Moldova joins Ukraine in big step on path to joining EU

Language is the main dividing line here.

Romanian/Moldovan speakers, who represent about 80% of Moldova’s 2.6 million residents, not including Transnistria, are strongly in favour of EU integration.

Ethnic minorities, who include Russians, Ukrainians, Bulgarians and Gagauz, and speak mainly Russian are against.

Moldova’s government says many of them have been heavily influenced by Russia’s “information war”.

The Gagauz, who are a Turkic Christian ethnic group in an autonomous southern region of Moldova, are led by a pro-Kremlin governor called Evgenia Gutul.

She is a known supporter of Ilan Shor and earlier this year Moldova’s EU ambassador Janis Mazeiks complained it was impossible to have a dialogue with her.

Domestically, opinion polls put support for the EU in the 20 October referendum at 55-65%. But factor in the hundreds of thousands of Moldovans who live and work in the European Union, then a Yes-vote seems assured, for the moment at least.

With their votes Maia Sandu could even with outright victory in the first round of the presidential election.

But Russia’s influence is ever-present, whether in the war in neighbouring Ukraine or in the fake news that appears on TikTok or Telegram.

So much so that the government in Chisinau fears Moscow may try to foment violence in the run-up to October’s referendum.

President Sandu has already been targeted in a deep-fake video while another fake has featured a military camp for Moldovan children.

Galina Vasilieva, who edits Romanian and Russian-language news website NewsMaker, says these are seen by Moldovans who are most susceptible to propaganda.

“In the 2016 presidential elections there was a fake clip claiming Maia Sandu had agreed with EU leaders to accept Syrian refugees. Many believed it, and she lost the election.”