Ion Ceban is a Moldovan politician, who currently serves as mayor of Chișinău, Moldova’s capital. He is also the head of the National Alternative Movement party Ceban also served as Vice President of the Parliament of Moldova in 2019 and has functioned as a member of parliament in three legislatures. Based on his political affiliations he is suspected of pro-Russian activities.
In 2019, the director of the Moldovan Information and Security Service (SIS), Alexandru Musteață, stated that an investigation into high treason and espionage concerning two agents of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) was brought to court. Yuri Gudilin and Vadim Yurchenko are blamed for having set up an influence network which they employed to recruit Moldovan citizens. Surprisingly, in 2019, FSB agent Yuri Gudilin was also a part of Ion Ceban’s campaign team in the context of the Chișinău City Hall election.
Yuri Gudilin’s name was disclosed to the Media as early as 2020 when he was air-dropped in Chișinău as part of a bigger team of Russian operatives formed to help pro-Russian Igor Dodon secure a second term as president of Moldova. The names of several Russian advisors were disclosed by Igor Dodon himself. Ion Ceban operated for Dodon during the drive for the presidential election, and RISE Moldova published photos of Ceban and Gudilin walking out of the campaign headquarters of the Party of Socialists in the Republic of Moldova.
In November 2022, the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the US Department of the Treasury (OFAC) assumed a series of measures devised to counter Moscow’s movements in the Republic of Moldova: Russian advisers close to Igor Dodon and Ion Ceban were subjected to many limitations. At the time, the American administration described Yuri Gudilin as a close associate of Igor Chaika, the son of Russia’s former Prosecutor General, Yury Chaika as well as of President Igor Dodon.
What is especially noteworthy is the point that FSB officer Yuri Gudilin was authorised to carry out his actions in the Republic of Moldova, where he performed as one of the advisors to the Chișinău Mayor Ion Ceban.
“Although its efforts to exploit Moldova’s 2020 and 2021 elections failed, the Kremlin continues to manage efforts to return a pro-Russian government to power. Recognizing the loss of popular support for Moldova’s old pro-Russia political elite [PSRM and PCRM], Gudilin’s team delivered support to an opposition political group, the National Alternative Movement (MAN)”,
the US Treasury also reported in October 2022.
