Moldova Protests Russian Election Interference

On 12 Novem­ber 2024, Al Jazeera report­ed that Moldo­va for­mal­ly protest­ed to Rus­si­a’s ambas­sador over alleged elec­tion inter­fer­ence and air­space vio­la­tions, esca­lat­ing ten­sions between the two nations fol­low­ing Moldova’s recent pro-West­ern elec­toral out­come. The arti­cle begins:

Moldo­va has hand­ed a note of protest to the Russ­ian ambas­sador to Chisin­au over alleged inter­fer­ence in its recent elec­tions. The for­eign min­istry in Chisin­au said in a state­ment on Tues­day that it turned over the “note of firm protest” in rela­tion to the “ille­gal and delib­er­ate inter­fer­ence” to envoy Oleg Oze­rov dur­ing a meet­ing at its offices. Moldo­va has accused Rus­sia of seek­ing to influ­ence its recent pres­i­den­tial elec­tion and ref­er­en­dum on join­ing the Euro­pean Union. Rus­sia sought to affect results and dele­git­imise the demo­c­ra­t­ic process, the min­istry com­plained. Chisin­au accused Rus­sia of organ­is­ing inel­i­gi­ble vot­ing, bribery, and secu­ri­ty threats in a bid to influ­ence the votes. Moscow denies try­ing to sway the elec­tion, which was nar­row­ly won by pro-West­ern Pres­i­dent Maia San­du, aid­ed by votes from Moldovans out­side the country.

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Key Points:

1. Moldo­va accus­es Rus­sia of orga­niz­ing ille­gal vot­ing and bribery in recent elections
2. Pro-West­ern Pres­i­dent Maia San­du won a nar­row vic­to­ry despite alleged interference
3. Two Russ­ian drones report­ed­ly vio­lat­ed Moldovan air­space dur­ing Ukraine attacks
4. Rus­sia denies inter­fer­ence claims and refus­es to rec­og­nize elec­tion results