Moldova holds key polls on EU future amid fears of Russian meddling

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Moldovan President Maia Sandu delivers a speech during a rally to support a European path for the country, in Chisinau, Moldova. (REUTERS/File Photo)
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Updated 20 October 2024
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Moldova holds key polls on EU future amid fears of Russian meddling

  • The elections are a litmus test of the former Soviet republic’s pro-European turn under incumbent President Maia Sandu
  • ncumbent President Maia Sandu cut ties with Moscow and applied for Moldova to join the EU following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022

CHISINAU: Moldovans vote on Sunday in a presidential election and a referendum on joining the European Union, with fears of Russian meddling in the two key electoral tests amid the war in neighboring Ukraine.
The elections are a litmus test of the former Soviet republic’s pro-European turn under incumbent President Maia Sandu, who is seeking a second term in the country of 2.6 million.
Police have made hundreds of arrests after discovering a massive vote-buying scheme, warning this week that up to a quarter of the ballots cast could be tainted by Russian cash.
“Our country is at a crossroads... A group of thieves are trying to deceive people, promise them money, give them false information,” Prime Minister Dorin Recean said, urging Moldovans “to be vigilant.”
Sandu, who beat a Moscow-backed incumbent in 2020, cut ties with Moscow and applied for Moldova to join the EU following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
She has repeatedly sounded the alarm on Russian efforts to interfere in the vote — a claim Moscow has rejected.
Washington also issued a fresh warning this week, while the EU passed new sanctions on several Moldovans.

Sandu, 52, a former World Bank economist, is the clear favorite in the race.
But with only 35.8 percent of voter support, she is predicted to fall short of the majority needed to avoid a second round on November 3, according to the latest polls by the WatchDog think tank.
Her 10 competitors include Alexandr Stoianoglo, a 57-year-old former prosecutor supported by the pro-Russian Socialists, who is polling at nine percent.
Renato Usatii, a 45-year-old former mayor of Moldova’s second largest city of Balti, is predicted to win 6.4 percent.
Polls open at 7:00 am (0400 GMT) and close at 9:00 pm, with partial results expected from around 10:00 pm.
For the referendum, 55.1 percent of those surveyed have said they would vote “yes,” while 34.5 percent said they were set on “no.”
The referendum asks if the constitution should be modified to include joining the EU as an objective. The 27-member bloc began membership talks with Chisinau this June.
For any result to be valid, participation must reach at least 33 percent. Some pro-Russian parties have campaigned for a boycott.
“The future of Moldova will depend on what the people will choose... I hope we will take firm steps toward the European Union,” accountant Lidia Ceban said.
Sandu has been touring the country to say that joining the EU will help improve life in one of Europe’s poorest nations.
“The fate of our country, for many decades to come, rests on this (Sunday’s) decision,” Sandu said at a campaign event.
Sandu’s critics say she has not done enough to fight inflation and reform the judiciary.
In his campaign, Stoianoglo — who was fired as prosecutor by Sandu — has called for the “restoration of justice,” while Usatii has said he is the best choice as he is “the only one who is not controlled either by the East or the West.”

Fears of Russian interference are looming large.
Millions of dollars from Russia to corrupt voters were funnelled into the country by people affiliated to Ilan Shor, a fugitive businessman and former politician, police said earlier this month.
The “unprecedented” scheme could taint up to 300,000 ballots, according to police.
Convicted in absentia last year for fraud, Shor regularly accuses Moldova of being a “police state” and the West’s “obedient puppet.”
“Russia is hard at work. They have never (before) put in so much money,” Romanian historian Armand Gosu, who specializes in Russia and the former Soviet space, told AFP.
In addition to the vote buying, hundreds of young people were found to have been trained in Russia and the Balkans to create “mass disorder” in Moldova, including in tactics to provoke law enforcement, according to police.
 


Police break up Nigeria protest as anger mounts over killings in southern state

Updated 16 June 2025
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Police break up Nigeria protest as anger mounts over killings in southern state

  • Gunmen attacked the village of Yelewata in Benue state, killiing over 100, according to Amnesty International
  • Pope Leo XIV condemned the killings, in comments during his Sunday prayer in Rome, calling it a “terrible massacre”

JOS, Nigeria: Police fired tear gas to disperse protesters in the central city of Makurdi on Sunday, as anger mounted over the killing of dozens of people by gunmen in a nearby town.
Gunmen attacked the village of Yelewata on Friday night in a region that has seen a surge in violence amid clashes between Muslim Fulani herders and mostly Christian farmers competing for land and resources.
Police fired tear gas to break up a protest by thousands of people, witnesses said, as demonstrators called on the state’s governor to act swiftly to halt the cycle of violence.
“The protesters were given specific time by the security to make their peaceful protest and disperse,” Tersoo Kula, spokesperson for Benue state’s governor, told AFP.
John Shiaondo, a local journalist, said he was covering the “peaceful protest” when the police moved in and started firing tear gas.
“Many people ran away for fear of injuries, and I also left the scene for my safety,” he told AFP.
Joseph Hir, who took part in the protest, said people were protesting the killings in Benue when the police intervened.
“We are not abusing anyone, we are also not tampering with anybody’s property, we are discharging our rights to peacefully protest the unabated killings of our people, and now the police are shooting tear gas at us,” he told AFP.

