The Sandu story is what cost asymmetry looks like when it works in democracy’s favor. Russia poured hundreds of millions into that election. She countered with volunteers, small donations, and law enforcement. Outspent and outgunned on every conventional metric, she won anyway because she understood that legitimacy compounds and corruption corrodes.
The frozen conflict model, Transnistria as perpetual leverage, failed to freeze the country around it. That’s the real surprise. Not that she won. That the Kremlin’s playbook, which worked everywhere else, hit a wall built out of exactly nothing except institutional credibility and a population that decided it was worth defending.
The Budapest comparison is apt. The autocrats keep insisting history is on their side. A village teacher’s daughter and a Hungarian opposition wave suggest otherwise.
Your closing observation — that those of us in bigger, richer and older democracies may have something to learn from Moldova — connects directly to an argument at the centre of a book I am currently completing.
The distinction I keep returning to is between what I call alert democracies and certain ones. The Eastern European countries with direct experience of Soviet domination have built their institutional resilience around the specific knowledge of what democratic failure looks like from the inside. They do not assume the system will protect itself. Romania's Constitutional Court decision in December 2024, and now Moldova's response to the Russian information campaign you describe, are expressions of that alertness — the willingness to act dynamically because they know from experience that procedural correctness is not the same as democratic survival.
The Western democracies have the opposite problem. Four centuries of unbroken parliamentary tradition have produced not wisdom but a specific institutional confidence: the genuine belief that the institutions will hold because they always have. That confidence is itself the vulnerability. Britain was the proof of concept for the kind of electoral information environment manipulation you have documented extensively. It has had a decade to draw the conclusions. The alertness has not followed.
Sandu is precisely the kind of proof point the book argues for — the village teacher's daughter who built a clean party from scratch and stared down the Kremlin is not the exception that disproves the rule. She is the evidence that the qualities democratic leadership requires are present in real people operating in genuinely difficult conditions. The rule that needs changing is the set of incentive structures and institutional arrangements that make those qualities so much rarer in the comfortable democracies than the circumstances require.
The book — A Framework of Hope, Hansford Press, later this year — draws substantially on your work, particularly Autocracy Inc and your Vienna speech of May 2026. I would welcome the chance to share the manuscript when it is complete.
Great! Recently I found a different translation from the edition I'd first read. This time around, it struck me that 'Candide' (optimism) might have influenced Monty Python: the chopped head that threatens to bite its assailant ("just a flesh wound!") and the song "Always look on the bright side of life", heh. Maybe some of you here might not appreciate humour on such serious matters, but I admire how Shakespeare mixed comedy with tragedy, like the Porter in 'Macbeth' - an influence on Voltaire?
This or rather she is another example of people not understanding one of Europe’s strengths, its many smaler countries and its people. Another example the Head of the European Parliament -another underrated part of (EU) Europe is originally from Malta 🇲🇹
You are amazing. Laudation. I didn’t even know that was a word. Great work. Thank you. I am not nearly as afraid getting through this mess here in America when I remember you are on our side.
Saving history is a worthy endeavor. Lawfare has done a great service with its research, reporting, and creative AI use to uncover the information deleted from the DOJ website. “Nothing ‘quiet’ about it,” responded the DOJ when asked why the information was seemingly surreptitiously removed. Why then, as Lawfare describes on their site, did they need to use Claude to identify missing info that was “soft-deleted”? Either loudly and proudly advertising that government sites are being scrubbed of history or engaging in the clandestine removal of it in the dark with gloves on—this should be exposed and protested.
I saw the picture of Prague castle and immediately recognized it from my visit in 1999 with the world harp Congress. In fact, it might be shinier than it was way back when. There was scaffolding all over the city trying to get rid of russia. I went on city tours in three languages and understood more native language than I did their interpretation of English. Went to the Mozart cafe (probably created only during the harp conference - Mozart hated the flute and harp). Loved the river and the town square. I always ate the bread even though it cost more money..
Re "Mozart hated the flute and harp": Really? Mozart wrote four flute quartets, two flute concertos and a concerto for flute and harp! Lovely pieces all.
Oh and btw, traditionally, women were more likely to play the flute and harp in the 1700s (and today). I guess that answers some of your concerns about Mozart. If you watch the movie Amadeus, it is pretty clear Hollywood thinks he is a fag. I can say that because I am a lesbian. Guten abend. -from an old lady.
Aren’t there things you hated to do when you went to work? I love those pieces too. In fact I can’t think of any Mozart that I don’t like. I love that you are interested in this. Aren’t we lucky? I’m going to go listen to the M section of my 400 CDs on this lovely Sunday. Happy day.
Excellent story and breakdown.
The Sandu story is what cost asymmetry looks like when it works in democracy’s favor. Russia poured hundreds of millions into that election. She countered with volunteers, small donations, and law enforcement. Outspent and outgunned on every conventional metric, she won anyway because she understood that legitimacy compounds and corruption corrodes.
The frozen conflict model, Transnistria as perpetual leverage, failed to freeze the country around it. That’s the real surprise. Not that she won. That the Kremlin’s playbook, which worked everywhere else, hit a wall built out of exactly nothing except institutional credibility and a population that decided it was worth defending.
