The pro-Western president of Moldova, Maia Sandu, won re-election on Sunday in a high-stakes runoff vote in the former Soviet republic against a rival candidate she had denounced as “Moscow’s man.”

The vote — held a week after a contested election in Georgia, another former Soviet territory, handed victory to the Moscow-leaning governing party — has been closely watched by the United States, the European Union and Russia as a critical test of Moldova’s direction.

  • EleventhHour
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    18 days ago

    Yeah, but those Eastern European countries aren’t physically moving westward. They’re just trying to institute democracy.

    • Annoyed_🦀
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      418 days ago

      It’s not moving country it’s political alignment, it’s a battle between pro western europe(EU) party vs pro eastern europe(russia) party, democracy is how they fight.

      • Justin
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        118 days ago

        Western Europe does not have a monopoly on democracy and did not invent it, nor is Eastern Europe destined to restart 300 more years of Russian empire. Human rights and political progress does not care about geography.

        Western countries like Spain and Germany were dictatorships for the majority of the 20th century and countries like Poland and Finland were democratic republics for large parts of the 20th century.

        I think it’s closed-minded to think of democracy as a western thing, and Russian imperialism as an Eastern thing, and it contributes to the political divide between the EU and its neighbors RU, BY, UA, MD, and GE.

        • Annoyed_🦀
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          18 days ago

          I…i didn’t even say democracy is a western thing, what are you on about?

          Edit: you might be mistakenly replied to my comment i think

          • Justin
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            118 days ago

            You said that western europe is pro democracy and eastern europe is pro Russia, which is an idea that I thought missed out on the historical context.

            • Annoyed_🦀
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              118 days ago

              No i said pro western europe/EU vs pro eastern europe/russia. There’s no democracy in my word, none, nada.