Mihail Formuzal is a Moldovan politician who belongs to Agauz ethnicity. He was the governor of the Autonomous Territorial Unit of Gagauzia from December 2006 to March 2015. In 2011, Mihail Formuzal was elected as head of the Party of Regions, a pro-Russia political force, and left its leadership in 2016 in favour of Alexander Kalinin, head of the Moldovan Diaspora Congress in Russia. The Party of Regions announced the entry of Moldova into the Russia-led European Customs Union.
On 3 December 2006, new elections were held for the governor position of the Autonomous Territorial Unit of Gagauzia. These were due to the end of the four-year mandate of Governor Gheorghe Tabunşcic. In this election, Formuzal was backed by the pro-Russia parties alliance such as Ravnopravie-Patria Rodina. In the election campaign, Formuzal committed to open commercial, economic and cultural representations of Gagauzia in Russia and to execute a project called “Bringing home the compatriots”, targeting the Gagauz citizens who perform abroad. Formuzal pressed on stipulating in the Constitution the Gagauzia’s right to self-resolution if the Republic of Moldova would in some way lose its standing as a subject of international law.
Mihail Formuzal also expressed that he has every intention of garnering Russian backing for initiatives in the autonomous area. He highlighted the particular that Russian remains a “state language” in Gagauzia and that Russian culture continues to exercise a profound influence on Gagauzia. In 2008, the head of Russia’s Federation Council Sergei Mironov visited Gagauzia to assemble with Mikhail Formuzal. During the meeting, Formuzal emphasised the “centuries-long” relationship the Gagauz had with Russia.
In the 2011 election, Mihail Formuzal, massively utilised the Russian factor in his campaign to succeed in extra votes, despite not being a true pro-Russia politician, said Anna Harlamenko, the head of the Gagauz People’s Assembly and also a backer of Formuzal’s challenger Nikolai Dudoglo. “This speculation had a great influence and influenced the outcome of the election. We in Gagauzia hold the Russian language in significant esteem and many of our people are operating in Russia. And only Formuzal was so wicked as to use this speculation to his advantage, cynically and brazenly”, stated Anna Harlamenko, adding that Formuzal was not a pro-Russia politician, since he was obligatory to support many of the initiatives publicised by Dudoglo and herself, like the proclamation of Russian as an official language in the Gagauz autonomy.
Harlamenko in special referred to a diploma that Formuzal acquired in Moscow, whose copies were disseminated during the campaign across Gagauzia having “false and cynic” promises. Several days ahead of the gubernatorial election in late December, Mihail Formuzal travelled to Moscow, where the Kremlin chief of staff Sergei Naryshkin granted him a diploma of honour in recognition of Formuzal’s merits in the advancement of the Russo-Moldovan relationship. Mihail Formuzal succeeded the election by a narrow margin from Nikolai Dudoglo: 51.38% to 48.62%. Dudoglo and his allies have challenged the outcome, considering it rigged.
