Moldova's high-profile EU referendum deals a blow to Putin

Moldova has voted by a narrow majority to join the European Union – meaning the former Soviet republic has narrowly agreed to a political rapprochement with the West and away from Russia's influence.

Only 50.39 percent of the Eastern European country's population supported the idea of ​​becoming part of the EU in Sunday's high-profile referendum – with the country's president, Maia Sandu, warning that the vote had been marred by “unprecedented” outside interference . The close outcome caused uproar around the world as, according to the BBC, the referendum was expected to go smoothly as polls in Moldova all pointed to a clear majority in favor of joining the EU, but the result will still be a blow to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The EU specifically blamed Russia for attempting to undermine the referendum in Moldova, with EU spokesman Peter Stano telling Reuters of “intimidation and foreign interference by Russia and its proxies in the run-up to this vote.” There were allegations that Moscow ran a propaganda campaign and bribed Moldovans to vote in exchange for cash. For example, Russia-based fugitive fraud tycoon Ilan Shor took to social media to openly offer to pay Moldovans to vote “no.”

Moldova is the second poorest country in Europe after Ukraine, as measured by a metric (gross national income converted into dollars using purchasing power parity rates) used by the website World Population Review.

“Criminal groups… have attacked our country with tens of millions of euros, lies and propaganda, using the most nefarious means to trap our citizens and our nation in insecurity and instability,” Sandu said after the vote.

The Kremlin denied interfering in the referendum – and demanded evidence to back up the claims – and baselessly branded Moldova's referendum as “unfree” because the pro-EU vote was “difficult to explain”.

Newsweek attempted to email the Kremlin and the government of Moldova for comment.

The controversy follows allegations of Russian interference in another EU referendum in which the United Kingdom narrowly voted to leave the bloc in 2016, in what was dubbed “Brexit.” The US has also accused Russia of spreading disinformation to influence next month's presidential election after it tried to manipulate early American votes.

Moldova, which has a population of 2.6 million and borders Romania and Ukraine, is caught in a tug-of-war between the competing influences of Russia and the West. Historically, the country has been firmly within Russia's sphere of influence, but now it is on the verge of finally moving away from Moscow's sphere of influence. Sandu has been following a pro-European path for four years.

A presidential election was also held on Sunday, with the two votes taking place simultaneously.

Sandu won with 42 percent of the vote, while her rival Alexandr Stoianoglo (who is backed by the pro-Russian Socialist Party) took 26 percent – a better result for him than polls had predicted, according to Reuters. There will now be a runoff election between the two politicians on November 3rd.

Moldova has already begun the long process of formally joining the EU, but it was hoped that a clear referendum on membership would underpin the plans. Instead, the shaky victory has left that position looking weaker than before, while Sandu now faces another campaign to retain the presidency next month.