The Budapest comparison is apt. The autocrats keep insisting history is on their side. A village teacher’s daughter and a Hungarian opposition wave suggest otherwise.
Thank you for this!
Johan 🐌
Lovely, spot-on tribute to Moldovan President Sandu, and a fine summary of the latest Trump madness. Thank you!
Brava! Thanks for bringing us this inspiring and important story on President Sandu’s achievements.
Your closing observation — that those of us in bigger, richer and older democracies may have something to learn from Moldova — connects directly to an argument at the centre of a book I am currently completing.
The distinction I keep returning to is between what I call alert democracies and certain ones. The Eastern European countries with direct experience of Soviet domination have built their institutional resilience around the specific knowledge of what democratic failure looks like from the inside. They do not assume the system will protect itself. Romania's Constitutional Court decision in December 2024, and now Moldova's response to the Russian information campaign you describe, are expressions of that alertness — the willingness to act dynamically because they know from experience that procedural correctness is not the same as democratic survival.
The Western democracies have the opposite problem. Four centuries of unbroken parliamentary tradition have produced not wisdom but a specific institutional confidence: the genuine belief that the institutions will hold because they always have. That confidence is itself the vulnerability. Britain was the proof of concept for the kind of electoral information environment manipulation you have documented extensively. It has had a decade to draw the conclusions. The alertness has not followed.
Sandu is precisely the kind of proof point the book argues for — the village teacher's daughter who built a clean party from scratch and stared down the Kremlin is not the exception that disproves the rule. She is the evidence that the qualities democratic leadership requires are present in real people operating in genuinely difficult conditions. The rule that needs changing is the set of incentive structures and institutional arrangements that make those qualities so much rarer in the comfortable democracies than the circumstances require.
The book — A Framework of Hope, Hansford Press, later this year — draws substantially on your work, particularly Autocracy Inc and your Vienna speech of May 2026. I would welcome the chance to share the manuscript when it is complete.
I love this description. “Heavy-jowled men with clandestine, or not so clandestine, connections to Russia.”
Yes, delightful! Almost as if it belongs in a passage of 'Candide' by Voltaire.
I’ve made a note to revisit Voltaire. It’s been too long.
Great! Recently I found a different translation from the edition I'd first read. This time around, it struck me that 'Candide' (optimism) might have influenced Monty Python: the chopped head that threatens to bite its assailant ("just a flesh wound!") and the song "Always look on the bright side of life", heh. Maybe some of you here might not appreciate humour on such serious matters, but I admire how Shakespeare mixed comedy with tragedy, like the Porter in 'Macbeth' - an influence on Voltaire?
Translations. Which reminded you of Monty Python?
This or rather she is another example of people not understanding one of Europe’s strengths, its many smaler countries and its people. Another example the Head of the European Parliament -another underrated part of (EU) Europe is originally from Malta 🇲🇹
Anne applebaum bringing us the facts from abroad for democracy, thanks
You are amazing. Laudation. I didn’t even know that was a word. Great work. Thank you. I am not nearly as afraid getting through this mess here in America when I remember you are on our side.
This article is Such A Tonic. I loosely follow the appalling goings on there (esp Transnistria) via pro Ukraine outlets like:
• https://kyivindependent.com; and,
• https://www.rfunews.com
Thanks 💥⚡️‼️
Saving history is a worthy endeavor. Lawfare has done a great service with its research, reporting, and creative AI use to uncover the information deleted from the DOJ website. “Nothing ‘quiet’ about it,” responded the DOJ when asked why the information was seemingly surreptitiously removed. Why then, as Lawfare describes on their site, did they need to use Claude to identify missing info that was “soft-deleted”? Either loudly and proudly advertising that government sites are being scrubbed of history or engaging in the clandestine removal of it in the dark with gloves on—this should be exposed and protested.
I saw the picture of Prague castle and immediately recognized it from my visit in 1999 with the world harp Congress. In fact, it might be shinier than it was way back when. There was scaffolding all over the city trying to get rid of russia. I went on city tours in three languages and understood more native language than I did their interpretation of English. Went to the Mozart cafe (probably created only during the harp conference - Mozart hated the flute and harp). Loved the river and the town square. I always ate the bread even though it cost more money..
Re "Mozart hated the flute and harp": Really? Mozart wrote four flute quartets, two flute concertos and a concerto for flute and harp! Lovely pieces all.
Oh and btw, traditionally, women were more likely to play the flute and harp in the 1700s (and today). I guess that answers some of your concerns about Mozart. If you watch the movie Amadeus, it is pretty clear Hollywood thinks he is a fag. I can say that because I am a lesbian. Guten abend. -from an old lady.
Aren’t there things you hated to do when you went to work? I love those pieces too. In fact I can’t think of any Mozart that I don’t like. I love that you are interested in this. Aren’t we lucky? I’m going to go listen to the M section of my 400 CDs on this lovely Sunday. Happy day.
Now THAT’s a ballroom!