Russian cash for votes flows into neighboring Ukraine as the country conducts elections

Sniffer dogs at Chisinau airport have been hard at work in recent months, searching for funds that could be evidence of Russian meddling in Moldovan politics.

Ami, a black beagle, sniffs out every rolled suitcase on the baggage claim belt very well. If she discovers cash, she freezes it. Back in May, she did that a lot.

That’s when customs officers began detecting large sums of money on passengers arriving via connecting flights from Moscow. People who have never left Moldova before are returning after a few days in Russia with lots of notes.

“Most people had money: 2,000, 3,000, 7,000 euros,” recalls Ruslan Alexandrov, head of customs at Chisinau Airport. The money itself is not illegal but tends to be suspicious.

“There are certain flights: Moscow-Istanbul-Chisinau, Moscow-Yerevan-Chisinau,” the head of customs explained. “Normally people don’t come with that much money. Not from Moscow.”

So police and prosecutors began seizing the cash. In just one day, they made $1.5 million (£1.2 million). No one asked for their money back.

Authorities believe the cash was part of a large ongoing operation to buy political influence run by a fugitive. Moldovan tycoon named Ilan Shor. Convicted of massive fraud in Chisinau, he now resides in Russia and the country will not extradite him.

Ahead of two important votes this weekend, the capital’s airport is on alert. Flights from all “high-risk” routes were detected by sniffer dogs and at least half of passengers had to stop for additional baggage scanning.

On Sunday, President Maia Sandu will run for re-election on a staunchly pro-EU platform, challenged by 10 other candidates. Many people openly sympathize with Moscow; some people consider Moldova a “bridge”.

Voters will also vote in a referendum on whether to include Moldova’s goal of joining the EU in the constitution. In fact, membership talks have begun but the country has been at war over political direction for decades, ever since Moldova gained independence from Moscow when the Soviet Union collapsed.

That East-West tug of war has intensified since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. President Sandu – a former World Bank economist first elected on a promise to clean up corruption – subsequently pushed Moldova to turn more strongly toward the West. She began publicly identifying Vladimir Putin’s Russia as a major security threat.

The Kremlin denies having any role in Chisinau politics, but Officials here accuse Russia of operating through proxies disrupt and destabilize the country.

“I don’t know where else we have seen such a blatant and public attempt to corrupt an election,” Moldova’s chief anti-corruption prosecutor Veronica Dragalin told me this week, at her office in Chisinau.

Born in Moldova, she spent most of her life in the US – most recently working as a prosecutor in Los Angeles – before returning to the country and working in a small office on the fifth floor of a Soviet-era block with a broken elevator.

What her team says they discovered while working with police was a pyramid payment scheme openly run from Russia by Ilan Shor and his team.

“We are talking about a foreign country sending money to try to influence an election,” Ms. Dragalin explained. She detailed evidence obtained through wiretaps, police intruders and witnesses – some of which her office has made public.

“At first they tried to make it seem legal. Now it’s almost like they’re blatantly flaunting all the laws… [and] publicly influence voting decisions,” the prosecutor said.

“The main goal is to make the referendum fail.”

According to her team, once the cash couriers were discovered at the airport and that route became more difficult, payments began to go through a sanctioned Russian bank, PSB.

According to Viorel Cernauteanu, the police chief, by early October, up to 130,000 voters had received payments through the program – about 10% of all active voters.

“In September alone, $15 million (£12 million) was transferred,” he told me, explaining how they were able to track the money and the recipient because they provided personal data to open the account. bank account.

Offering money or goods in exchange for votes is a crime punishable by up to five years in prison. Last month, a new law also made accepting money an administrative violation.

But in one of Europe’s poorest countries, it’s not hard to find people willing to accept cash.

Moldovan investigators admit they cannot determine the source of the money paid into PSB bank – whether it was Russian state money, private capital or the cash Ilan Shor was convicted of stealing in Moldova.

But he himself is very open about his actions and goals.

In a typical recent TikTok post, Shor called for a “firm NO” on the EU. He then urged his followers to choose “the president I decide to choose, the one I can work with.”

In return, he promised an additional monthly payment of 5,000 Moldovan lei to pensioners, equivalent to about £200.

Shor fled Moldova in 2019 and was later convicted in absentia of money laundering and embezzlement. Last year, his party was banned and he was also sanctioned by the West for allegedly carrying out “malign influence campaigns” against Russia.

Media companies linked to him, Telegram channels and various political groups have all been blocked. But his message – anti-EU, sympathetic to Moscow – still penetrates.

Some still accept that, as well as cash.

Ilya Uzun is a big fan.

The deputy governor of Gagauzia, a small autonomous region in southern Moldova, also showed respect for Russian President Vladimir Putin. He told me it was because he liked strong leaders who he said “put the country first.”

Russia’s war with neighboring Ukraine has changed nothing on that point.

He admires former US President Donald Trump for the same reason, while his contempt for the EU – which recently placed him under sanctions for “destabilizing activities” – mainly focusing on LGBT rights, which he strongly opposes.

Later, when I asked passersby in the regional capital Comrat about the EU referendum, several replied that they would vote “no” to keep “gay parades” out. out of their town.

Pro-Russian sentiment and Kremlin-led narratives have always been strong in Gagauzia, where many people still watch Russian state TV channels, despite a national ban.

Recently, Shor has invested a lot here. The lieutenant governor repeatedly referred to him as “our political leader” and dismissed the criminal charges as if they were a political matter.

“Try to say a bad word about Ilan Shor here and everyone will spit on you!”, Uzun declared as we drove down Lenin Street past the statue of the Russian revolutionary, a bit dirty but still present. intact.

Many store signs, which are not in the local Gagauz language, are in Russian.

I heard how Shor paid additional pensions to 30,000 people in the area as well as repaved about 50 km (31 miles) of roads between the remote villages we saw.

“Everything he does is for the people,” Uzun enthuses.

The anti-corruption prosecutor later clarified that using donated money for social spending is not a crime. But Shor’s transfer of money to political parties was a crime – and Uzun’s boss, regional governor Evghenia Gutul, was charged with it.

A while later we arrived at the children’s fairground.

“Look at Gagauziyaland, it’s beautiful!” Uzun beamed, leading the way beneath a giant rainbow into a deserted but brand new park.

The wind was cold and the mini dragon roller coaster and merry-go-round we were looking at stood empty and motionless. But Uzun insists people in Gagauzia will vote “the way Shor tells them” — not for money but because they trust him.

“All these rumors that he is the Kremlin’s right-hand man, destabilizing Moldova: that is completely untrue. This is the truth: what you see here,” he waved toward the frozen fairgrounds.

On Friday, the election campaign in Moldova reached its climax.

Maia Sandu was present at her own final protest in the small town of Telenesti, where women dressed in traditional costumes sang and supporters applauded as she passed.

She did not participate in the election debates and did not want to speak to the BBC. But speaking to a few hundred people via microphone, Sandu urged Moldovans to vote for her and the EU as the best path to peace.

“This has been a very difficult campaign with a lot of lies and dirty money,” she told them, asking voters to “get our country out of danger” and stop the opponents. Her opponents “deflected Moldova from the European path”.

That road has been bumpy for many years, with many turns. However, Moldova has made its choice and opened EU accession negotiations.

Now, the referendum Sandu spearheaded to solidify that goal and shore up her own support has become a risky political move.

It looks like the presidential vote won’t be the only vote she has to worry about next Sunday.