Moldovan feared criminal may be extradited to Romania, Russian court confirms
Russian authorities agreed to extradite Vasile Rodideal, a criminal originally from the Republic of Moldova, to Romania. Rodideal has been sentenced to 12 years and six months in prison for serious crimes. His lawyer confirmed this information to the Russian press.
"The Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation has decided to extradite him at the request of the Romanian Ministry of Justice. We appealed this decision, but the lower court upheld it," stated Lilia Mamasheva, as reported by Digi24.
If the appeals court confirms the lower court's ruling, "extradition can be expected," the lawyer added.
Vasile Rodideal was convicted in Romania of creating an organized crime group, possessing ammunition intended for use in warfare, inciting murder, and other crimes.
In 2005, he was accused of planning the assassination of his former business partner, Tiberiu Cristodorescu, a figure in the Iași underworld. Along with an accomplice, Dumitru Chetranu, he allegedly contacted two Moldovan citizens—one of whom was a former police officer—to acquire a homemade bomb intended to be placed in the businessman’s car. When this attempt failed, he instructed Chetranu to obtain a submachine gun and cartridges that had previously been used by the KGB.
Vasile Rodideal was added to the international wanted list and subsequently featured on the "most wanted criminals" list after he managed to escape from Romanian authorities in October 2009, while on trial for several offences.
Wanted by Interpol for over ten years, he was arrested in Moscow in February 2025, where he was living under the name Vasili Kravtsov. He had also obtained a passport under this name. His identity was confirmed through fingerprint analysis.
Recently, Romania participated in the first international exchange of individuals targeting Moldovan citizens. Bucharest extradited Alexandru Balan, the former deputy head of the Intelligence and Security Service, to Chisinau. This extradition was done at Moscow's request, allowing him to leave for Belarus, a country for which he had engaged in espionage activities in Romania.
In a related development, the Republic of Moldova released the wife of a Russian military personnel who had been detained in Chisinau. In exchange, they recovered two Moldovan officers who had been held captive in the Russian Federation since the summer of the previous year.
