Pro-Russian oligarch Ilan Shor is at the centre of a money and influence network aimed at helping the Kremlin pay the Moldovan public to vote against European Union (EU) accession and against pro-Western President Maia Sandu in the upcoming referendum and elections on the 20th of October, according to Moldovan authorities, who will hold a press conference on Thursday, the 3rd of October, to sound the alarm about this plot, reports Politico.
According to Moldovan investigators, more than 15 million US dollars in Russian funds have been transferred into the bank accounts of more than 130 000 Moldovan citizens in the last month alone.
“Moldova is facing voter bribery combined with hybrid warfare and disinformation, something our country has never seen before,” Viorel Cernăuțeanu, Moldova’s police chief, told Politico in an interview on Thursday.
“This “mafia-style” network, organised from Moscow, is trying to influence voters ahead of the presidential elections and the European Union (EU) referendum,”
the police chief said.
According to investigators, Ilan Shor, founder of a now-banned pro-Russian political party, helped launder funds through a banking network to be used to bribe voters and coordinators in Russia instructed officials and local activists to act on their behalf and sent cash via Telegram.
Moldova’s National Security Adviser Stanislav Secrieru warned a few days earlier that Russia had launched an “unprecedented propaganda and intimidation attack” ahead of the 20th of October vote. He predicted that Russia would spend around 100 million euros this year to interfere in Moldova’s democratic process.
Moldova was granted EU candidate status in June 2022, but Russia continues to control the country’s energy supply and has infiltrated state institutions, influencing the former Soviet republic.
Following warnings by Ukrainian intelligence services of a Moscow-sponsored coup plot against President Sandu involving Shor, who was later sanctioned by Brussels, the EU deployed a civilian mission to strengthen resilience to Russian hybrid threats.
A senior Moldovan official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to speak candidly, said that closer cooperation with Brussels was crucial to ensure that Moscow’s plan would not succeed: “We are learning important lessons by defending our democracy in this electoral cycle – lessons that can also benefit the EU, as it is likely to face similar but more sophisticated tactics in the future.”
Also read: Russia, Iran and China expected to try to influence US elections
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Source link : https://bnn-news.com/moldova-warns-that-russia-is-paying-people-to-vote-against-eu-accession-261248
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Publish date : 2024-10-03 10:00:20
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