Cristina Crudu looks across her apple trees and laments that her business may soon go bankrupt due to the economic stresses Moldova has suffered since Russia's full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine.
Moldova remains firmly tied to agriculture, with more than a quarter of its population employed at fields, vineyards, and orchards. As it prepares for parliamentary elections on September 28, it is also fertile ground for anti-Western narratives spread online by the Kremlin -- due to very real widespread poverty.
"We cannot export to the European Union because we don't have the certificates they require. It was much easier to export to Russia," Crudu told RFE/RL's Moldovan Service.
A fruit farmer for some 20 years in the Donduseni district less than 25 kilometers from the Ukrainian border, she has struggled to adapt amid severe disruptions on trade with Russia since 2022.
"We can't even cover the cost of harvesting the fruit," she said, adding that she will vote for the opposition Socialists, part of the Patriotic Electoral Bloc coalition that is challenging Moldova's pro-Western government.
The Socialists are led by Igor Dodon, a former Moldovan president who has long maintained close ties with Moscow. He has referred to the current democratically elected government as a "criminal regime."
Crudu hopes Dodon can secure better prices for her harvest. "If nothing changes after the elections, we'll cut down the orchard and that's it," she said.
The War Next Door
Her position is far from unique. Moscow's decision to send its tanks rolling into Ukraine hit Moldova hard, not only disrupting trade but also driving up energy prices and triggering a spike in inflation.
Official statistics for 2024 showed that 33.6 percent of Moldovans were living below the poverty line compared to 24.5 percent prior to the war. Inflation reached some 35 percent in the months after the full-scale invasion, although by August 2025 it was down to 7.32 percent, according to the National Bank.
Moldova's economy grew only 0.1 percent in 2024, following a deep decline in 2022 and a slight rebound in 2023. The country of 2.4 million people has also had to absorb more than 130,000 Ukrainian refugees.
Not all voters are convinced by opposition messaging. Some have given up all together.
"I've been voting for so many years, sometimes for one, sometimes for another, always hoping things would get better. But they never have," 75-year-old Margareta Pasla told RFE/RL.
Although retired, she continues to work as a social worker in two villages, a two-hour drive southeast of Crudu's orchards.
Her $150 monthly pension barely covers utility bills, she said, despite being increased by about 80 percent in the last four years.
"I don't think I'll vote anymore; nothing will change anyway. We, in the villages, are left with our mud and our struggles," she added.
The genuine economic issues form a backdrop for an increasingly bitter election campaign in which the government warns Moscow is playing a nefarious role via social media disinformation campaigns and illegal vote-buying efforts.
Aunties With Flowers: The Kremlin's Online Army Of Disinformation Bots
Ahead of the elections in Moldova, fake accounts and bot networks, often AI-generated, are flooding social media with pro-Russian narratives and unsubstantiated claims of fraud.
Authorities have launched partnerships with platforms like TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram to counter the disinformation. But experts say the response has been slow.
TikTok says it has removed thousands of fake accounts, though critics remain skeptical.
In August, a local think tank identified a network of 910 social media accounts spreading Russian narratives. The network, it said, attacked the EU, Moldova’s European integration, and discredited pro-European leaders in Chisinau.
During the presidential elections last year, deepfakes primarily targeted pro-Western President Maia Sandu. This time around, digitally manipulated images or videos have featured ordinary people promoting pro-Kremlin candidates.
The strategy behind these fake accounts and bot networks is to exploit social media algorithms and audience biases, often using "credible" avatars such as pictures of women, aunties with flowers, or celebrity names.
TikTok has confirmed these patterns, reporting the removal of more than 4,500 pieces of content along with 100,000 fake accounts that violated rules on civic and electoral integrity, disinformation, or AI-generated content.
By Riin Aljas
On September 22, the police carried out raids in multiple locations across the country, aimed at what they called "preparation of mass riots and destabilization, which were coordinated from the Russian Federation through criminal elements."
The Kremlin has repeatedly accused Moldova of "anti-Russian hysteria" and has denied it is interfering in what President Maia Sandu has called the "most consequential election" in her country's history.
Hopes For A European Future
Moldova's economic woes do not only relate to the war in Ukraine. Long one of the poorest nations in Europe, its population has been shrinking since the collapse of communism as people move to the EU and elsewhere to find work.
In previous elections, the estimated 1 million emigrants have been key in shoring up the vote for pro-Western forces and may again do so this time.
Meanwhile, the government insists its efforts at European integration will bear fruit if voters stick with it.
"We have just signed with the European Union a 1.9 billion euro growth plan for the next three years," Marcel Spatari, a candidate for President Maia Sandu's PAS party, said during a recent pre-election debate hosted by RFE/RL's Moldovan Service.
He said the deal would ensure "thousands of kilometers of repaired roads, the construction of terminals for international trade, bridges over the Prut River, and the completion of investments in power interconnection grids with Romania."
It's a message some voters are receptive to. In the Leova district, tucked along the Romanian border in southwestern Moldova, 34-year-old Cristina Bejereanu has 400 hectares of grain and sunflower fields with her husband, Dumitru.
"I believe in Moldova's European future, and I am convinced it is the only path that can lead us to prosperity and somehow ensure peace in our country," she told RFE/RL.
Bejereanu does not gloss over the country's economic woes. She sees Moldova's pro-Western path as the eventual solution to them.
"As farmers, we need a workforce, yet in the villages there are hardly any people left. If our villages had water, sewage, and good roads like in Europe, would people still leave? I don't think so," she said.
"That is exactly what we'll be thinking about when we vote -- to bring Europe home."
