Education
Usatîi graduated in foreign languages from the Bălți State University.
Usatîi graduated in foreign languages from the Bălți State University.
In 2015, he was elected the mayor of Bălți with the support of around 72% of votes. He is a leader of the pro-Russian opposition in Moldova. In 2005 he started his own business, founding in Russia VPT-NN, a company producing railway equipment.
Since 2011, he was the major stakeholder of Universalbank, one of the major banks of Moldova.
On 23 October 2015 Usatîi was arrested in Chișinău and charged with illegal tampering of phone of Vlad Filat, the former prime-minister who himself was arrested for corruption charges. Usatîi confessed he indeed published the phone records but that he thinks it is a necessary measure in order to save the country from corruption.
On 25 October he was released. The charges were not dismissed.