CHISINAU (Reuters) – The detained pro-Russian leader of Moldova’s Gagauz ethnic minority was transferred to house arrest for 30 days on Wednesday, Moldovan media outlet Newsmaker reported.
The minority leader, Eugenia Gutul, had been held in a Chisinau prison after being detained on March 25 on suspicion of electoral fraud. She has denied wrongdoing.
Gagauzia, a region of 140,000 people in Moldova’s south, is dominated by ethnic Turks who favour close ties with Russia, adhere to Orthodox Christianity and have had uneasy relations with central authorities since Moldovan independence in 1991.
Moldova, a small eastern European nation of 2.5 million, is led by President Maia Sandu, who is committed to joining the European Union by 2030 and has taken a sharp anti-Russian stance since Moscow invaded neighbouring Ukraine in 2022.
(Reporting by Alexander Tanas in Chisinau and Max Hunder in Kyiv; editing by Mark Heinrich)
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