Cash for votes: Did Russia interfere in Moldova's EU referendum?

By Jacob Paul (with Emily Maitlis and Jon Sopel)

Russian-aligned forces are allegedly using cash to swing Movlodva’s EU-membership referendum in Moscow’s favour.

In brief…

• “Foreign forces”, likely Russians, are suspected of interfering in a Moldovan referendum on EU membership by buying off 300,000 votes.
• The News Agents speak to journalist Anne Applebaum, who says Russian interference has become a normal part of politics.
• It is “sleep-losing” and “scary” to see money buying votes, The News Agents say.

What’s the story?

It may not just be Elon Musk who is allegedly trying to buy off voters.

Moscow has been accused of election interference once again amid a knife-edge referendum in Moldova as the ex-Soviet state bids for European Union membership.

Polls in the weeks running up to Moldova’s referendum had indicated that the “yes” vote would breeze to a comfortable win.

But on Monday, it was almost neck-and-neck as the “yes” camp received just over 50% of the votes.

With the decision almost split at a late stage in the count, Maia Sandu, Moldova's pro-western president, was quick to allege electoral interference.

She said in an address that the country is suffering an “unprecedented assault on our country’s freedom and democracy” by “foreign forces”.

There is “clear evidence” that “criminal groups” have deliberately tried to “undermine a democratic process” by buying off 300,000 votes to “spread fear and panic in society”, she said.

Sandu is also fighting to hold her position, running on a pro-EU platform in the simultaneous presidential election, the result of which we won’t know for a few more weeks.

Russia had warned Moldovans in advance against voting for Sandu or closer alignment with Europe, with Foreign Minister Sergie Lavrov reportedly saying Moscow could turn Moldova “into the next Ukraine.”

“That's going to send a chill down the spine of the average Moldovan when you see the relentless bombardment that has taken place in Ukraine”, says Jon Sopel.

'The next Ukraine': Did Russia bribe voters in Moldova?

Why is interference suspected?

Earlier this month, customs officers at Moldova’s Chisinau Airport began finding suspicious amounts of cash on passengers arriving via connecting flights from Moscow.

Head of customs at the airport said: “Everyone had money: 2,000, 3,000, 7,000 euros.”

Police and prosecutors say they retrieved around £1.2 million in one day alone, and no-one even asked for their money back.

These people were involved in a scheme by the Russian-based, Moldovan-born oligarch - Ilan Shor - who was trying to buy political influence in Moldova, authorities say.

Shor, the fugitive tycoon, was jailed in absentia for fraud, theft and for trying to pay off a network of at least 130,000 voters to vote “no” and support “our candidate” in the Moldovan elections.

So the alleged interference has not exactly come as a shock.

Back in June, the US, the UK and Canada issued a joint statement saying that they were even anticipating Russian interference in the Moldovan presidential election.

While the Kremlin and Shor have denied allegations of election interference, Russia has long-been accused of meddling in Moldovan politics.

In 2023, Sandu said intelligence from Ukraine uncovered a Russian "plot" to "overthrow the constitutional order" in Moldova.

How common has election interference become?

Journalist Anne Applebaum, who wrote Autocracy Inc, tells The News Agents that Russian interference in democracies stretches far and wide.

The Poles, the Czechs, the Belgians, have all revealed networks of people inside their countries spreading disinformation, she says. Many are Russians, or Russian paid.

This is part of a 10-year Russian project “to amplify the far right and the far left and sometimes separatists, and in particular, anti-European or anti-NATO narratives”, Applebaum says.

But the Russians may not be the only ones getting involved.

“There are other autocracies who now echo and play the same game. I don't know why anybody's surprised by this anymore. It's now a normal part of our politics,” Applebaum adds.

Despite this, she says it “hasn't risen to the level of people understanding the scale of the threat”, arguing people haven’t thought properly about how to tackle Russian disinformation in European democracies.

What’s The News Agents take?

Jon Sopel says it is a “sleep-losing” concern to see what Russia has been doing to prevent Moldova from closer alignment with the West.

Emily Maitlis says Putin’s “biggest fear” is clear if you look at what has happened in Ukraine and Georgia, when these former Soviet states moved “away from his motherland towards the EU”.

“At what point do Western democracies recognise that this is going on”, Emily asks.

She adds: “This is changing minds. This is making countries like Moldova more vulnerable, not just to Russian financial influence, but ultimately, to military influence.”

Jon agrees: “These are things that belong in the 19th centuries, the rotten boroughs. It's the old machine politics going back decades.

“Here we are in 2024 with all the sophistication of election monitoring and all the rest of it, we've even done away with hanging chads. Money is buying votes, not buying influence. Money is buying votes. That's scary.”

Listen to the full discussion on The News Agents.

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