On January 16, 2020, ZdG published an investigative story regarding the president’s luxurious vacations, featuring vacations in exotic and expensive places he and his family made in the last 15 years while being a public servant with a modest salary.

On January 29, 2020, the mailman brought to ZdG’s newsroom an envelope containing a prior request signed by President Igor Dodon. 

According to the request, the head of the state is concerned about some of the statements from The President’s Luxurious Vacations. The president argues that the article spreads biased information, including images about his private and family life […], in order to harm his honor and dignity.

From the whole article, the president was mostly concerned about ZdG’s statements regarding the 2018 vacation, of the presidential family in Greece, the Pomegranate Wellness Spa Hotel, belonging to the family of former Russian General Prosecutor Chayka.

“In 2018, the presidential family spent their vacation in one of the most luxurious hotels in the Greek peninsula Halkidiki, Pomegranate Wellness Spa Hotel. The president would’ve been accommodated in a luxurious villa on the hotel’s territory, where the price for one-night accommodation can reach 20,000 euros.”

Also, in the request, the president writes that the images used are from the period before he became president, are private and were published without the undersigned’s consent. 

Dodon claims that the photos do not fall into the field of acceptable criticism exceeding the limits and purpose of the right to information. 

The same petition claims that according to ECtHR the public has no legitimate interest in knowing where is a public figure and how he behaves even if he appears in public places, and this despite his notoriety. Everyone has the right to benefit from protection and respect for private life, the letter says. 

In the request the President asks ZdG: 

• to publicly apologize for breach of the right to private and family life of the undersigned Dodon Igor.
• to retract the false and defamatory statements regarding the 2018 vacation in Greece – “The information published on January 16, 2020, in the (Photo Gallery) The President’s Luxurious Vacations – In 2018, the presidential family spent their vacation in one of the most luxurious hotels in the Greek peninsula Halkidiki, Pomegranate Wellness Spa Hotel. The president would’ve been accommodated in a luxurious villa on the hotel’s territory, where the price for one-night accommodation can reach 20,000 euros.”  The requests mentions that the statements are false and defamatory, damaging the honor, dignity and professional reputation of Mr. Dodon Igor.
• to publish an article that outlines the statements from the (Photo Gallery) The President’s Luxurious Vacations article regarding them as false allegations, and spreading the article on ZdG’s webpage www.zdg.md under the same heading, page, and for the same period of time. 

What didn’t the president mention in his request 

Aside from the published images, President Igor Dodon was concerned by a single sentence from the article, the one about the luxurious villa located on the territory of the hotel owned by former Russian Prosecutor General, Chayka. 

However, President Dodon failed to explain which information from this phrase is the false one: the year, the hotel name or the cost of one-night accommodation?

At the same time, before the article was published ZdG asked the president for information about the 2018 vacation, of the presidential family in Greece.

Henceforth, before the article was published ZdG addressed the following question to the president:

• Mr. President, ZdG knows that in 2018, before and after the pilgrimage to the Athos mountain, you have spent your vacation with your family and a few other people close to you on the territory of the Pomegranate Wellness Spa Hotel, from Halkidiki, which belongs to the family of Russia’s Prosecutor General, Yuri Chayka. We know and we have evidence that you were accommodated in an exclusive villa on the territory of the Royal Suite hotel. The price for one-night accommodation in this villa starts from 10,300 euros (200,000 lei), the accommodation price in August the accommodation being even higher[…]

The President saw the question and even answered us. Back then the president did NOT deny that he was accommodated in that villa on the hotel’s territory. Moreover, the Presidency specified that then the vacation, including accommodation, was paid for by one of the president’s close relatives. 

What answered the Presidency, regarding the 2018 vacation, in Greece

“The President’s family did not pay the accommodation for the vacation in 2018. The costs were borne by one of the close relatives of the President. So, your insinuation leads to misleading public opinion.”

Also before the article was published several sources from Moldova and from abroad, including people close to the president, people that accompanied him on that vacation, confirmed for ZdG the information regarding the 2018 vacation in Greece. 

To avoid any speculations regarding this subject, ZdG asks the president to publicly answer the following questions:

• Who is this close relative who paid the accommodation for the 2018 vacation in Greece of the presidential family?
• How much did the accommodation for the presidential family cost? And what is the name of the hotel/villa where they spent their vacation?
• Who paid the accommodation for the other persons who accompanied the presidential family in the 2018 vacation, in Greece?
• How much did the accommodation for the other persons in the group cost?
• In order to avoid interpretations and suspicions that could appear after the president’s answer, we respectfully request that the president publishes the documents related to the payment for the vacation in Greece where all the costs are indicated.
• At the same time, we request Moldova’s President to make public all his expenses that his family incurred during all vacations and private trips from the last 10 years (from 2010 till 2020), the period when he was a public servant (an MP in Moldova’s Parliament and the head of the state). 
• Previously the presidency claimed that “Some of these vacations have been paid out of the legal incomes obtained by the presidential family, and others have not incurred costs because they have been taken at the invitation of relatives or close friends who have undertaken all logistical issues.” Hence, ZdG respectfully requests to publish the list with the names of the financial supporters of the politician Igor Dodon’s vacations. 

We inform the ZdG community that if we do not receive answers to these questions, the newsroom will continue to request this information, including during an eventual trial. At the same time, we mention that this request will NOT stop us documenting other aspects and further cases related to the activity of the politician and president Igor Dodon. 

In the last 15 years, ZdG was sued by several public officials, but none of those files managed to make ZdG give up on its investigations. 

Regarding the photos with the politician Igor Dodon on vacations in the Maldives, Seychelles, Dubai, and Bulgaria, which ZdG published, we mention that the newsroom was acting according to the public interest, but also due to countless public accusations, in the last years against dignitaries who can’t explain their assets and the resources used for their luxurious vacations.

At the same time, we mention that in the article were published several pictures with the presidential family, taken directly from Dodon’s Facebook page, photos which he himself made public. 

ZdG also mentions that the newsroom published photos which confirm the luxurious vacations in exotic and expensive places. The newsroom didn’t publish the photos with the children or the wives of politicians or with other persons irrelevant to the public interest, even if the newsroom had in its possession the photos.

The photos where the politician Igor Dodon appears in scanty attire were published as in the last years the politician himself published such photos on his social media accounts.

Tepordei Ghenadie is the name written on the envelope, while the request itself was signed by Igor Dodon, without an address or a phone number. 

ZdG wanted to clarify some details and give an answer, so the newsroom called Ghenadie Țepordei, on a number made public by the lawyer himself on the web, to find out where we should send our answer. Țepordei said to send the answer to the presidency. 

We mention that according to the information on the envelope the letter was submitted on January 27, and it reached the newsroom yesterday, on January 29. Also yesterday, Ghenadie Țepordei was appointed as head of the Public Property Agency (APP).

Ziarul de Gardă