Kremlin sows chaos with bomb threats and bribes to thwart Moldova’s vote to join EU, officials say

Buying voters, issuing bomb threats and paying protesters to antagonize the police: these are the tactics that the Kremlin has adopted, according to authorities, to thwart the upcoming elections in Moldova.

The small former Soviet state is locked in a battle between pro-Russian and pro-European forces ahead of the October 20 vote for a new president and the referendum on whether to join the European Union (EU). .

EU membership would strengthen Moldova’s ties with the West – and is a direct effort to keep Russia’s influence at bay.

Russia intends to keep Eastern European countries that were once part of the Soviet Union – such as Moldova, Georgia and Ukraine – out of the EU. Historically, a vote to join the EU often precedes a vote to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the Cold War alliance designed to combat Russia.

The vote comes as some call for NATO and the EU to allow war-torn Ukraine to join – a move seen by others as a risky provocation by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Moldovan authorities have accused a complex network of Russian agents of vote buying, money laundering and illegal financing to influence the results of the presidential election and the referendum on EU membership.

Since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, Moldova has oscillated between pro-Western leadership and pro-Russian leadership at its head.

And earlier this year, the United States pledged some $136 million to Moldova, with its population of about 3 million, to reduce its dependence on Russian energy and counter disinformation Russian.

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National police chief Viorel Cernauteanu said more than 130,000 Moldovans – or 5% of the country’s voters – were bribed by a Russian-run network to vote against the referendum and in favor of pro-refugee candidates. Russia. attack.”

“We are facing a widespread phenomenon of financing and corruption aimed at disrupting the electoral process in Moldova,” Cernauteanu told reporters.

The issue has attracted the attention of American politicians: Senator Ben Cardin, Democrat, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, wrote a letter on Thursday to the CEOs of Meta, Alphabet and Google urging them to commit resources to fight against misinformation. in Moldova.

He said about $15 million was transferred in September alone to accounts opened at Russia’s Promsvyazbank.

Ilan Shor, a pro-Russian oligarch living in exile, recently posted on Telegram a proposal to pay people to vote “no” in the referendum. Shor, who was convicted last year in a scandal involving a billion-dollar theft from Moldovan banks, is believed to be linked to a broader network of Russian state actors determined to keep the nation out of EU.

Meanwhile, outgoing President Maia Sandu presented the October 20 vote as a test of her pro-European policies. Sandu, who is seeking a second term, has long accused Moscow of trying to overthrow his government, a charge Moscow denies.

Writing on his own Telegram channel, Shor said Moldova under Sandu “has been transformed into a police state for good,” referring to the detention of five of his supporters by prosecutors this week for illegal financing of political parties.

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

“Moldova has embarked on a journey of reform, of change, that is why we aspire to join the EU,” Moldova’s deputy chief of mission to the United States, Anton Lungu, told Fox News Digital , adding that he supported the referendum. “We must therefore keep in mind the Soviet heritage and the interest in retaining spheres of influence. This harmful influence is expected to continue until election day.”

Russian proxies in the country would be trained on how to antagonize police and incite them to use agents like tear gas to stoke anxiety and violent clashes ahead of the election.

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Shor and his network are known to pay protesters up to $100 per night to sleep in protest camps. False bomb threats and cyberattacks on schools and government buildings aim to stir up “controlled chaos,” according to Rebekah Koffler, a former senior official at the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and author of “Putin’s Playbook.”.”