As the possibility of a major victory for Russia appears to be in sight, voters in Moldova appear to have narrowly rejected a constitutional amendment aimed at locking in the country’s withdrawal from Russia’s sphere of influence. , in the provisional results of the pivotal referendum announced early Monday.
The amendments put to a vote on Sunday respect the “irreversibility” of the former Soviet republic’s “European path” and call for it to someday join the European Union.
But with 96 percent of the votes counted, votes in favor of the controversial constitutional amendment that Russia and its Moldovan proxies worked hard to derail outweigh those against.
The referendum result is not yet final, but Moldova’s pro-Western president Maia Sandu gains popular support despite a firm lead in the presidential election also held on Sunday. It showed that the gamble of aligning with the West for the sake of the United States was probably a failure. Vote.
With strong backing from the European Union and the United States, Mr. Sandu is leading a referendum on whether Moldova, one of Europe’s poorest countries, should join forces with its former monarchy, Russia, or with the West. , had hoped that the decades-long dispute would finally come to an end. The proposed constitutional amendments included a commitment to future European Union membership as a “strategic objective” for the country.
Sandu leads 10 rival candidates, many of whom support closer ties with Russia. By early Monday, she had received 39 percent of the vote. Her closest rival, Alexandre Stoianooglu, a former prosecutor general who is under investigation for corruption, received 28%.
But failing to win a majority means Sandu will face a run-off with the second-place candidate within two weeks.
The apparent success of the “no” vote and Sandu’s failure to win outright on Sunday signaled a significant victory for Moscow, with Moldovan and Western officials seeking to influence the outcome through a massive disinformation campaign and flood. It claims that it was an active effort to destabilize the situation. Illegal funding for the purpose of buying votes.
With results showing that the constitutional reforms she had been campaigning for would fail, Sandu issued a fiery statement condemning what she called an “unprecedented attack on our freedom and democracy” by criminals and foreign forces. Announced. To Russia.
As soon as the final results are released, he said, “We will respond resolutely.”
Ilan Shor, a fugitive billionaire and convicted fraudster from Moldova who is being sheltered in Moscow, is spearheading efforts to block constitutional reforms and keep Moldova within Russia’s orbit. He called Sunday’s vote his “last chance” to save the country.
Moldova, an independent state bordering Ukraine that was born from the ruins of the Soviet regime in 1991, has been torn between East and West for decades, with leaders wanting to align with Russia and Sandu, who took power in June, He has been oscillated with other leaders like him. Accession negotiations with the European Union.
Similar struggles have taken place in several other former Soviet states, including Georgia, where thousands of protesters paraded through the capital Tbilisi on Sunday waving European Union and Georgian flags. The protests were organized to rally opposition to the ruling Georgian Dream party ahead of next weekend’s crucial parliamentary elections. Opponents accuse him of being pro-Russian and alienating from the West.
Among the participants was Georgia’s elected president Salome Zurabichvili, who supports integration with Europe and has frequently clashed with the government over the direction of the divided country.
Moldova’s presidential election and constitutional referendum are being closely monitored by Russia, Brussels and Washington, all seeking to influence the outcome.
The United States and the European Union are providing economic support, including a package worth about $2 billion announced during European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s recent visit to Moldova.
In its own efforts to influence the vote, Russia has focused on stoking hostility toward Mr. Sandu and the West among a substantial minority of the population that views Russia as a more reliable partner, with less transparency. We have introduced low-level methods.
These include secret cash transfers by fugitive tycoon Mr Schorr to pay anti-EU activists. Officials also warned of stoking fears of war if the referendum passes and spreading false claims that the city of Brussels is trying to brainwash Moldovan children into becoming gay and transgender. It also described a massive disinformation campaign aimed at.
In a message from Moscow published on X, the only major social media platform from which he has not been banned, Mr. Scholl urged everyone who “cares about the future of Moldova and its children” to He urged people to vote for candidates other than him. Sandu and “say no to criminal amendments to our constitution, say no to the EU, and say no to war.”
Moldova’s possible accession to the European bloc is still years away, but alarm in Western capitals over Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which began in February 2022, and Russia’s decision to join other member states The movement is being accelerated by a new determination to prevent the expansion of the United States. territory of the USSR.
The Baltic states (Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia), once part of the Soviet Empire, were admitted to the European Union and NATO 20 years ago, a change that firmly entrenched the countries in the West and left the Baltic states It helped curb Russia’s ambitions to return to its original state. Ruled by Moscow.
In response to the war in Ukraine, the European Commission, the European Union’s executive arm, recommended in June 2022 that Moldova and Ukraine be granted “candidate status.” This is the first formal step in a process that usually lasts over 10 years. Georgia was deemed not ready for nomination.
In a poll released Friday by research group Watchdog, 55% of those surveyed said they would vote in favor of Moldova’s European aspirations. However, this exaggerated the scale of aid to Europe.
The Central Election Commission said on Sunday that the updated electoral roll included 2,714,239 people and that more than 50% of voters had cast their votes by evening, making the results valid. This far exceeded the one-third of the required turnout.
Nicolae Pamphil, program director at election monitoring group Promorex, said the referendum would have an important and long-term impact.
“This is not just an opinion poll, but a binding mandate for constitutional reform to entrench the country’s geopolitical alignment,” he said.
The watchdog’s survey found that while the majority of Moldovans support integration with the West, a significant number of Moldovans in the country sandwiched between Ukraine and Romania, a member of NATO and the European Union, of voters still have high expectations for Russia. These include residents of predominantly Russian-speaking regions in the north near Ukraine, as well as older Romanian-speaking peoples who remember Soviet rule as a time of economic and political stability.
More than a third of those surveyed oppose constitutional reform, and about the same proportion support joining the Eurasian Economic Union, a Moscow-led bloc made up of Russia, Belarus and three other former Soviet republics. I answered.
Natalia Mollari, an estranged former ally of Sandu who ran against him in the presidential election, called the referendum a “political ploy” to rally support for Sandu in the election campaign. I scoffed. He said it would do nothing to advance Moldova’s European ambitions and would need to be repeated once negotiations with Brussels are complete. “This referendum is not about real European integration, it’s just a political technique,” she said.
U.S. National Security Council spokesman John F. Kirby said Wednesday that “Russia is actively working to undermine Moldova’s elections and European integration.” He added: “In the past few months, Moscow has spent millions of dollars trying to influence Moldova’s presidential elections.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Russian government “categorically rejects” accusations that Russia is interfering in Moldova.
Ivan Nechepurenko contributed reporting from Tbilisi, Georgia. and Luksanda Spatari from Chisinau, Moldova.
