Moldovans will go to the polls on Sunday in an election mired in meddling attempts that Western security officials and cyber intelligence firms say originate in Russia. Moldovan President Maia Sandu told the European Parliament on Monday that Russia is spending “hundreds of millions of euros” to subvert the election.

In one of the most recent attacks, hackers hijacked Wi-Fi routers to attempt to overload the servers of Moldova’s Central Electoral Commission, the country’s police chief Viorel Cernăuțeanu told local media on Wednesday, in what is known as a distributed denial-of-service attack.

Like Ukraine, Moldova is a “laboratory” for confronting “some of the most advanced hybrid threats of our times,” Nistor said. “This makes us a natural test bed for Europe, a place where we can test new tools [and] new policies.” 

According to Stanislav Secrieru, national security adviser to Sandu, “The scale of Russian interference today far exceeds what we saw in 2024.”

“We’re seeing unprecedented efforts: more money to buy votes, more AI-driven disinformation amplified by troll networks, and more resources dedicated to orchestrating street violence. Russia is pulling out all the stops to tip this election,” he told POLITICO.

Support for Moldova from the United States has waned, in part when it dismantled its development agency USAID earlier this year, putting more of the burden on Europe. 

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