“The people of Moldova have spoken: Our EU future will now be anchored in the constitution,” Sandu, 52, wrote on X. “We fought fairly in an unfair fight — and we won.” Sandu’s government, in office since 2021, asked to join the EU after Russia’s full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine in 2022. The referendum, which passed 50.4% to 49.6%, made joining the EU a goal enshrined in the former Soviet satellite’s constitution. That’s a win for Sandu, The Washington Post said, but the “knife-edge result is far from a confident endorsement of her attempts to push the country sharply toward the West” and away from Russia.
Moldova, the EU and the United States said the Kremlin had waged a “hybrid war” campaign to destabilize the country and keep it in Russia’s sphere of influence, including funding pro-Moscow parties, spreading disinformation and pouring millions of dollars into schemes to buy up 300,000 votes. Nearly 1.5 million Moldovans ultimately voted.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
Sign up for The Week’s Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Earlier this month, Moldovan law enforcement accused exiled pro-Russia oligarch Ilan Shor of paying about $16 million to 130,000 Moldovans to vote against the referendum and for anybody but Sandu. A BBC producer on Sunday “heard a woman who had just dropped her ballot in the transparent box ask an election monitor where she would get paid,” the BBC said, and after realizing no cash was coming, she cursed the man who offered the payment, saying, “He tricked me!”
What next?
Sandu and Stoianoglo will face each other in a Nov. 3 runoff for the presidency, with Moldova’s direction on the line. The “apparent success of Russian hybrid warfare” in Moldova, Politico said, is a “worrying omen for next week’s critical elections in Georgia — another EU candidate country where Moscow is seeking to strengthen its hand.”
To continue reading this article…
Create a free account
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Already have an account? Sign in
Subscribe to The Week
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Unlimited website access is included with Digital and Print + Digital subscriptions.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Source link : http://www.bing.com/news/apiclick.aspx?ref=FexRss&aid=&tid=6717e957e9954d099c027f1151e7fde3&url=https%3A%2F%2Ftheweek.com%2Fpolitics%2Fmoldova-eu-election-russia&c=15515223564066487771&mkt=en-us
Author :
Publish date : 2024-10-22 07:20:00
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.
