"Direct attack"

Moldova: The Kremlin buys thousands of votes before the election

Maia Sandu wants to align Moldova with Europe.(Bild: AFP/ Elena COVALENCO)

In a large-scale operation to influence the upcoming presidential election in Moldova, pro-Russian forces are said to have bribed more than 100,000 voters. This was an attempt to undermine the former Soviet republic's rapprochement with the European Union, the police in Chișinău announced on Thursday. 

Moldova's President Maia Sandu, who is running again, has also made the election on October 20 a vote on the country's future course. Police chief Viorel Cernautanu explained that a Russian-controlled network had bribed more than 130,000 Moldovans to vote against an EU referendum and to vote for Russia-friendly candidates. He described this as an "unprecedented, direct attack".

Sandu wants to lead her country, a former Soviet republic located between Romania and Ukraine, into the European Union. Alongside the presidential election, Moldovans are to vote on whether the poor country should become a member of the EU.

Sandu, who is seeking a second term in office, has long accused Russia of using disinformation and other means to overthrow her government. The government in Moscow rejects this.

Enormous flows of money revealed
"We are confronted with the widespread phenomenon of financing and corruption with the aim of disrupting the electoral process in Moldova," Cernautanu told journalists. In September alone, around 15 million dollars (13.55 million euros) were transferred to accounts opened with the Russian Promsvyazbank.

Moldova, which has a Romanian-speaking majority and a large Russian-speaking minority, has alternated between pro-Russian and pro-Western governments since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Call for election manipulation
Last month, the fugitive pro-Russian businessman Ilan Shor offered payments to anyone who would vote against European integration in the referendum. The vocal opponent of Moldova's EU membership was convicted in absentia last year for his role in the theft of one billion dollars from Moldovan banks.

Around three million people in Moldova are entitled to vote. The Moldovan province of Transnistria is ruled by pro-Russian separatists, and Russian troops are also stationed there.