“It was really me who punctured the tires of Bashkan Mikhail Formuzal’s office car. The thing is, shortly before that, we made a bet, and he promised he would go on foot from the Etulia village if fewer than 500 residents come for a meeting with him”, Sergey Cernev, the former Chairman of Gagauzia’s Vulcanesti raion [district], who is the chairman of the territorial organization of the Democratic Party and currently director of the railroad department at the Giurgiulesti Port [on the Danube River], told a news conference at Infotag.    

Cernev stated he was not going to hide from the public or police, and pierced the tires fully aware of a video camera recoding him. On Wednesday, Mikhail Formuzal demonstrated the video record to journalists, and accused Cernev of encroaching on his security and of damaging state property. However, Cernev dismissed all accusations point blank.     

“On May 18, merely 15 Etulia villagers came for the meeting with the Gagauzia Bashkan. I reminded to him about the bet we had made with Formuzal last February, when he stated peremptorily that he would easily convene 500 to 1,000 people for a meeting with him. “If not, I shall go home on foot”, he promised then. Well, I have simply helped him to keep his word”, explained Cernev.       

“Shortly after that, I was summoned to police, where my doing was qualified as an administrative violation – not even a petty hooliganism. But Formuzal demanded to arrest me, accusing me almost of terrorism. He certainly has the right to have an opinion of his own, but it is only the court who may qualify my actions legally”, stated the Democratic Party activist.        

Formuzal is convinced that Cernev’s and his allies’ impunity has been guaranteed by the ‘political roofing’ provided to them by the Ministry of the Interior.    

The Gagauzia Governor says he has recently come to understand perfectly clear that there may be no guarantee of security not only for him but for the Gagauzia population as a whole – because of the Democrats’ actions in the region.