Russia maintains that the pro-Russian candidate was the winner and does not recognize Maia Sandu’s victory. Openly pro-Western, the Moldovan leader accused the Kremlin of interfering in the country’s politics.
This Tuesday Russia questioned the legitimacy of Maia Sandu as president of Moldova, claiming that Sunday’s elections in the former Soviet republic were neither fair nor democratic.
“As far as Sandu is concerned, she is not… president of her country, because in her own territory the majority of the population did not vote for her,” said Kremlin (presidency) spokesman Dmitri Peskov. .
“It is an extremely divided society,” he added, quoted by the Spanish agency EFE.
Peskov was referring to the fact that Sandu was re-elected thanks to the diaspora vote, since, among those registered in Moldova, the majority of votes went to the pro-Russian candidate Alexandr Stoianoglo.
The Kremlin spokesman reported that hundreds of thousands of Moldovans living in Russia were deprived of the possibility of voting because “only two polling stations were opened” in the country, as in the first round. Peskov stated that the elections cannot be considered fair.
“These elections were neither democratic nor clean. “They were full of manipulations, electoral manipulations,” said the Kremlin spokesman.
Regarding future relations with Sandu, Peskov stated that the Moldovan leader showed “no interest” in developing good relations with Moscow.
Peskov denied any Russian interference in the election, although Moldovan prosecutors accused exiled oligarch Ilan Shor of trying to buy votes with transfers from Russian banks.
The Russian president’s spokesman also accused Moldova of persecuting Russian media and opposition parties, a policy he called “undemocratic and authoritarian.”
Maia Sandu, 52, was re-elected with 55.3% of the vote, compared to 44.6% for Alexandr Stoianoglo, a 57-year-old former prosecutor supported by pro-Russian socialists.
According to pro-Russian political forces in Moldova, Stoianoglo received the support of 51.19% of voters living in the country.
As in the first round of the presidential elections and in the pro-European referendum on October 20, the 300,000 Moldovans who voted abroad tipped the balance.
Sandu, who accused Moscow of trying to destabilize the country with numerous hybrid attacks, was congratulated by European leaders and by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, whom he has supported since the Russian invasion in February 2022.
Moldova is sharply divided, with the diaspora and the capital, Chisinau, predominantly in favor of EU integration, and the rural areas and two regions, the breakaway province of Transnistria and autonomous Gagauzia, oriented towards Russia.
With more than 2.4 million inhabitants, Moldova is considered one of the poorest countries in Europe.
Moldova is one of nine states currently recognized as candidates for EU membership, along with Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine.
The country began EU accession negotiations in December 2023.
Source: Observadora
