Russia spent nearly 200 million euros ($220 million) to buy votes in the Moldovan presidential race and the EU referendum in 2024, Moldovan Prime Minister Dorin Recean said at a briefing on April 2, Reuters reported.
Recean's statement comes after the U.K. imposed sanctions on the pro-Russian NGO "Eurasia," which is allegedly responsible for attempts to rig the referendum in Moldova and destabilize the country's democracy.
According to Moldovan law enforcement agencies, fugitive pro-Russian oligarch Ilan Shor and his associates led the efforts to bribe voters. The U.K. Foreign Ministry said the "Eurasia" network was under Shor's control.
"The Kremlin's agents launched a mass vote-buying campaign, spending about 200 million euros — almost 1% of Moldova's GDP — to destabilize our country," Recean said.
Voters were almost evenly divided on Oct. 21 on a referendum to enshrine the country's path to European Union accession in the Moldovan Constitution. Pro-EU voters won by a razor-thin margin, securing 50.35% of the vote against 49.65%.
In the presidential election, incumbent pro-EU President Maia Sandu won against former prosecutor Alexandr Stoianoglo on Nov. 3 by a margin of about 55.3% to 44.7% despite what she called an "unprecedented" election interference backed by Moscow.
Moldovan authorities, independent observers, and officials from the EU and the U.S. pointed to a malign influence campaign involving criminal networks and political groups tied to Russia. Moldovan lawmakers claimed that Moscow spent millions of dollars backing Stoianoglo.
Sandu has long insisted that the real opponent to her government and Moldova's European path is the Kremlin, which has been waging a hybrid war designed to push Chisinau back into Moscow's orbit in what Sandu described "a fraud of unprecedented proportions."
Katie Marie Davies
(Updated: )
