With a population of just 2.6 million and one of the smallest economies in Europe, Moldova barely registers by most European Union metrics. Yet the small former Soviet republic wedged between EU member Romania and war-ravaged Ukraine has drawn outsized attention from the continent’s powerful democracies and Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

The country’s aspiration to join the E.U. will now be enshrined in the Constitution but the referendum was incredibly close.

Ilan Shor fled to Russia after being convicted in a $1 billion bank heist. On Sunday he came close to defeating a referendum on joining the EU.