A failure for Putin and Russia: the President of Moldova won the elections

The President of Moldova Maya Sandu achieved an important victory tonight (between Sunday and Monday) and won the presidential elections. Sandow secured a second term in office, and her victory caused a great sigh of relief across Europe. On the other hand, on the other hand, in Moscow they were very disappointed with the results of the elections, which to a large extent were a sign of the direction in which the citizens of Moldova wish to go in the coming years – towards the European Union, or towards Russia.Sandu, Moldova’s pro-European president, who is leading Chisinau’s rapprochement with Europe, defeated in the second round of the presidential election Alexander Stojanoglu, an opposition candidate supported by pro-Russian forces in the country. According to the government and Sando’s entourage, Putin’s Russia tried to blatantly interfere in the elections and bring about Stoyanoglu’s victory.

 

 

 

In recent years, and even more so since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, Moldova is getting closer and closer to the European Union, and has already become a candidate to join it, while at the same time moving away from Russia – which casts a heavy shadow over it since the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Sando won by a margin of about 10%, but throughout the evening, until the last moments of the vote count, it was Stojanoglu who led. Only the votes of residents of the Chisinau region and citizens of Moldova living in other countries tipped the scales in favor of the president.

 

Stanislav Scereiro, President Sandu’s national security advisor, yesterday accused Russia of attempting “massive” interference in the elections. In the first round of the elections about two weeks ago, which also included a referendum on Moldova’s accession to the European Union, it was claimed that the party of the Israeli-Moldovan opposition member Ilan Shor, who is in exile in Russia, tried to buy about 300 thousand votes.

 

 

 

Schereiro claimed that the pro-Russian forces in the country tried to take citizens by force and force them to vote against Sandu, using cyber attacks on the main electoral system as well as false reports about bombs and suspicious objects at the polling stations. Against the background of the fact that many citizens living abroad helped tip the scales in Sando’s favor – precisely in Moscow voices were heard claiming that “foreign intervention” was the one that decided against Russia’s interests.

The European Union and the West in general followed the elections with bated breath, especially after the elections in Georgia last week in which the pro-Russian ruling party defeated the pro-European opposition. The president of Georgia, along with a number of reputable polling institutes around the world, claimed that the victory was achieved through fraud and a violation of election laws, and some of the polling institutes estimated that the official results that presented a victory for the government were “statistically impossible”. In doing so, Georgia took another step towards the bosom of Putin and Russia, and moved away from the possibility of joining the European Union in the future.

 

 

 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, as well as French President Macron and German Chancellor Schulz rushed this morning to congratulate Sandu on her victory in the elections. Despite the joy, Moldova is still far from breaking away from Russian influence. In the summer, parliamentary elections will be held, and in Chisinau they fear that Russia will continue to try to exert pressure in various ways to influence the vote. The fact that it is not a landslide victory for Sando raises questions about the political future in the country, which appears to be particularly divided.