European Parliament amendment calls for condemnation of Russian “elections” in Transnistria

The European Parliament could explicitly condemn, in its annual human rights report, Russia’s holding of elections to the State Duma on the territory of the Republic of Moldova, in the Transnistrian region. The proposal appears in an amendment tabled by MEP Michał Dworczyk to the draft resolution “Human rights and democracy in the world – annual report 2026”.

Amendment 544 is part of the package of amendments 301–600 submitted to the Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET). The document is numbered PE797.438v01-00, and the procedure is 2026/2059(INI). The rapporteur for the draft is Isabel Wiseler-Lima. The text proposes a new paragraph, 13b, which “strongly condemns the illegal holding of elections to the State Duma of Russia on 18–20 September 2026 in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine and in the Transnistrian region of the Republic of Moldova”, as well as the opening of Russian polling stations in Georgia’s occupied regions of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali (South Ossetia).

The author argues that elections held by an occupying power in territories under occupation or illegal control violate the fundamental political rights of the local population, including the right to freely express their political will. The same paragraph says that such elections violate the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the states concerned. The text stresses that these “fake elections” do not legitimise foreign occupation or illegal control over a territory.

For the Republic of Moldova, the wording matters because it places voting for the Russian parliament on the left bank of the Dniester in the same category as elections organised by Russia in the occupied territories of Ukraine and Georgia. If MEPs on AFET, and subsequently the plenary, adopt this paragraph, the European Parliament would officially record that the vote is illegal and does not change the status of the Transnistrian region.

The amendment has not yet been voted on either in committee or in plenary. It remains to be seen whether the wording passes the AFET vote and makes it into the final resolution.

The text can be consulted in the AFET-AM-797438 package of amendments, on the European Parliament’s website.