Moldova's Gagauzia region remains largely pro-Russia

In Moldova's recent EU referendum, 95% of voters in the region of Gagauzia voted against joining the EU. Why do people there lean toward Russia despite support from the EU and the war in Ukraine? DW asked residents.

"Gagauzia wants to be a friend of Russia," said Valentina, a middle-aged woman with Ukrainian roots, while sorting receipts on a park bench in Comrat, the capital of the Autonomous Territorial Unit of Gagauzia in southern Moldova.

Like 95% of voters in Gagauzia, she voted "no" in the referendum on October 20, rejecting the proposal to anchor Moldova's ambition to join the European Union in the country's constitution.

This was a record rejection of the European Union. Even in the pro-Russia breakaway region of Transnistria, where Russian troops have been stationed for over 30 years, over one-third of the electorate voted in favor of joining the EU.

When asked what she knows about the European Union, Valentina is evasive. "I'm not interested in politics," she said.

On November 3, voters in Moldova will go to the polls again for the runoff in the country's presidential election. Valentina said she intends to vote for Alexandr Stoianoglo, the opponent of Moldova's pro-European incumbent president, Maia Sandu.

Stoianoglo has the backing of the pro-Russian Party of Socialists of the Republic of Moldova (PSRM). He boycotted the EU referendum by simply not taking the referendum ballot offered to him at the polling station.

'People in Bulgaria don't have it any better than we do'

Valentina told DW that she has visited an EU member state, Bulgaria, but was not impressed. "They don't have it any better than we do," she said. "I saw people selling tomatoes and melons on the roadside, just like us."

Her own children are in Russia, like many other people from Gagauzia, she added.

Valentina has Ukrainian roots, and said she could never have imagined that "brother" Russia would ever fight against Ukraine. But in her eyes, Ukraine and the US are responsible for the war in Moldova's eastern neighbor. This is exactly the line taken by Russian propaganda, which is prevalent in Gagauzia.

A very high number of people here get their news from Russian media, among other things because they speak mostly Russian.

The Gagauz are a Turkic, Christian Orthodox ethnic group in southern Moldova, a former Soviet republic. Because of a policy of Russification during the Soviet period, most Gagauz people speak neither the Gagauz language, nor Romanian, the official language of Moldova.

Pro-Russia vote in 2014 referendum

In 2014, the leadership of the Autonomous Territorial Unit of Gagauzia organized a pseudo referendum, asking voters whether Moldova should join the EU or the Eurasian Economic Union under Russia's leadership.

Back then, 97% of the Gagauz electorate voted against the EU, just 2% more than on October 20.

The 2014 referendum was restricted to Gagauzia, was illegal and was not recognized by the government in the Moldovan capital, Chisinau. This year's referendum, on the other hand, was legal and took place right across the country.

To this day, over 30 years after the collapse of communism, a statue of Lenin, the founder of the Soviet Union, still stands outside the regional government building in Comrat — a constant reminder of the country's Soviet past.

This is in stark contrast to the signs outside the office of the mayor and in the city park that outline the numerous local projects that have been completed with the financial assistance of the European Union.

When asked if they know what infrastructure projects were funded with EU money, most passersby just shrug their shoulders. In recent years, the EU — and in particular neighboring EU member state Romania — has pumped millions of euros into Gagauzia's infrastructure.

'Victims of Russian propaganda'

In the center of Comrat, a pensioner is waiting for a minibus that is going to England. Her children live there, and she wants to send them a parcel. She is one of the very few people in Gagauzia who voted in favor of the EU in the referendum.

"Many people here are victims of Russian propaganda. They find it hard to let go of their love of Russia. But I always ask them: Why are you against the European Union when the preschools, schools and roads have been repaired with EU money? Many of them have children who work in the EU or have even earned money there themselves, have come back and built a house here, but still they vote against the EU path," she said.

She is worried about the future. "I am afraid that a war will break out again if we go back under Russia's thumb. If Ukraine had fallen, war would long since have reached us. Europe won't bring us war." 

One elegantly dressed woman in her early 20s admits she didn't even go to the polling station. "I don't want to join the EU either," she told DW. "I've been there and I can tell you that the economy there is getting weaker and weaker, just like in the Republic of Moldova."

She went on to say that both her parents worked in EU member states; her mother has married there for the second time.

The stallholders on the marketplace in Comrat are beginning to pack up for the day. They seem irritated by questions about the referendum or the election.

"They're all homosexuals in the EU," said one woman, who was selling cucumbers and tomatoes.

'Don't you know how good the Russians are?'

Another man told DW that he doesn't even know what the outcome of the first round of the presidential election was, and said he wasn't aware there was a runoff on Sunday. He said he voted "no" in the referendum, but can't explain why.

One woman selling produce on the edge of the market, complaining to her colleague about the low pensions in Moldova, said she likes Russia because she had two operations there and there is no corruption.

"Why don't you want to go to Russia too?" she asked. "Don't you know how good the Russians are?"

When asked why Russia invaded Ukraine, she answered with a torrent of anti-Ukrainian propaganda. When she eventually finished, a man who overheard what she said joined in with more of the same. He, too, was convinced of Russia's magnanimity.

This article was originally written in Romanian.