DISINFO: Europe does not care about violations in Moldova referendum
SUMMARY
Formally, the referendum took place; however, the majority of Moldovan citizens voted against integration into the EU, and the difference of a fraction of a per cent, which ensured the "victory" of the EU supporters, was achieved thanks to the uncontrolled ballots of Moldovan citizens from the US and Canada. Of course, Moldovans did not choose the illusory "Europaradise", but their country's security and social well-being.
However, as we see, the same vaunted Europe does not care about violations in the referendum, human rights and democracy, since the same Europe, in favour of its interests, simply kept silent when Moldovans who disagreed with the policy oriented towards European integration were arrested, persecuted and broken.
RESPONSE
This unsubstantiated allegation is part of a wider Russian interference campaign in Moldova.
The EU condemns the unprecedented malign interference by Russia in Moldova’s presidential elections and constitutional referendum.
According to the preliminary findings and conclusions of the OSCE’s International Election Observation Mission, “The 20 October presidential election and constitutional referendum [in Moldova] were well-managed and contestants campaigned freely in an environment characterized by concerns over illicit foreign interference and active disinformation efforts. […] The election administration worked professionally and demonstrated impartiality in their decision-making”.
It was Russia who tried to alter the results of the Moldovan election through a series of measures such as disinformation campaigns, buying votes, training Moldovan citizens in paramilitary camps to stage protests, and busing voters to overseas polling stations. As this did not achieve the results expected by Moscow, pro-Kremlin outlets and Russian officials launched a baseless narrative about electoral fraud. See our article on Moscow’s anger and plan for Moldova.
President Maia Sandu said that the narrow result was the product of foreign interference in Moldovan politics and that Moldova had suffered an "unprecedented assault on democracy". In recent weeks, Moldovan authorities uncovered a giant scheme of payments coming from Moscow – and paid people to vote against her and the EU referendum.
See here for other examples of pro-Kremlin disinformation about Moldova.