The career of Renato Usatii started as a supervisor at the Chisinau International Airport. It continued with the post of chief engineer at Moldova’s state-run railway company CFM. In 2004 Mr. Usatii moved to Moscow, the Russian capital. One year later he turned up as the managing director of VPT-NN, a limited liability in Nizhny Novgorod. Since 1995 this firm has been a business partner for the Russian state-owned railway corporation RJD, repairing its carriages and trackways, and shipping various equipment.

In 2012, Renato Usatii financed an expensive trip for then Prime Minister Vladimir Filat and his son to the Champions League final match. A RISE Moldova investigation has demonstrated that Mr. Usatii leased a private jet, booked seats in the VIP lodge in the Munich stadium, Germany, and paid for a luxury hotel room for the politician in the same city.

In 2013 Mr. Usatii publicly claimed that Alexandru Jizdan and Alexandru Pinzari, both senior police officers, had been his personal informants. The two later advanced in their careers at the Ministry of Interior Affairs.

Renato Usatii ran for a Parliament seat in the 2014 elections, on the list of Patria-Rodina, a Russia-backed political party, but a court rejected the party from the race one day before the vote, citing a complaint from the Central Election Commission regarding the use of foreign funds in the campaign by Patria-Rodina. Nonetheless, one year later Mr. Usatii won the seat of mayor in Balti - the second largest city in Moldova - capturing more than 70% of the ballot in the first round.

In 2016 the politician was indicted for fraud and attempt to assassinate German Gorbuntsov, a Russian banker with Moldovan nationality. Mr. Gorbuntsov, who survived the attack from a hitman in London, pointed to Renato Usatii as the beneficiary from his death. On the other side, the hitman, Vitalii Proca, who was meanwhile arrested in Romania for another contract killing, told Jurnal TV that in fact it was oligarch Vladimir Plahotniuc who had asked for that favor. Mr. Plahotniuc was at that time the chairman of the Moldovan Democratic Party, a largely non-democratic group that ruled the country until summer 2019. Being hunted by prosecutors, Renato Usatii fled the country in order to hide in Moscow. The Moldovan authorities immediately put his name in the international manhunt list.

When the Democrats conceded defeat (and Plahotniuc ran away) and a new coalition took over power in Moldova in June 2019, Renato Usatii returned to Moldova. The very next autumn Mr. Usatii won the new election for the post of mayor in the same city. Just like the other time, he earned the largest share of voter confidence in the first round.

For the presidential elections of 1 November 2020, he was quick to get registered first at the Central Electoral Commission. He is the richest candidate running for president. Renato Usatii owns six houses, a garage, and three other buildings with a total value of about 14 million Russian rubles. He also owns or rents 18 land fields worth more than 40 million rubles and about 3,800 Moldovan lei. He also owns luxury watches worth 250,000 euros.