Former deputy prime minister and ex-ambassador of the Republic of Moldova, detained for abuse of office together with a former deputy, close to Plahotniuc
The former Deputy Prime Minister for Reintegration in the governments of Filat, Gaburici and Strelet, Victor Osipov, was detained on Tuesday, March 24, being suspected of abuse of office. In the same case, the Moldovan prosecutors also detained a close relative of Vladimir Plahotniuc.
Osipov was deputy prime minister of the Republic of Moldova.
The information was confirmed for the Moldovan publication Ziarul de Gardă by the Prosecutor's Office for Combating Organized Crime and Special Cases (PCCOCS).
The detention took place in the same file in which Vladimir Andronachi was also targeted
Osipov's detention comes on the same day that PCCOCS prosecutors detained Vladimir Andronachi, a former PDM deputy and close associate of Vladimir Plahotniuc.
Andronachi is targeted in a file related to the creation and management of a criminal organization.
“In addition to the former deputy of the Legislature who ended his mandate in 2019, the PCCOCS prosecutors detained in the same file a former deputy prime minister from the same period, charged with abuse of office”said the representatives of the institution.
Osipov was picked up by prosecutors at around 19:00 and later taken to the Temporary Detention Center of the Police Directorate.
Who is Victor Osipov?
In 2005, Victor Osipov became an advisor to the “Our Moldova Noastra” Alliance parliamentary faction, a position he held until 2009, the quoted source says.
In the parliamentary elections of April 2009, he obtained a deputy mandate on the lists of the same formation. In the autumn of the same year, by presidential decree, he was appointed deputy prime minister of the Republic of Moldova, responsible for the field of reintegration. At the AMN congress in December 2009, Osipov was elected first vice-president of the party.
He ran again in the parliamentary elections of 2010, occupying the second position on the AMN list, but the formation did not manage to cross the electoral threshold. On March 9, 2011, Osipov announced his retirement from political activity and from the position of first vice-president of AMN, and a month later the party merged with PLDM.
In the period 2009–2011, Osipov held the position of Deputy Minister for Reintegration in the Filat Government. Later, in 2014, he was appointed manager of the Democratic Party's electoral campaign for that year's parliamentary elections. Between February 2015 and 2016, he again held the position of deputy prime minister, in the governments led by Chiril Gaburici and Valeriu Strelet.
In March 2015, Osipov was appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Moldova in Austria, a mandate he held until February 12 this year.
