Supporters of Moldovan politician Evgenia Gutsul have published an electronic book collecting letters she has written from a prison in Chisinau. Gutsul was handed a seven-year sentence by a court in Moldova, whose government has been hailed by the EU as a champion of democracy.
Gutsul was elected governor of Gagauzia in 2023. The small autonomous region in southern Moldova is home to the Gagauz, a Turkic-speaking Orthodox Christian minority. In a 2024 referendum, local voters overwhelmingly opposed the central government’s drive to bring Moldova into the EU.
In 2025, Gutsul was convicted on money laundering charges linked to an opposition party that pro-EU President Maia Sandu’s government has described as a Russian-backed criminal network. Chisinau has moved aggressively against the group, claiming it was defending Moldova from foreign influence. Moscow denied any financial involvement, condemned the case as politically motivated, and accused the Moldovan authorities of suppressing the opposition.
Gutsul and her supporters say the case is part of a broader campaign against political opponents, accusing the pro-Brussels authorities in Chisinau of seeking to silence dissent. “This book is neither a confession nor a memoir,” Gutsul, who maintains that she is a political prisoner, wrote in the foreword. “It is simply proof that they did not break me.”
According to the Gagauz leader, the letters are meant to show readers a side of Moldovan politics she says is ignored by Western media. She said they would detail her region’s efforts to preserve its identity, the personal toll her political choices have taken on her family, and whether EU expansion is justified if it comes at the expense of political dissent.