\u201cWhile just a few hundred kilometers from your capital, Russia\u2019s war of aggression against Ukraine is ongoing, it\u2019s crucial to underscore that Moldova\u2019s choice to join the European Union is one in favor of peace and the rule of law,\u201d said Macron.<\/p>\n
The French president went on to denounce \u201cKremlin propaganda,\u201d which he said aims to paint Europeans as warmongers trying to prolong the war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose are lies,\u201d said Macron. \u201cUnlike Russia, the European Union threatens no one and respects the sovereignty of all \u2026 The European Union is in no way the Soviet Union.\u201d<\/p>\n
The rare visit and endorsement by three of Europe\u2019s most powerful leaders is designed to offer an electoral boost for Moldova\u2019s pro-EU President Maia Sandu ahead of a critical parliamentary election on Sept. 28.<\/p>\n
Sandu, who was narrowly reelected president last year and has staked her future on Moldova\u2019s EU membership bid, warned in her speech about continued efforts by Russia to sway the election in Moscow\u2019s favor and deceive voters about the EU\u2019s true intentions in Ukraine and elsewhere.<\/p>\n
A country of 2.4 million people sandwiched between Romania and Ukraine, Moldova is a key target for Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has opted for hybrid tactics \u2014 from disinformation campaigns to vote-buying \u2014 to try to gain control of the country while waging a kinetic war against Ukraine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWhile just a few hundred kilometers from your capital, Russia\u2019s war of aggression against Ukraine is ongoing, it\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":378135,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[1111,13071,5898,33,28284,34,2000,299,5187,36,1945,2307,1824,51099,13491,770,1438,7338,332,657,333,335],"class_list":{"0":"post-378134","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-belarus","9":"tag-disinformation","10":"tag-donald-tusk","11":"tag-elections","12":"tag-elections-in-europe","13":"tag-emmanuel-macron","14":"tag-eu","15":"tag-europe","16":"tag-european","17":"tag-france","18":"tag-friedrich-merz","19":"tag-georgia","20":"tag-germany","21":"tag-maia-sandu","22":"tag-moldova","23":"tag-poland","24":"tag-romania","25":"tag-rule-of-law","26":"tag-russia","27":"tag-ukraine","28":"tag-vladimir-putin","29":"tag-war-in-ukraine"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115101833872477216","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378134\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}