EU grins, Russia grouses after pro-Europe forces win Moldovan election

Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala, who faces being ousted from office by populist right-winger Andrej Babiš in an election this weekend, expressed hope for his own country.

“Great news from Moldova! … Voters in Moldova gave a clear stop to the pro-Russian parties. This is hope also for Czechia; please come to the polls and don’t let the country fall to Russian collaborators,” Fiala wrote.

The reaction from Moscow, however, was rather more sour.

Russia wasted little time in denouncing Moldova’s election outcome, casting the victory for Sandu’s party as being illegitimate and orchestrated.

Alexander Gusev, a Kremlin-aligned political scientist and professor at the Russian Academy of Sciences, accused Sandu of manipulating the process to cement her pro-European course.

“The Moldovan authorities, and Sandu personally, are doing everything to ensure that these elections effectively confirm her legitimacy and the course toward European integration,” he told the state-owned news agency RIA Novosti. “For them there is no such thing as justice, they have a simple task and they carry it out like puppets of Europe.”