Moldova Confirms Heavy Russian Influence in Latest Parliamentary Election

Moldova has warned Western nations that Russia is using deceptive tactics to attempt to sway the upcoming parliamentary elections in their favor.

Moldova, a small country sandwiched between Ukraine and Romania, has long suffered from Russian influence due to their history with the major world power. Moldova declared independence from USSR in August 1991, but despite its proximity to Ukraine and Russia, Moldovan culture is highly similar to the country's other neighbor, Romania. The official language of Moldova is Romanian, and Russia itself has a very small influence on the people– just 3% of Moldovans are ethnic Russians.

However, a region in eastern Moldova, known as Transnistria, is a de facto independent state which is much more pro-Russian. Russian is widely spoken across the region, and Russia maintains approximately 1,500 troops in Transnistria alone.

While Moldova has become accustomed to Russian influences in their daily lives, the eastern European country has announced that Russia is taking this year's bias to a whole new level. According to Moldovan President Maia Sandu, Russia has been spending hundreds of millions of euros to propagate misinformation throughout the country, skewing votes towards pro-Russian leaders.

Sandu described the upcoming parliamentary election, which will take place tomorrow, as "the most consequential election in [Moldova's] history," as it will decide what sort of stance they take on global politics. Moldova aims to be accepted into the European Union (EU) by 2030, but those efforts can only be supported by a pro-EU government. If the country were to elect pro-Russian officials, their path to EU membership would become much shakier.

She also described the elections as "a battlefield," accusing Russia of "identifying vulnerabilities and exploiting them." According to Moldovan officials, Russia has done everything from bribing citizens to spreading misinformation and propaganda on social media and other websites, confusing true voters and swaying the general population towards Russian supporters.

In fact, several citizens have even admitted to being "recruited" by Russia to rig the election, with Russia instructing them to vote for certain candidates and make propaganda-related posts on social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram to spread Russian fake news. According to Moldovan senior police officer Varel Chernatanu, at least $1.1 million in cash was discovered as they busted a smuggling operation meant to fund pro-Russian groups in Moldova. This isn't a recent development, though– Chernatanu also confirmed that Moldova found over $39 million in cash last September that was intended to buy electoral votes, and he estimates that the number this year could be in the "hundreds of millions."

Meanwhile, Russia has refused to comment on the topic of misinformation, but they claim that the EU simply "destroys the traditional values" of the country while Russia protects their rights and freedom.

In recent years, Moldova has attempted to move away from Russian products in an attempt to reduce the power's influence over their internal politics, but it has been tough due to the fact that they cannot distance themselves from Russia physically.

In 2022, Russia cut gas supplies to Moldova as an alleged form of punishment for moving closer to Western nations after their initial invasion of Ukraine. Nevertheless, Moldova moved away from Russian gas altogether and now relies on supplies from other European countries.

Just this week, Moldovan authorities announced that they had busted a massive network of hundreds of Russian-trained spies that had been instructed to cause chaos before and after the elections.

Moldova claims that they are all part of Russia's multifaceted approach towards destabilizing their government, aiming to shift the country's views towards Russian favor; additionally, there could be countless other networks of spies that Russia is sowing into the Moldovan society which have gone undetected, posing a major threat to the eastern European country in the future.

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Image credit to Moldpres