UK Sanctions Pro-Russian Network Over Moldova Referendum Bribes

Russ­ian inter­fer­ence in Moldova’s demo­c­ra­t­ic process­es rep­re­sents a sig­nif­i­cant esca­la­tion in the Krem­lin’s cam­paign to under­mine Euro­pean inte­gra­tion in for­mer Sovi­et states. On 04 April 2025, TVP World report­ed that the UK gov­ern­ment imposed sanc­tions tar­get­ing a Russ­ian-backed oper­a­tion that attempt­ed to buy votes against Moldova’s EU mem­ber­ship. The arti­cle begins:

The U.K. has imposed sanc­tions on a net­work of pro-Russ­ian oper­a­tives it claims was respon­si­ble for an attempt to rig a ref­er­en­dum on Moldo­va join­ing the Euro­pean Union. British offi­cials said that a non-prof­it Russ­ian group called Evrazia, act­ing on behalf of fugi­tive oli­garch Ilan Shor, had paid around $15 mil­lion in bribes to 130,000 peo­ple to encour­age a ‘no’ vote in the poll last Octo­ber. Vot­ers even­tu­al­ly backed the ‘yes’ camp by a wafer-thin mar­gin, with the Euro­pean Union accus­ing Rus­sia of “unprece­dent­ed inter­fer­ence” in the for­mer Sovi­et coun­try, which is sen­si­tive­ly locat­ed between Ukraine and EU mem­ber state Romania…

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Key Points

• British offi­cials have sanc­tioned the orga­ni­za­tion Evrazia along with three women linked to Shor’s net­work, impos­ing trav­el bans and asset freezes.
• The bribes alleged­ly ranged from $50 month­ly for “sup­port­ers” to over $2,500 month­ly for “lead­ers” of the anti-EU campaign.
• Despite exten­sive inter­fer­ence efforts, Moldova’s ref­er­en­dum on EU mem­ber­ship nar­row­ly passed in favor of the “yes” camp.
• Offi­cials sus­pect sim­i­lar inter­fer­ence occurred in Moldova’s con­cur­rent pres­i­den­tial elec­tions held along­side the referendum.

Russian Interference in Moldova: Elections, Destabilization, and EU Challenges

Recent reports from Glob­al Influ­ence Oper­a­tions Review (GIOR) high­light esca­lat­ing Russ­ian inter­fer­ence in Moldo­va, focus­ing on desta­bi­liza­tion and elec­toral manip­u­la­tion. Moldovan Prime Min­is­ter Dorin Recean accused Russ­ian agents of spend­ing €200 mil­lion on vote-buy­ing cam­paigns to influ­ence the 2024 pres­i­den­tial elec­tion and EU mem­ber­ship ref­er­en­dum (source), with the UK impos­ing sanc­tions on the pro-Russ­ian Evrazia net­work linked to fugi­tive oli­garch Ilan Shor for bribery schemes aimed at sway­ing the ref­er­en­dum (source). Despite these efforts, Moldova’s pro-EU agen­da pre­vailed, with Pres­i­dent Maia San­du re-elect­ed and the EU ref­er­en­dum nar­row­ly pass­ing (source). Con­cur­rent­ly, Russ­ian intel­li­gence oper­a­tions alleged­ly tar­get­ed the autonomous region of Gagauzia, aim­ing to pro­voke sep­a­ratist ten­sions and under­mine Moldova’s gov­ern­ment (source). These devel­op­ments align with broad­er Krem­lin strate­gies to desta­bi­lize East­ern Euro­pean democ­ra­cies and counter EU inte­gra­tion efforts. Moldova’s upcom­ing par­lia­men­tary elec­tions in late 2025 are expect­ed to be a crit­i­cal test for its Euro­pean tra­jec­to­ry amidst ongo­ing exter­nal threats.

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