Natalia Zaharescu

Natalia Zaharescu was selected for the 2025 Shortlist with Serving Moscow.

Natalia Zaharescu has over 15 years of experience in the media. After more than 10 years of
radio, Natalia joined the investigative department of Ziarul de Garda in January 2022. In the
same year, Natalia Zaharescu conducted, together with three other ZdG journalists, an
undercover investigation, demonstrating how Ilan Șor, an oligarch later sentenced to 15 years in
prison for robbing a billion from the Moldovan banking system, organized paid protests.

In 2024, Natalia, together with her colleague, Măriuța Nistor, conducted another undercover
investigation, in which the journalists managed to demonstrate that the same oligarch Ilan Șor,
who fled from the Republic of Moldova to Moscow, formed and coordinated a vote-buying
network, with the aim of fraud in the presidential elections and the referendum on European
integration. For this investigation, the journalists of Ziarul de Garda received several national
awards, including the Investigation of the Year award, offered by the annual Press Club in
Chisinau, and an excellence award from the Union of Professional Journalists in Romania.