Moldova expels Russian diplomat over presidential polling stations in breakaway Transnistria region

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — Moldova said Tuesday it has expelled a Russian diplomat after Moscow opened polling stations for its presidential election in Moldova’s pro-Russia breakaway region of Transnistria. The sight of Moldova’s citizens voting for the president of another country was the latest in the increasingly fraught relations between Russia and Moldova, whose pro-Western government has firmly opposed Russia’s full-scale war in neighboring Ukraine. Moldovan officials have repeatedly accused Russia of conducting a “hybrid war” against their country by funding anti-government protests, meddling in local elections and running vast disinformation campaigns to try to topple the government and derail the country from its path toward full European Union membership.