French President Emmanuel Macron has encouraged Moldovans to continue on the path of integration into the European Union ahead of a decisive presidential runoff vote pitting pro-EU incumbent Maia Sandu against Moscow-friendly Alexandr Stoianoglo amid reports of Russian interference that the Kremlin denies.
The November 3 vote comes after Sandu won the first round two weeks earlier with a little more than 42 percent of the vote, not enough to avoid a runoff after Stoianoglo garnered a larger-than-expected 26 percent, followed by business figure Renato Usatii with nearly 14 percent.
Usatii has refused to throw his support behind either candidate, telling his followers to vote as they want.
A simultaneous referendum on Moldova's future integration into the EU held together with the first round passed by a wafer-thin margin of less than 1 percent, raising concerns of outside interference and vote buying by actors associated with Russia, whose decades-long influence in the ex-Soviet republic's politics and economy has been all-but-curbed by the U.S.-educated Sandu.
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As some critics also pointed to the Moldovan voters' less-than-enthusiastic stance toward the EU despite the country gaining much-coveted candidate status and already opening accession talks, Macron, a staunch supporter of Chisinau, urged Moldovans to choose a democratic future.
"At this decisive moment for Moldova and, together with it, for our Europe, I want to convey to the Moldovan citizens a message of courage and hope," Macron wrote on X.
His message appeared to underline the importance of the Moldovan vote for Europe's unity following a harsh defeat of the pro-Western opposition in another ex-soviet republic, Georgia, at the hands of the long-standing Moscow-friendly ruling party amid accusations of Russian interference.
"The European way is that of freedom and democracy, the foundation of a common future," Macron continued, adding, "United we are stronger."
Sandu has repeatedly accused Russia of interference in Moldova's electoral process, claiming that as many as 300,000 votes, or more than 10 percent of the country's population, had been bought by "criminal" groups associated with Ilan Shor, a fugitive Moldovan oligarch who was found guilty of involvement in the disappearance of $1 billion from the banking system of Europe's poorest country in 2014-15.
Shor, sentenced to seven years in 2017, has fled Moldova and is currently said to be living either in Russia or in Israel, whose citizenship he also possesses.
Russia, which still maintains some 1,500 troops in Moldova's separatist Transdniester region, said on November 1 that it was monitoring the runoff, but denied any interference despite accusations to the contrary by Sandu and the West.
"We strongly reject any accusations that we are somehow interfering in this [Moldovan election], we do not do this," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in Moscow, in turn accusing Moldova of stifling pro-Russian voices.
Separately, Moldova's National Anti-Corruption Center (CNA) announced on November 1 that police and prosecutors raided several locations in the country as part of six criminal investigations into electoral corruption.
The CNA said at a news conference in Chisinau that 12 members of Victorie, a political bloc controlled by Shor, are being interrogated for allegedly having bribed people to vote for an unspecified candidate in the second round on November 3.