Once again, Transnistria is the plug in the side of Moldova. The Moldovan Republic tries to bother the heavy hand of Vladimir Putin with a parliamentary vote that will decide not only how to distribute the distribution 101 seats of the classroom, but above all the geopolitical orientation of a republic stuck between Romania and Ukrainian: on one side the European Union, on the other Russia.
The effort of the Kremlin to influence the vote
At the end of the seats of the elections of today 28 September, there was a turnout of 51.9 percent. No exit poll was conducted for this electoral round. The surveys have so far told a head to head between the Action and Solidarity Party (PAS) Europeanist of President Maia Sandu and the Philorussian patriotic blockade of the former president Igor Dodon.
Russian disinformation to influence the vote in Moldova: “Born and EU want to conquer it”
The Kremlin has invested millions to buy votes and feed disorders with trolls, sabotages, infiltrated, false bomb alarms and cyberattacchi. In Moldova, between yesterday and today, the infrastructures relating to the electoral process have been subjected to several attempts to computer attacks, causing the blockage of about 4 thousand sites, announced the Moldovan Prime Minister Dorin Recean, underlining that all the attacks were detected and neutralized in real time.
Suspicions on buses of voters transferred from Russia
The diaspora will once again be decisive: over one and a half million Moldovans abroad. To make the picture more uncertain is the unknown transnistria, with its 277 thousand voters under separatist control. In the pro-Russian separatist region, citizens were able to vote only if in possession of a Moldovan passport, going to the seats set up in Chisinau, in the border towns such as Rezina and Varnita and in different villages of the so-called safety area. Just on the bridge that connects Ribnița to Rezina, on the side controlled by the Moldovan authorities, long cars from the left bank of the Dniester were formed.
According to the Promo-Lex independent observation mission, organized transport episodes were recorded in Causeni: at the early hours of the morning, about 70 people arrived together on board 18 cars with transnistrian plates, while in another case ten voters, who came down from two vehicles, openly discussed who voting by consulting a Telegram channel.
The Moldovan police also announced an investigation into groups of voters brought with buses from Russia to Belarus to participate in the vote, a practice prohibited by law and deemed an attempt to illegally influence the elections. In some videos spread by the police, passengers appear in the festive climate, singing Russian and Moldovan songs.
Even in Moscow, in front of the two seats set up for the Moldovan Diaspora, there have been long rows of voters. Already in 2024, journalistic investigations had documented similar initiatives supported by the Kremlin, with travel organized to Azerbaijan, Belarus and Turkey to encourage the pro-Russian candidate Alexandr Stoianoglo, then defeated by the current Europeanist president Maia Sandu.