Benue state governor Hyacinth Alia told a news conference late Sunday that the death toll had reached 59 in Yelewata, though residents said the toll could exceed 100.
“We will move very quickly to set up a five-man panel... to enable us find out who the culprits are, to know who the sponsors are and to identify the victims and to see how justice will be applied,” Alia said.
Amnesty International put the death toll at more than 100.
The rights group called the attack “horrifying,” saying it “shows the security measures (the) government claims to be implementing in the state are not working.”
Pope Leo XIV also condemned the killings, in comments during his Sunday prayer in Rome, calling it a “terrible massacre” in which mostly displaced civilians were murdered with “extreme cruelty.”
He said “rural Christian communities” in Benue were victims of incessant violence.
Authorities typically blame such attacks on Fulani herders but the latter say they are targets of violence and land seizures too.
Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu said in a statement Sunday night he had “directed the security agencies to act decisively and arrest perpetrators of these evil acts on all sides of the conflict and prosecute them.
“Political and community leaders in Benue State must act responsibly and avoid inflammatory utterances that could further increase tensions and killings,” he said.
Governor Alia said earlier that “tactical teams had begun arriving from the federal government and security reinforcements are being deployed in vulnerable areas.”
“The state’s joint operational units are also being reinforced, and the government will not let up its efforts to defend the lives and property of all residents,” he said.
Attacks in the region, part of what is known as the central belt of Nigeria, are often motivated by religious or ethnic differences.
Two weeks ago, gunmen killed 25 people in two attacks in Benue state.
More than 150 people were killed in massacres across Plateau and Benue states in April.


EU chief calls at G7 for world to ‘avoid protectionism’

Updated 16 June 2025
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EU chief calls at G7 for world to ‘avoid protectionism’

  • “Let us keep trade between us fair, predictable and open. All of us need to avoid protectionism,” von der Leyen says

KANANASKIS, Canada: EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen on Sunday called on G7 leaders to avoid protectionist trade policies as leaders from the industrialized countries arrived at their annual summit.

“Let us keep trade between us fair, predictable and open. All of us need to avoid protectionism,” von der Leyen said at a press briefing, with US President Donald Trump’s tariff onslaught certain to enter the conversations at the three-day event.


North Korea troops suffered more than 6,000 casualties in Ukraine war, UK defense intelligence says

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, center, meets soldiers who took part in a training in North Korea, on March 13, 2024. (AFP)
Updated 16 June 2025
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North Korea troops suffered more than 6,000 casualties in Ukraine war, UK defense intelligence says

  • North Korea and Russia are under UN sanctions — Kim for his nuclear weapons program, and Moscow for the Ukraine war

SEOUL: North Korean troops have suffered more than 6,000 casualties fighting for Russia in the war against Ukraine, more than half of the about 11,000 soldiers initially sent to the Kursk region, the British Defense Ministry said in a post on X on Sunday.

 


Trump directs ICE to expand deportations in Democratic-run cities, undeterred by protests

Updated 16 June 2025
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Trump directs ICE to expand deportations in Democratic-run cities, undeterred by protests

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump on Sunday directed federal immigration officials to prioritize deportations from Democratic-run cities after large protests have erupted in Los Angeles and other major cities against the Trump administration’s immigration policies.
Trump in a social media posting called on ICE officials “to do all in their power to achieve the very important goal of delivering the single largest Mass Deportation Program in History.”
He added that to reach the goal officials ”must expand efforts to detain and deport Illegal Aliens in America’s largest Cities, such as Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York, where Millions upon Millions of Illegal Aliens reside.”
Trump’s declaration comes after weeks of increased enforcement, and after Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff and main architect of Trump’s immigration policies, said US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers would target at least 3,000 arrests a day, up from about 650 a day during the first five months of Trump’s second term.
At the same time, the Trump administration has directed immigration officers to pause arrests at farms, restaurants and hotels, after Trump expressed alarm about the impact aggressive enforcement is having on those industries, according to a US official familiar with the matter who spoke only on condition of anonymity.


Friends say Minnesota shooting suspect was deeply religious and conservative

Updated 16 June 2025
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Friends say Minnesota shooting suspect was deeply religious and conservative

  • Friends told the AP that they knew Boelter was religious and conservative, but that he didn’t talk about politics often and didn’t seem extreme

