00:00Put that to one side and now turn to Moldova, whose pro-Europe party has won a memorable victory in the country's legislative elections.
00:08President Maya Sandu had warned about the possible consequences of Russian interference in the democratic process in Moldova.
00:16But the people had their say this weekend and chose to vote for an EU destiny, a destiny already enshrined in Moldova's constitution since 2024.
00:26Well, Maya Sandu, president of Moldova, let's hear her words.
00:31I do believe that Russia has not achieved its objectives.
00:37It has spent a lot of money in these elections, but the results show that they failed.
00:46And it failed because of the common, of the joint efforts of the state institutions, of the media, of the press, of the civil society.
00:59Moldova's pro-EU president Maya Sandu speaking there.
01:03Much then at stake for Russia in the Moldova elections, mostly a chance to foment discord and stoke its anti-EU message across the one-time Soviet state
01:13and boost its presence in Transnistria, the region where it's been stoking unrest since the late 1980s.
01:20Well, Moldova's people saw through the Russian messaging and voted to keep their country resolutely steered towards an integrated European future.
01:27Hundreds of protesters gathered outside the parliament building in the Moldovan capital on Monday,
01:35members of the pro-Russian opposition party who lost in Sunday's vote.
01:40While police warned in advance that protesters were being paid to demonstrate,
01:44leaders of the pro-Moscow patriot electoral bloc and their supporters have claimed without evidence that the results were rigged against them.
01:52In our opinion, there was widespread fraud, especially at polling stations in the diaspora.
02:02The party already has evidence and will present it to the Electoral Commission.
02:10The patriotic bloc lost by a sizable margin on Sunday, coming in second to the pro-EU party of Action and Solidarity,
02:18which secured 50 percent of the vote.
02:20And, in fact, there are strong indications it was Russia who interfered in Moldova's election
02:26by posting disinformation online about President Maya Sandu,
02:31phoning in fake bomb threats at election sites,
02:33and by circulating false claims of vote rigging.
02:36We have proof of the money that Russia spent or wanted to spend.
02:42And, of course, we have proof of attempts to bribe the voters in different regions of the country.
02:49Claims the Kremlin denies.
02:53Hundreds of thousands of Moldovans
02:54were deprived of the opportunity to vote on the territory of the Russian Federation
02:59as only two polling stations were opened for them.
03:02Observers have called Sunday's election the most important in Moldova's recent history,
03:07as it could advance the country's bid to join the EU,
03:10a move that Russia strongly opposes.
03:13Thank you, Francis.
03:15With that, a look back at the election won by the pro-EU party of President Maya Sandu.
03:23Let's bring in Boris Naiman, who is an associate professor of economy at the University of Paris-Est-Crete.
03:29Boris is a former advisor to the Ukrainian government,
03:31the cabinet ministry from 1994 to 1997.
03:35Boris Naiman, thank you for being with us here.
03:37And, Francis, we appreciate your time.
03:39This result in the election, to put it in common parlance,
03:42this is really a kick in the pants for Moscow, isn't it?
03:44Moscow invests a lot in this election because they want to block the export of grain
03:52from a grain going through Moldova in the NANU,
03:57and also because it's a first step of, let's say, major request,
04:04I mean, the will of conquest, a new space for Russia in the region.
04:11So, it was quite important for Russia to win this election,
04:15and it's a large defeat, effectively.
04:17So, basically, the way you speak of it,
04:19it's as though there is absolutely no doubt whatsoever
04:22that Russia is very much active and present
04:26in trying to shape what happens politically in Moldova.
04:31You know, the method of Russia didn't change very much
04:36in all the, you know, intervention and elections.
04:39You have a sort of systematic, similar way.
04:43So, intervening first on social network, which is the lightest way,
04:47buying votes is another way, creating chaos or, you know,
04:52creating this fake news, but also creating some chaos
04:55is a classical way of operating for Russia in elections.
05:01It's clearly, they didn't deny it after, it was so clear
05:06that some of the money spent in Moldova was aimed at trying
05:11to influence the election.
05:13This is something that is, today in Russian politics,
05:17totally transparent.
05:20Boris, I had to put that to you because of Dimitri Peskov's clear words
05:24of denying what went on.
05:25Well, it was good for you to actually explain to our viewers
05:27more and more the breakdown of how this actually happens.
05:30And it's really quite ingenious, in many ways,
05:33the way Russia runs these operations.
05:35And, of course, Transnistria, that stretch of territory
05:39which Moscow says is a place which the Russian-speaking people,
05:45they're people who see themselves as Russian,
05:47and Moscow wants to help them.
05:48This is, again, another aspect of destabilising Moldova
05:52on that same issue, isn't it?
05:55Yeah, I mean, the playbook is that one,
06:00but also cutting the energy supply.
06:03And this effect of cutting the energy supply
06:07creates an increase in the price,
06:09which effectively creates inflation in both in Moldova,
06:13but also in Transnistria.
06:14And this is a phenomenon, a classical phenomenon
06:18that we observed before in Ukraine,
06:21but also, you know, a threat that was on Georgia
06:24and other countries.
06:25What I want to say here is that there was a large investigation
06:28done by a Reuter journalist showing that priests in Moldova
06:33were paid to spread propaganda and also to influence the vote.
06:37Priests were paid to spread propaganda?
06:39Yeah, yeah, Orthodox priests.
06:43It seems there's no aspect of life that Russia will infiltrate
06:46in order to push that message.
06:48It's amazing.
06:50Well, the Orthodox Church was regularly connected,
06:55you know, with the FSB in a lot of former Soviet Union churches,
07:00unfortunately, not necessarily at the low level,
07:03but rather at the high level of the control of the church.
07:06But this is something classical.
07:08This is nothing, something special.
07:10It was observed also in Ukraine.
07:12Unfortunately, you can see this kind of manipulation.
07:17I want to say something that is quite important for you.
07:20Russian propaganda, Russian way to operate,
07:23is always to play on, you know, linguistic or religious difference
07:29or, you know, this kind of deterministic approach by category.
07:32So they will put people once against the other in the same country
07:38by polarizing the situation.
07:42And in terms of what Moldova hopes to gain from the European Union,
07:46how do you see things developing?
07:48Five years on, 10 years on, 15 years on?
07:50How do you see Moldova bearing fruit from that?
07:53I think it's difficult to talk about that because, you know,
07:59Hungary is blocking most of the accession countries to enter,
08:03including Ukraine, but also blocking the accession in the Balkan countries.
08:08And especially today for Moldova, it's a problem.
08:11Hungary inside the EU is blocking.
08:13So now EU tried to find a new process of accepting country
08:18without the 27 votes.
08:21I think it's good.
08:24However, at least to open chapters, you know, of negotiation,
08:29which is very good.
08:30But at the end of the process,
08:32it's clear that we'll need the 27 countries to agree for the entrance.
08:38And if Hungary is still blocking,
08:40this will undermine the enlargement for sure.
08:44Boris Neiman, thank you for that analysis of the situation in Moldova.
08:48The pro-EU party are winning the elections,
08:51but as Boris Neiman points out,
08:52there is still a way to go before accession happens.
08:55Thanks again to Associate Professor of Economy
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