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Lupu Coci, known as Vasile Lupu (; 1595 – 1661), was the voivode of Moldavia between 1634 and 1653. He was of Albanians and Greeks origin. Lupu had secured the Moldavian throne in 1634 after a series of complicated intrigues and managed to hold it for twenty years. Vasile was a capable administrator and a brilliant financier and was soon almost the richest man in the Christian East. His gifts to Ottoman leaders kept him on good terms with the Ottoman authorities.
[[Image:Vasilelupu-ateneul.jpg|thumb|Portrait of Vasile Lupu on the [[Romanian Athaeneum]] wall.]]
Lupu had held a high office under Miron Barnovschi, and was subsequently selected Prince as a sign of indigenous boyars' reaction against Greeks and competition. This was because Vasile Lupu had led a rebellion against Alexandru Iliaș and his foreign retinue, being led into exile by Moise Movilă (although he was backed by Prince Matei Basarab and the powerful Pasha of Silistra, Abaza Mehmed Pasha). Despite having led the rebellion against Greek influence, Lupu maintained strong ties to the Greeks and the Patriarchate of Constantinople. He pursued a Greek-Orthodox policy and sought to become the new Byzantine Emperor.
His rule was marked by splendor and pomp. He was a builder of notable monuments (the unique Trei Ierarhi Monastery in Iași and the St. Paraskeva Church, Lviv, among others), a patron of culture and arts founding the Vasilian College). These acts also had negative effects, the tax burdens being increased to an intolerable level.
After relations between the two Princes soured, Vasile Lupu spent much of his reign fighting the Matei Basarab, trying to impose his son Ioan to the throne in Bucharest. His army was defeated twice in 1639 at Ojogeni and Nenișori and a third time, at Finta, in 1653. After this last battle, the Moldavian boyars rebelled and replaced him with the Wallachian favorite, Gheorghe Ștefan. Vasile Lupu went into exile and died while being kept in Turkish custody at Yedikule prison in Constantinople.
Lupu built a strong alliance with hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky, arranging the marriage of his own daughter Ruxandra Lupu to Khmelnytsky's son Tymofiy (Tymish), who went on to fight alongside Lupu at Finta.
Vasile Lupu made alliances with Ottoman officials, in particular with former Grand Vizier Tabanıyassı Mehmed Pasha. Lupu's association with the latter relied on their common Albanian origin.
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