There are worse things than Russian interference. If the ‘yes’ to the European Union won by such a narrow margin in Moldova, it was not only because a huge number of votes were bought by Mr Putin’s services, and because they flooded the electorate with false news at the same time. In both Georgia and Moldova, this interference was highly effective, but it does not explain everything.

Moldova, which is so small it is hard to see on a map, borders Romania to the east and Ukraine to the west. On one side, the European Union; on the other, a country at war, martyred and whose borders remain uncertain. Moldova would obviously prefer the peace and prosperity of the EU to the yoke of the Kremlin, but none of its citizens can ignore the bombs falling on Ukraine and the international power struggle.

Just as Moldovans were preparing to vote, the United States was sending back echoes of Donald Trump telling his rallies that it was appropriate to make a deal with Vladimir Putin at the expense of the Ukrainians. If the Republican candidate was not prepared to die for Ukraine, it was understandable that he would be even less prepared to die for Moldova. Seen from Central Europe, the Democratic candidate was hardly any more reassuring, and that is not all.

Without the United States, the Europeans would have little means of helping Ukraine push the Russian army back behind its borders. Nor would there be much hope for a Union still in search of its own defence, especially as Westerners on both sides of the Atlantic are so afraid that Russia’s collapse would lead to global chaos, that they are very reluctant to see Russia truly defeated.

So here you are, citizens of little Moldova, led to conclude that just as the Atlantic Alliance seems unwilling to come to your rescue, Vladimir Putin seems determined to rebuild the Russian empire. He has weapons and is sending them by the truckload from Iran and North Korea. China and India are on his side, and the West, for fear of antagonising him, is refusing to let the Ukrainians use the weapons they are supplying to attack Russian forces on Russian territory.

On the one hand, there is the reluctance of companies and governments who do not want to respond to war with war. On the other, the brutality of a conqueror who hopes to make a deal with Donald Trump at the expense of Ukraine and the European Union. The power dynamic is clear: Moldova has everything to fear from the Kremlin and no credible protection from the West. You do not have to be a Kissinger to see this. Nor does it take a great strategist to conclude that, until the European Union has a common defence, it is not really in Moldova’s interest to tug at Mr Putin’s moustache.

This is what many Moldovans and Georgians told themselves on Saturday, bearing in mind that when Russian troops snatched two of their territories in 2008, the White House was nowhere to be found and the European Union powerless. If it wants to counter Vladimir Putin’s imperial ambitions, the Union cannot be content with its current democracy and social model. It also needs weapons and the will to use them.

(Photo: kremlin.ru, Wikimedia Commons)

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