# Maia Sandu **Maia Sandu** (born 24 May 1972, Risipeni) is the president of [[Moldova]] and the leader most responsible for its break with Moscow — won, each time, by margins narrow enough that Russian money could plausibly have reversed them. A World Bank economist (Chișinău office 1998–2005, then an executive director's adviser in Washington 2010–2012, with a Harvard Kennedy School master's in between), she was education minister from 2012 to 2015 and founded the Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) as a reform vehicle. ## Career at the margin | Date | Event | |---|---| | November 2016 | Loses the presidential runoff to the pro-Russian Socialist Igor Dodon, roughly 48% to 52% *[single-sourced]* | | June–November 2019 | Prime minister in an unlikely coalition with Dodon's Socialists; ousted by a no-confidence vote on 12 November 2019 over control of the prosecutor-general appointment | | 15 November 2020 | Defeats Dodon with 57.75%; inaugurated 24 December 2020 as Moldova's first woman president | | 11 July 2021 | PAS wins a snap election with 52.80% and 63 of 101 seats | | 20 October 2024 | The EU-membership constitutional referendum passes with 50.35% | | 3 November 2024 | Re-elected over Alexandr Stoianoglo, 55.35% to 44.65% in the final count | | 28 September 2025 | PAS holds its majority with 55 of 101 seats | | April 2026 | Signs off on Moldova's withdrawal from the CIS, effective April 2027 | | July 2026 | After Prime Minister Alexandru Munteanu's abrupt resignation, nominates Vasile Tofan, a 44-year-old private-equity partner; parliament confirms him 21 July | ## Interference Sandu's defining claim is that her elections were fought against a purchased opposition. After the 2024 referendum she called the interference an "unprecedented assault" on democracy and said there was "clear evidence that these criminal groups aimed to buy 300,000 votes — a fraud of unprecedented scale." The network she meant was the one linked to the oligarch Ilan Shor; see [[Moldova]] for the documented money trail. Two days before the 2025 vote, two parties were struck from the ballot over illegal foreign financing. The critique from the other side is that the same tools — party disqualifications, emergency financing rules — can be used against a legitimate opposition. The vault's position is that Moldova documented the vote-buying at a scale few countries have, and that the margin is the reason both arguments matter. ## Where things stand With the EU's first negotiating clusters opened in June and July 2026, a CIS exit filed, and the Russian garrison's commanders declared persona non grata in April 2026, Moldova is further from Moscow than at any point since independence. The unresolved question is [[Transnistria]]. ## See Also - [[Moldova]] - [[Transnistria]] - [[Russian Influence]] - [[Post-Soviet States]]