By Antonia Langford

Copyright kyivpost

Moldovan President Maia Sandu warned on Tuesday that her country’s democracy is facing a “race against time” from alleged Russian interference in parliamentary elections due to take place later this month.

“The Kremlin’s goal is clear: to capture Moldova through the ballot box, to use us against Ukraine, and to turn us into a launchpad for hybrid attacks on the European Union,” Sandu cautioned in remarks to the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

“If our democracy cannot be protected, then no democracy in Europe is safe,” she finished.

In Sept. 28 parliamentary elections, Sandu’s pro-European Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) will come up against fierce opposition including the Patriotic Bloc, a union of four parties which are seen as very close to Russia.

A poll conducted by iData found on Tuesday that the Patriotic Bloc would win a narrow lead over PAS if parliamentary elections were held today.

In her remarks, Sandu said that the election could be the most significant in Moldova’s history, adding: “The only way forward is to defend our democracies with teeth – and to defend them together.”

In October 2024, Moldova voted in favor of joining the European Union by a razor-thin margin which was swung over the edge by Moldovans living abroad.

At the time, Moscow was accused of trying to influence the vote by funneling cash through proxies to buy votes from locals, alongside using a disinformation campaign on social media to stoke fears about the potential for EU accession to cause a direct conflict with Russia.

Russia was also accused of interfering in 2024’s pivotal presidential runoff, in which Sandu won against Russia-friendly opponent Alexandr Stoianoglo.

On Tuesday, Sandu repeated allegations that Moscow is carrying out a “hybrid war” against Moldova using a toolkit of disinformation, vote-buying, illicit party funding and myriad other tactics.

The Kremlin’s aim, she says, is to pull Moldova away from its path towards the EU and back into the orbit of Russian influence.

“It is a race against time, to anchor our democracy inside the [European] Union, where it will be protected from the greatest threat we face: Russia,” Sandu said.

European Parliament President Roberta Metsola said that Europe stands “united in our support for Moldova and its democratic path to European Union membership” in introductory remarks to MEPs in Strasbourg.

Analysts have warned that the Kremlin has launched a large-scale campaign to sway the parliamentary elections scheduled for later this month.

The transparency tool NewsGuard said in July that the pro-Russian disinformation campaign dubbed Matryoshka, which aims to discredit Moldova’s pro-European government, had significantly ramped up its efforts in the lead-up to the vote.

NewsGuard said that Matryoshka has published an average of three fake stories per week since Moldovan authorities announced the September 2025 election in April.

Some of the featured claims, which were disseminated in Romanian, Russian and English, were that Sandu had embezzled $24 million and that she is addicted to “psychotropic drugs.”

Impersonating outlets such as the BBC, The Economist, Fox News and Vogue, the claims reportedly garnered as many as two million views on Telegram.