The move forced a brutal switch to more costly energy, and a collapse in Moldova’s economic growth from a post-Covid-19 boom of 14% in 2021, to a contraction of 5% last year. Frustrated on the battlefield before it could reach the Moldovan border and infuriated by Sandu’s decision to apply for EU membership, Russia cut off the nation’s natural gas and power supplies. Toppling President Maia Sandu’s pro-western government was a sub-goal of the Kremlin’s plans when it invaded Ukraine last February. It has hosted a pro-Russia separatist enclave, protected by Russian troops, since the early 1990s, and lost much of its more ambitious youth to emigration since.

Moldova, a small ex-Soviet state squeezed between EU member Romania and Ukraine, lies within the sphere of influence that Putin has gone to war to reestablish. Not so in Moldova, whose vulnerability was exposed in Sunday’s nationwide municipal balloting, seen as a plebiscite on the country’s decision to bid for membership in the European Union and a test-run for next year’s presidential election.

For most countries that accuse Russia of interfering in their elections, the issue is both hard to prove and primarily diplomatic: The attempts to manipulate votes constitute serious hostile acts, but Moscow lacks the power to change outcomes. He’s been working with Russia ever since to unseat the nation’s pro-European government. If Israel wants to signal the Kremlin that its support for Hamas has consequences, it holds a ready tool: Extradite Ilan Shor, the businessman-cum-politician who fled Moldova while appealing his conviction in a $1 billion bank-fraud case.

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