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Moldovans will vote this weekend in a presidential race between a pro-Western incumbent and a Russia-friendly challenger.
CHISINAU, Moldova (AP) — Moldovan historian and politician Octavian Ticu remembers then the Soviet Union collapsed in the early 1990s, a seismic event that allowed him to become one of the first amateur boxers to fight for his country at the pinnacle of his sport: the Olympics.
“It was a happy moment for me,” the 52-year-old recalled as he clenched his fists in a boxing gym in the capital Chisinau. “In 1996 I took part in the Olympic Games in Atlanta. … If I had been in the Soviet Union, I would never have achieved this.”
But today, more than thirty years after the declaration of independence, Moldavia is being targeted by Russia in a hybrid war of propaganda and disinformation that is “wreaking havoc,” Ticu, who competed in the lightweight division, told The Associated Press.
Like Ukraine and Georgia, the former Soviet Republic aims to join the Soviet Republic European Union but is trapped in a constant geopolitical tug between Moscow and the West.
“Russian propaganda is a reality of thirty years of independence,” added Ticu, who has written several books on his country’s history.
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This story, supported by the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting, is part of an ongoing Associated Press series on threats to democracy in Europe.
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In a national referendum on October 20, Moldovans voted in favor with a razor-thin majority of 50.35% securing the path to EU membership. But the result was overshadowed by accusations of a Moscow-backed vote-buying scheme.
In one presidential elections that took place the same dayIncumbent pro-Western president Maia Sandu won 42% of the vote, but failed to win an outright majority. On Sunday she will face Alexandr Stoianoglo, a Russia-friendly former attorney general, in a runoff seen as a choice between geopolitical divisions.
As with the EU referendum, a poll published this week by research firm iData points to a tight race Sunday that leans toward a narrow Sandu victory, an outcome that could depend on Moldova’s large diaspora.
The presidential role carries with it significant powers in areas such as foreign policy and national security.
In the wake of the two October votes, Moldovan law enforcement said a vote-buying scheme was orchestrated by Ilan Shor, an exiled oligarch currently living in Russia and convicted in absentia in 2023 of fraud and money laundering. Prosecutors say $39 million in voter payments was made to more than 130,000 recipients between September and October through an internationally sanctioned Russian bank. Shor denies any wrongdoing.
“These people who go to Moscow, the so-called government in exile of Ilan Shor, who come with very large sums of money, are allowed to walk around freely,” said Ticu, who ran for election. presidential race.
It was “clear”, Ticu added, that the votes would be “not fair or democratic”. Of the eleven candidates for the first round, he was the only one who supported Sandu in the second round.
Voters from the Kremlin-friendly breakaway region of Transnistria, which declared independence in the early 1990s after a brief war, can cast their votes in Moldova proper. Transnistria is one source of tension during the war in neighboring Ukraine, especially because there is a military base there with 1,500 Russian troops.
Ticu warned that if Russian troops in Ukraine the port city of Odessathey could “join the Transnistrian region, and then the Republic of Moldova will be occupied.”
In Gagauzia, an autonomous part of Moldova where only 5% voted in favor of the EU, a doctor was arrested after allegedly forcing 25 residents of a retirement home to vote for a candidate they had not chosen. Police said they had obtained “conclusive evidence,” including financial transfers from the same Russian bank subject to sanctions.
Anti-corruption authorities have carried out hundreds of raids and seized more than $2.7 million (2.5 million euros) in cash in their bid to crack down.
On Thursday, prosecutors raided the headquarters of a political party and said 12 people were suspected of paying voters to select a candidate for the presidential election. A criminal case was also opened in which 40 employees of government agencies were suspected of accepting election bribes.
Rather than gaining the overwhelming support Sandu had hoped for, the results of both races revealed that Moldova’s judiciary was unable to adequately protect the population. democratic process. It also caused a pro-Moscow opposition to question the validity of the votes.
Igor Dodon, leader of the Socialists Party and former president with close ties to Russia, declared this week that “we do not recognize the referendum result” and labeled Sandu “a dictator in a skirt” who “will do anything what is necessary”. remain in power.”