The crowd filing through central Chisinau waving EU flags on Friday evening was clear: they believe Russia is trying to steal their election and bring pro-Kremlin politicians to power in Moldova.
Their weapon is money, your weapon is your vote!, was the loudest chant as several hundred supporters of the governing party, PAS, and its pro-European policies joined the final rally before Sunday's ballot.
This week Moldovan police and prosecutors disclosed evidence of election interference on an unprecedented scale: vote-buying and disinformation that they link directly to Russia. They've also uncovered a plot to foment violent unrest, detaining dozens of men who travelled to Serbia for training including in the use of firearms.
Opposition parties dismiss talk of Russian meddling as a political show claiming the government is laying the ground to annul the vote should PAS lose its majority in parliament.
But Moldova took a decisive turn towards EU membership and away from Moscow after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Now the evidence suggests Russia has been investing heavily in restoring its influence.
It's trying to claw back control.
Final battle?
Lodged between Romania and Ukraine, Moldova has been independent since the USSR fell apart more than three decades ago. Last summer, it launched EU accession talks in tandem with Ukraine.
Prime Minister Dorin Recean sees these elections as a final battle for his country.
There is constant pressure from Russia, he told me, as the pro-PAS crowd broke up after its brief march through Chisinau.
They're spending the equivalent of more than 1% of our GDP to overthrow our government - on propaganda and false messages.
The choice for Moldovans
Beyond the shabby Soviet-era blocks of Chisinau city suburbs, a short drive leads to field upon field lined with grape vines. It's like a mini Tuscany with a lot more potholes.
In Cricova, with the sun beginning to slide, women chat on benches on the main square as their children scramble over a climbing frame.
Moldova isn't rich, even in wine-producing spots like this, and huge numbers have left the country to seek better lives and incomes overseas. That's created a diaspora so large, its vote has become decisive.
Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the surge in energy prices has strained the economy even further – to near zero growth.
The politicians have fancy paper to print their election posters and flyers, but there's nothing decent for our kids' schoolbooks, one of the mums grumbles, displaying a photo on her phone of school books, tattered and torn.
Another says her salary on a factory production line is stuck at around £100 a month but the cost of living has soared. I don't know who to vote for, they all make promises, she shrugs. Then they do nothing.
Beyond PAS, the choice on Sunday includes the Patriotic Bloc made up primarily of the Socialist and Communist parties. A key member, Irina Vlah, was barred from running on Friday because of allegations of illicit financing.
Another bloc, Alternativa, posits itself as pro-EU but its candidates include the Chisinau mayor who is banned from travel in Europe's Schengen zone for unspecified security reasons. He's appealing the ruling.
In all, there are more than 20 participants, although there's a minimal threshold to enter parliament.
Tamara, who's in her 60s, tells me her own vote won't be decided by a lack of schoolbooks or even salaries.
We chose the path to the EU, and I want to continue on that path, like everyone else, she says.
I wouldn't want to go backwards. That's scary! I've already been there.
The opposition
Igor Dodon isn't scared by restoring relations with Russia. It's something he actively seeks.
Even as Moscow wages war on Moldova's neighbour, Ukraine, the former president has three pictures of Russian leader Vladimir Putin among the gallery of photos on his office wall.
Dodon is one of the main opposition candidates on Sunday, for the Socialist Party, and shrugs off talk of Russian interference. In July he travelled to Moscow for meetings and says if he wins this election, he'll oppose all sanctions on Russia even if Brussels dictates it.
The only documented efforts to warp Moldova's elections so far have been by Russia.
This is one of the most advanced interference campaigns we've seen, Police Chief Viorel Cernăuțeanu says bluntly.
It's also bigger.
At last year's presidential elections he says people were being paid up to $40 to vote for pro-Russian forces who then came close to winning.
We calculate that Russia invested more than $100 million overall last year, the police chief tells me. Now it's more than three times that amount.
For police chief Cernăuțeanu, it's the plot for violent unrest that's most serious.
More than 100 people – mainly athletic men, he tells me – were detained for attending training in Serbia, including on breaking through police lines and seizing weapons.
I don't think anyone in Europe has experienced anything like this interference, Mr Cernăuțeanu says.
