Pro-Russian opposition supporters, politicians hold protest in Moldova following election loss

(29 Sep 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Chisinau, Moldova - 29 September 2025
1. Various of pro-Russia supporters, including Igor Dodon, former president and a member of the pro-Russian Patriotic Electoral Bloc, demonstrating outside Moldovan Parliament
2. SOUNDBITE (Romanian) Vasile Tarlev, leader of Future of Moldova Party:
(Reporter question: "Russian Federation was involved in elections in Moldova, why?")
"I don't know, you need to ask them, whoever you consider. (interrupted by reporter) Me and them had no collaboration and I have no collaboration."
(Reporter question: "Did you receive money from Russia?")
"No, I received money from Romania, from some friends.”
3. Mid of supporters at demonstration
4. SOUNDBITE (Romanian) Vasile Tarlev, leader of Future of Moldova Party:
“(Moldova) is part of two international agreements. It is a member with full rights of CSI (Community of Independent States) and also a candidate for joining the EU. We must keep these two agreements, we must analyse and negotiate and straighten them, and maintain independence, sovereignty and neutrality of Moldova and the wellbeing of the population."
5. Wide of police detaining demonstrator
6. Various of demonstration
7. Various exteriors of Parliament of Moldova
8. SOUNDBITE (Romanian) Eni (no surname given), Chisinau resident:
“I'd like us to have a better future, and I'd like to see better times, to live well, to have opportunities. And I'd like our children to have a better future than the one we had.”
9. Close of entrance to parliament building
10. SOUNDBITE (Romanian) Iulian (no surname given), Music student:
"I'm very happy with the result of the elections, and I'm happy that we have a European future.”
11. Front of parliament building
12. SOUNDBITE (Romanian) Viaceslav (no surname given), Food and hotel worker:
(Reporter question: "What are your expectations?)
"I'd like to have peace and tranquility in the country. These are the main things.
(Reporter question: "Will they deliver?")
"I hope they will."
13. Various of president's office building

STORYLINE:
Pro-Russian parties staged a demonstration in central Chisinau Monday after being soundly defeated in Moldova's weekend election.

Igor Dodon, former president and a member of the pro-Russian Patriotic Electoral Bloc, was among those gathered outside Moldova's parliament building.

Moldovans gave the country's pro-Western governing party a clear parliamentary majority, in a vote widely viewed as a stark choice between East and West.

European leaders on Monday hailed Moldovans for re-affirming their commitment to a Western path and future membership in the European Union in the face of alleged Russian interference.

The country is small in size and population but with outsized geopolitical importance.

Pro Russia Socialists party leader Igor Dodon told crowds in central Chisinau that contests filed to the Moldovan Electoral Commission would be reviewed, while the former Moldovan Prime Minister, Vasile Tarlev, denied his pro Russia Future of Moldova Party had any collaboration with the Kremlin.

Landlocked between war-torn Ukraine and EU and NATO member Romania, Moldova was a Soviet republic until it proclaimed independence in 1991.

In recent years it has taken a clear Westward path, turning the country into a geopolitical battleground between Russia and Europe.

The outcome of Sunday’s high-stakes ballot was noteworthy considering Moldovan authorities’ repeated claims that Russia was conducting a vast “hybrid war” to try to sway the outcome and seize power in Chisinau.
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