NEW YORK: The man accused of assassinating the top Democrat in the Minnesota House held deeply religious and politically conservative views, telling a congregation in Africa two years ago that the US was in a “bad place” where most churches didn’t oppose abortion.
Vance Luther Boelter, 57, was at the center of a massive multistate manhunt on Sunday, a day after authorities say he impersonated a police officer and gunned down former House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, in their home outside Minneapolis. Democratic Gov. Tim Walz described the shooting as “a politically motivated assassination.”
Sen. John Hoffman, also a Democrat, and his wife, Yvette, were shot earlier by the same gunman at their home nearby but survived.
Friends and former colleagues interviewed by The Associated Press described Boelter as a devout Christian who attended an evangelical church and went to campaign rallies for President Donald Trump. Records show Boelter registered to vote as a Republican while living in Oklahoma in 2004 before moving to Minnesota where voters don’t list party affiliation.
Near the scene at Hortman’s home, authorities say they found an SUV made to look like those used by law enforcement. Inside they found fliers for a local anti-Trump “No Kings” rally scheduled for Saturday and a notebook with names of other lawmakers. The list also included the names of abortion rights advocates and health care officials, according to two law enforcement officials who could not discuss details of the ongoing investigation and spoke to AP on condition of anonymity.
Both Hortman and Hoffman were defenders of abortion rights at the state legislature.
Suspect not believed to have made any public threats before attacks, official says
Drew Evans, superintendent of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, said at a briefing on Sunday that Boelter is not believed to have made any public threats before the attacks. Evans asked the public not to speculate on a motivation for the attacks. “We often want easy answers for complex problems,” he told reporters. “Those answers will come as we complete the full picture of our investigation.”
Friends told the AP that they knew Boelter was religious and conservative, but that he didn’t talk about politics often and didn’t seem extreme.
“He was right-leaning politically but never fanatical, from what I saw, just strong beliefs,” said Paul Schroeder, who has known Boelter for years.
A glimpse of suspect’s beliefs on abortion during a trip to Africa
Boelter, who worked as a security contractor, gave a glimpse of his beliefs on abortion during a trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2023. While there, Boelter served as an evangelical pastor, telling people he had first found Jesus as a teenager.
“The churches are so messed up, they don’t know abortion is wrong in many churches,” he said, according to an online recording of one sermon from February 2023. Still, in three lengthy sermons reviewed by the AP, he only mentioned abortion once, focusing more on his love of God and what he saw as the moral decay in his native country.
He appears to have hidden his more strident beliefs from his friends back home.
“He never talked to me about abortion,” Schroeder said. “It seemed to be just that he was a conservative Republican who naturally followed Trump.”
A married father with five children, Boelter and his wife own a sprawling 3,800-square-foot house on a large rural lot about an hour from downtown Minneapolis that the couple bought in 2023 for more than a half-million dollars.
Seeking to reinvent himself
He worked for decades in managerial roles for food and beverage manufacturers before seeking to reinvent himself in middle age, according to resumes and a video he posted online.
After getting an undergraduate degree in international relations in his 20s, Boelter went back to school and earned a master’s degree and then a doctorate in leadership studies in 2016 from Cardinal Stritch University, a private Catholic college in Wisconsin that has since shut down. While living in Wisconsin, records show Boelter and his wife Jenny founded a nonprofit corporation called Revoformation Ministries, listing themselves as the president and secretary.
After moving to Minnesota about a decade ago, Boelter volunteered for a position on a state workforce development board, first appointed by then-Gov. Mark Dayton, a Democrat, in 2016, and later by Democratic Gov. Tim Walz. He served through 2023.
In that position, he may have crossed paths with one of his alleged victims. Hoffman served on the same board, though authorities said it was not immediately clear how much the two men may have interacted.
Launching a security firm
Records show Boelter and his wife started a security firm in 2018. A website for Praetorian Guard Security Services lists Boelter’s wife as the president and CEO while he is listed as the director of security patrols. The company’s homepage says it provides armed security for property and events and features a photo of an SUV painted in a two-tone black and silver pattern similar to a police vehicle, with a light bar across the roof and “Praetorian” painted across the doors. Another photo shows a man in black tactical gear with a military-style helmet and a ballistic vest with the company’s name across the front.
In an online resume, Boelter also billed himself as a security contractor who worked oversees in the Middle East and Africa. On his trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo, he told Chris Fuller, a friend, that he had founded several companies focused on farming and fishing on the Congo River, as well as in transportation and tractor sales.
“It has been a very fun and rewarding experience and I only wished I had done something like this 10 years ago,” he wrote in a message shared with the AP.
But once he returned home in 2023, there were signs that Boelter was struggling financially. That August, he began working for a transport service for a funeral home, mostly picking up bodies of those who had died in assisted living facilities — a job he described as he needed to do to pay bills. Tim Koch, the owner of Metro First Call, said Boelter “voluntarily left” that position about four months ago.
“This is devastating news for all involved,” Koch said, declining to elaborate on the reasons for Boelter’s departure, citing the ongoing law enforcement investigation.
Boelter had also started spending some nights away from his family, renting a room in a modest house in northern Minneapolis shared by friends. Heavily armed police executed a search warrant on the home Saturday.
‘I’m going to be gone for awhile’
In the hours before Saturday’s shootings, Boelter texted two roommates to tell them he loved them and that “I’m going to be gone for a while,” according to Schroeder, who was forwarded the text and read it to the AP.
“May be dead shortly, so I just want to let you know I love you guys both and I wish it hadn’t gone this way,” Boelter wrote. “I don’t want to say anything more and implicate you in any way because you guys don’t know anything about this. But I love you guys and I’m sorry for the trouble this has caused.”