Moldovans vote to join EU despite Russian interference

Moldovans have defied an ‘unprecedented’ campaign of Russian electoral interference and voted in favour of joining the European Union – by a margin of less than a single percentage point.

Moldovan President Maia Sandu had cast the European Union accession referendum as a day of destiny. Picture: AP

Moldovans have defied an “unprecedented” campaign of Russian electoral interference and voted in favour of joining the European Union – by a margin of less than a single percentage point.

The referendum was held against a backdrop of bribery on an industrial scale. Moscow and its local networks were accused of having spent $US100m ($150m) trying to buy the votes of as many as 300,000 people, more than 10 per cent of the population.

It was a symbolically significant step towards the West by a country partly under de facto Russian occupation that has long been seen by the Kremlin as part of its sphere of influence.

The pro-EU campaign won just under 50.5 per cent of the vote. A little over 49.5 per cent opposed the plan to amend the constitution with a clause committing the country to seek membership of the bloc.

At times the count was so close that the two sides were separated by only a few dozen votes in a population of about 2.6 million, although ultimately the difference was 13,500.

President Maia Sandu, who is pro-Western, also won a strong personal mandate in the presidential election, with 42.4 per cent of the vote.

However, she now faces a run-off vote in a fortnight’s time against Alexandr Stoianoglo, who took 26 per cent of the vote on Sunday and is expected to be supported by Moldova’s most powerful pro-Russian factions.

Sandu, 52, said she had won “the first battle” against foreign-backed “criminal groups” seeking to undermine Moldova, but called on voters to mobilise and “prevent a catastrophe” in the struggle that still lay ahead.

“The saying that every vote counts is no empty platitude,” she said. “I have won fair and square in an unfair contest. What has ­happened over the past two years has been an attack on our ­democracy.”

The EU condemned what it described as “unprecedented interference and intimidation by Russia and its proxies” after one of Ms Sandu’s most prominent pro-Kremlin opponents boasted of having sought to bribe as many voters as possible.

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said: “In the face of Russia’s hybrid tactics, Moldova shows that it is independent, it is strong and it wants a European future.”

The Kremlin denied that it had tampered with the campaign and said the vote had been held under “unfree” conditions. Dmitry Peskov, President Putin’s spokesman, questioned the surge in support for Sandu and the EU constitutional amendment that came late in the count as results were reported from the Moldovan diaspora, which is largely pro-Western.

Moldova was part of the USSR from 1940 to 1991. After it declared its independence, its politics were frequently dominated by oligarchs with strong ties to the Kremlin.

Since Ms Sandu became president in 2020, however, she has made a concerted effort to wrench her country away and anchor it in the West, spurred on by the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Moldova opened EU accession negotiations last December and aims to achieve membership by 2030.

However, the tense EU referendum was a reminder that Russia’s influence in Moldova is by no means exhausted. Opinion polls suggested that the pro-EU side could be confident of a majority.

The Times