Abstract. The article’s focus is on Moldova’s domestic politics and fluctuations in its foreign and domestic policies in the post-Soviet period, especially in the 2000s–2010s. Special attention is paid to drivers and dynamics of both the rise of the “European vector” in the Moldovan politics and its relative decline and disillusionment about it among many Moldovans in the mid-2010s. Another key, crosscutting theme is the influence by the oligarchs and corruption on the national political process. These two factors largely explain the outcome of the October–November 2016 presidential elections in the Republic of Moldova.