Russia deployed its full hybrid warfare toolkit against Moldova in 2025 - energy blackmail, election interference, separatist proxies, even "denazification" rhetoric echoing Ukraine invasion pretexts.
It failed. Pro-European forces won parliamentary elections with 50%+ despite Kremlin-funded disinformation and vote-buying schemes.
Chisinau severed all Russian gas imports after Gazprom's cutoff, diversifying to the EU and Azerbaijan instead.
A new military strategy explicitly names Russia as the primary threat and mandates NATO-standard rearmament.
The pro-Russian Gagauzia leader sits in jail while Transnistria's gas-starved economy teeters toward reintegration talks.
What remains of Russian influence? A bankrupt Transnistrian enclave and a few thousand demoralized troops Moscow cannot sustain.
Thirty-three years after independence, Moldova is finally escaping Moscow's orbit. Not through war, but through the systematic dismantling of every lever Russia once possessed.
Frontline report: Moldova escapes Moscow's orbit through slow strangulation of Russian influence - Euromaidan Press