize, has as beneficiary Vadim Ciubara, the man behind a company in the Socialist Party-affiliated media domain. 

During the transaction, however, ZdG found that the English company was represented in Moldova by a Russian citizen, Iaroslav Țurcan. Only, that Russian citizen is from Dubăsari, he studied at Moldova State University and speaks Romanian.

Russian citizen is a Moldavan from Dubăsari and president of Din Suflet Foundation

Iaroslav Țurcan has held a Russian passport since 2013, and on social networks and in real life, he is a supporter of the Socialist Party and the presidential family.

In Moscow, where he lives, he is part of Vadim Ciubara’s close circle. Țurcan’s name also appears as president of the Din Suflet Foundation, founded and administered, in fact, by Galina Dodon.

However, Vadim Ciubara and Iaroslav Țurcan, Moldovan with Russian citizenship, are not the only links between the Sadova Resort and Igor Dodon.

The same documents consulted by ZdG show that, in a legal dispute in 2017, Sadovo Resort was represented by Vadim Filipov, brother of the president’s godson, based on a mandate issued on March 14, 2016.

President’s sister-in-law and the connection with the only manufacturer of disinfectants in the country

Ecaterina Dodon, the sister-in-law of the head of state worked during the period 2014-2017, as an administrator of Chemix Grupp, which is recommended as the only local producer of professional disinfectants of the trademark Chemix.

The company founded in 2008 now has as a co-owner Dinari Cojocaru, a labor councilor on the Socialist Party lists, also the godson of the Alexandru and Ecaterina Dodon couple.

In 2011-2014, the company obtained no less than 50 contracts with the state institutions (especially hospitals, but among clients being the National Bank of Moldova), worth over 78,000 euros (1.5 million lei).

According to the public information, the company has a production base on Muncești street, downtown Chisinău, and a warehouse on Uzinelor street in Chișinău.

It is registered by the National Agency for Food Safety as surveillance of veterinary pharmaceuticals and Fodder, a specialized area of ​​Alexandru Dodon.

In 2012, the company reported revenues from sales of around 119,000 euros (2.28 million lei).

The company’s history shows that Ecaterina Dodon held the position of administrator in 2014-2017, and until then she was employed as a specialist in personal service.

And her husband, Alexandru Dodon, was employed at that time within the company. At the same time, documents consulted by ZdG also show that Chemix Grupp arrived in the Dodon family entourage in 2010, being purchased from an Estonian company. In 2010-2014, one of its founders was even the current deputy Oleg Teterea, another close friend to the president.

The godson of the president’s brother and his assets

Dinari Cojocaru, the godson of Alexandru and Ecaterina Dodon, lives, like his godfather, but also like other president’s men, in an apartment built by the Reconscivil company. The house, with an area of ​​125 square meters, was bought by the spouses Dinari Cojocaru and Mariana Arapan in 2017, directly from the construction company. 

Cojocaru, with a residence visa in Călărași, the district where the two Dodon brothers were born and grew up, is a professional physician, municipal councilor on the Socialist Party lists and one of the most loyal Socialist Party donors.

In 2014, for example, Cojocaru contributed to the socialist budget with around 21,000 euros (407,500 lei), although it reported official incomes 10 times lower during the donation period.

In 2018, Dinari Cojocaru’s wife, Mariana Arapan, a family doctor, also entered the business. It owns 10 percent of the share capital of the Premium Trade Group company, having declared activities in the field of meat production and processing.

The municipal councilor Dinari Cojocaru does not indicate in the declarations of assets and interests the income of his wife, but also the company to which she is a founder.

Socialist TV stations

Igor Dodon took over the Socialist Party in December 2011. Over three years, the party gained access to Parliament, and over another two years, Igor Dodon won the presidential election and became Moldova’s president. In parallel with the political ascent, the socialists created a real media holding, managed, one by one, by the president’s men.

The Exclusive Media company was registered in October 2011, just a month before Igor Dodon, Zinaida Greceanîi and Ion Ceban left the Communist Party of Moldova. Initially, the company was in charge of managing the Russian-language newspaper Argumentî i fakî. Later, however, it developed or took over several media projects. 

From January 2016, Exclusiv Media creates and manages NTV Moldova, which broadcasts the TV station HTB from Russia also producing local shows. 

The exclusive properties of the company

After only one year, in January 2017, Exclusiv TV is launched, which broadcasts entertainment programs of the Russian TV station THT, as well as local shows. 

In September 2017, Exclusiv Media found another company, Exclusiv Sales House, which starts selling advertising for the television stations created by Exclusiv Media, as well as other social media affiliated institutions. In a short time, it becomes the second most important player in the advertising market, after Media House, affiliated with Vladimir Plahotniuc, managing tens of millions of lei.

In September 2019, Exclusiv Media also took over the company that owns the Russian-language newspaper Komsomolskaia Pravda Moldova.

