Tudor Ulianovschi, a former Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Filip government, confirmed that his name was proposed by the then US ambassador to Chisinau for the position of prime minister in 2019.

He was expected to serve as a transitional prime minister for a few months until the early parliamentary elections. Derek Hogan reportedly had this discussion with Vlad Plahotniuc, believing that Tudor Ulianovschi would be an appropriate candidate for a technocrat prime minister during a politically turbulent period.
“Plahotniuc turned down the proposal because he knew he had no compromising material on me. I would have been a prime minister beyond his control,” Tudor Ulianovschi revealed during the “Fourth Power” broadcast, adding that he learned about Hogan and Plahotniuc’s discussion much later.

The former minister admitted that he never had a good relationship with the top leadership of the Democratic Party or with the then prime minister, Pavel Filip.

“As a technocrat minister, I always stood against things I had doubts about,” he said.

Ulianovschi disclosed that following the discussion between Hogan and Plahotniuc, the latter initiated a widespread campaign of pressure on the Ulianovschi family.

“Vlad Plahotniuc became extremely angry and initiated a period of torment for me and my family. They sent the Court of Accounts to the ministry. The inspectors stayed at the ministry for three weeks and left with one of the cleanest reports of the Court. They recalled my wife from Geneva, where she was serving as a representative of the Ministry of Economy at the WTO. They yelled at her and forced her to return home within three days, which is against the law. My daughter was studying there, in the middle of her school year. As a result of this pressure, my wife lost a fairly advanced pregnancy, which we had been waiting for many years. My colleagues at the ministry at that time are aware of these episodes. They stood by us and supported us!” the former minister recounted.

It’s worth noting that Tudor Ulianovschi, during his tenure as Foreign Minister in 2018, managed to persuade the members of the UN General Assembly to adopt, with 64 votes “for” and 15 “against”, the resolution of the Republic of Moldova on the withdrawal of Russian troops from the Transnistrian region. In 2020, he was one of the eight candidates for the position of Director General of the World Trade Organization. Tudor Ulianovschi also serves on the Board of Directors of the American Renewable Energy Association, the Canadian Renewable Energy Association, and the American Business Association with Central and Eastern European States.