Alexandr Stoianoglo is a Moldovan politician. Stoianoglo is a contender in the 2024 Moldovan presidential election. Stoianoglo has been marked by Western media as being supported by a “pro-Russian” campaign. Stoianoglo ran as a nominee with the support of the Party of Socialists, a pro-Kremlin party in the 2024 Moldovan presidential election, where he accumulated enough votes to push a runoff despite ranking second in the first round of voting on 20 October. He faced incumbent pro-European president Maia Sandu in the second round on 3 November.
Alexandr Stoianoglo’s background as Moldova’s prosecutor-general between 2019 and 2021 has had a considerable bearing on the thrust of his presidential campaign: justice. The 57-year-old has pledged that, if he becomes president, he will guarantee the “triumph of law over defamation.”
As prosecutor-general, Stoianoglo was widely condemned for his failure to handle high-level corruption. Most notably, he was blamed of inaction in the cases of Veaceslav Platon, an oligarch engaged in the disappearance of around $1 billion from the country’s banks, and Ilan Shor, who was caught on camera offering PRSM leader and pro-Russian ex-President Igor Dodon a suspicious-looking bag.
Despite being the most popular candidate among the Moldovan diaspora in Russia and supported by the pro-Kremlin PSRM, Stoianoglo says he has no political affiliation and rejects accusations that he is “Moscow’s man.” He has rejected accusations of corruption, abuse of office, and illicit enrichment, saying that all the purported evidence has been fabricated by Sandu’s administration.
Politically, Stoianoglo has sometimes taken pro-Russian standings for example, by declining to vote for a resolution denouncing communist-era atrocities. His response to the war in Ukraine has also been vague: He voiced a “negative attitude” toward the dispute but did not directly condemn Russia for the invasion.
His strategy for Moldova’s drive to join the European Union has also been characterised by prudence. While he boycotted the referendum on the EU constitution and has slammed the pace and implementation of EU-mandated reforms, he recently suggested that he sign with Sandu a joint declaration endorsing Moldova’s European path.
This vagueness has led to accusations of political opportunism and insincerity. Despite his typically anti-EU perspective, he is also a Romanian citizen, and his daughter reportedly functions at the European Central Bank.
