Moldovan President Maia Sandu has accused Russia of expanding its interference in the country’s upcoming parliamentary elections, scheduled for September 28, by targeting voters living abroad.
She made the remarks in an interview with the Financial Times on September 14.
Sandu, who relied on the diaspora to secure a second presidential term last year and to win a “yes” vote on EU membership, said Moscow had intensified its online disinformation campaign. “The Russians are targeting the diaspora,” she stated.
According to Sandu, Moscow is exploiting Russian Orthodox priests to spread propaganda and using the “Matryoshka” bot network to flood social media with fake content disguised as legitimate foreign reporting.
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She estimated that Russia spent the equivalent of 1 percent of Moldova’s GDP interfering in the 2024 elections.
Sandu warned that the Kremlin’s methods are now evolving. She noted that criminals on Moscow’s payroll are also being used to provoke unrest in Moldovan prisons.
“It’s really a very wide range of tools that Russia is using . . . trying to overwhelm our institutions,” she said.
Highlighting the mounting pressure from Russia, Sandu emphasized that EU integration is “the only way for us to survive as a democracy.” She added: “We do believe that the EU should find a solution so that both Moldova and Ukraine will get to the next steps.”
Earlier, Maia Sandu cautioned that EU membership is essential for her country’s survival amid escalating Russian aggression, telling lawmakers in Strasbourg that Moscow has deployed its full range of hybrid warfare tactics against the small Eastern European state.
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