In April 2015, a few months before the launch of the NTV Moldova station, Exclusiv Media bought from JLC, a company dealing with dairy products, a space of 369 square meters, located on Ion Neculce street, downtown Chișinău.

After two years, in April 2017, the company buys another space, adjacent, with an area of ​​120 square meters. At this address are the studios of NTV Moldova.

The members of the company that manages the media holding company

Exclusiv Media has never been officially owned by the Dodon family, even though Galina Dodon is, for many years, the one who manages, from the position of financial director, the financial operations of the company. In 2018, Galina Dodon obtained over 15,600 euros (300,000 lei) as salaries from Exclusiv Media.

However, the people around the presidential couple have always ruled Exclusive Media. Initially, founder and administrator was Veaceslav Anghel, Socialist Party member, originally from Sadova, also involved in the management of the Hunter Elit Club company. 

In the beginning, the company had the legal address in an apartment belonging to the spouses Corneliu and Ludmila Furculiță. Corneliu, like Veaceslav Anghel, is a relative of Igor Dodon.

Furculiță’s parents live modestly, in Sadova, being a family of former teachers. Corneliu became one of the president’s men while working at the Canned Food Factory in Călarași, managed by Igor Dodon’s comrades.

In 2015, Corneliu Furculiță officially took over the Exclusiv Media company, being registered as its owner in 2019. In 2015, as administrator of the company came Petru Burduja, another man close to the presidential couple.

The university colleague of the first lady

Burduja graduated from Moldova Agricultural University in 1999, the same year as Galina Dodon. Burduja obtained a diploma with the specialty of accounting and auditing along with Alina Boțoc, and Galina Merineanu Dodon, a diploma in management, together with the current Minister of Agriculture, Ion Perju, former adviser to President Dodon.

Petru Burduja was the head of Tracom during the period when Igor Dodon was Minister of Economy, and in 2010-2011 he was the financial director at the Canned Food Factory in Călărași, managed by the presidential couple’s comrades, Alina Boțoc, Oleg Teterea, and Mihail Vladicescu.

From June 2019, the administrator of the Exclusiv Media company became Ludmila Furculiță, the wife of the socialist deputy Corneliu Furculiță. 

Accent TV and The First in Moldova headquarters, purchased in 2018

The footprints of the president’s people are also found on the television stations Accent TV and The First in Moldova, which started, this year, to broadcast the programs of the Russian television station Pervîi Canal.

Accent TV and The First in Moldova are managed by Telesistem TV, which, since 2015, is the property of the Russian company Media Invest Service, founded and managed by a Moldovan citizen from Bălți, north of Moldova, Vadim Ciubara. The Russian company was registered in Moscow in March 2015 and has a registered capital of only 500 euros (10,000 Russian rubles). 

In December 2018, Vadim Ciubara purchased a non-residential space with an area of ​​777 square meters on Sciusev street in the center of Chișinău, where he operates the TV station The First in Moldova. Such space costs, at market prices, over half a million euros.

Documents regarding the registration of Telesistem TV show that it belonged, until 2015, to Volga Export, a Russian company, which bought it in 2013 for 30,000 euros, but sold it in 2015 to Vadim Ciubara with only approx. 170 euros (12,000 Russian rubles).

The same documents show that, since 2015, the Media Invest Service was represented in Moldova by Vadim Filipov, a member of the Central Electoral Commission designated by the Socialist Party, representative of other companies affiliated with the socialists. Filipov held a power of attorney and could make any decision in place of the owner, located in Moscow.

Ciubara’s company took over the company that manages ok.ru and mail.ru in Moldova

In November 2019, Media Invest Service, a Russian company founded by Vadim Ciubara, took over Media Contact company, which presents itself as the entity that manages the sites and social networks with the highest impact in Moldova.

Media Contact is the regional representative of Mail.Ru Group in Moldova. “We offer advertising services on the most popular sites in Moldova: Mail.ru, Odnoklassniki.ru, Мой Мир, VK, Noi.md, Unimedia,” is mentioned on the website of the Media Contact advertising house, recently taken over by Ciubara’s company.

The godchildren of the president’s godchildren and a ski slope in Switzerland

Apart from this company, Vadim Ciubara has no registered companies active in Russia. At the age of 39, Ciubara was one of the few close friends who accompanied, in 2017, Igor Dodon on Mount Athos.

In the last year he has tried to be discreet. He deleted his photos from social media or secured his accounts. However, ZdG found that Vadim and Natalia Ciubara are the godchildren of the Lilian and Diana Filipov couple, who are the godchildren of the Galina and Igor Dodon couple.

On a social network, Natalia Ciubara displays photos from several trips, some exotic. Most often she visits the Swiss city of Lugano, on the border with Italy, a city where her sister settled for a few years, married to a Swiss citizen and employed as administrator of a dental clinic.

Victor Moșneag