Moldova’s Prime Minister Dorin Recean warns that Russia is spending heavily to influence an upcoming parliamentary election.

The U.S. has imposed sanctions on a group of people linked to Russian intelligence who it says has helped the Kremlin destabilize Moldova’s democratically elected government through protests in the Moldovan capital earlier this year.

A fugitive Moldovan oligarch and opposition party leader has been sentenced in absentia to 15 years in jail for his role in a one-billion-dollar bank theft case.

Facebook allowed a Moldovan oligarch with ties to the Kremlin to run ads on its platform urging protests against that country's government — even though he and his political party are subject to U.S. sanctions.