Moldova backs joining EU in close vote marred by Russia

What happened

Moldovans narrowly voted in favor of joining the European Union, according to election results released Monday, in a referendum the government said was marred by widespread Russian interference, including vote-buying. A 42.5% plurality of voters also supported President Maia Sandu in a parallel election Sunday, pushing her into a runoff against former prosecutor-general Alexandr Stoianoglo, a pro-Russia candidate who got 26%.

Who said what

"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.

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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."