Moldova Risks Becoming Putin’s Trojan Horse in Europe [Video]

A referendum in Moldova on EU membership that narrowly passed was hailed as a victory against Russia but accusations of Moscow’s continuing interference and influence in the former Soviet republic could pose problems for Brussels.

The result was on a knife edge in the east European country before it emerged that a sliver of a majority (50.46 percent) of voters backed changing the constitution to include the possibility of EU membership.

Hours before the result and with the “yes” vote lagging, pro-Western president Maia Sandu told an emergency press conference that “foreign forces” had used cash and propaganda to influence the result in which the “yes” vote won following late support from Moldova’s foreign diaspora.

But the referendum—held in conjunction with a presidential election in which Sandu got most votes but not enough to avoid a second round—was beset by accusationsthat Moscow had bought votes, funneled cash through proxies to ordinary voters and used social media to sow fears about EU …