The Kremlin has responded to the victory of the pro-European party in Moldova’s elections, which delivered a blow to political figures aligned with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
European Action and Solidarity Party (PAS) headed by President Maia Sandu received the majority (about 50.2 percent) of the vote in Sunday’s ballot, well ahead of the pro-Russian Patriotic Bloc (24.2 percent), according to results published on the election commission’s website with 99.9 percent of votes counted.
Prior to the results, Sandu had warned of “massive Russian interference,” while Patriotic Bloc’s leader Igor Dodon touted suspicions that “the authorities may have intervened politically in the voting and counting process.”
Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said after the results emerged on Monday, “Well, first, the Moldovans should probably resolve this among themselves.”
He added: “As far as we know, some political forces are declaring their disagreement, speaking out about possible violations in the elections. It would be inappropriate for us to make any unfounded assessments in this respect. We should wait to make our estimates until we understand how the political forces will define their positions on these elections,” Peskov added.
This is a developing story to be updated.
