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.

Romanian MEP Siegfried Mureșan said the vote “represents a victory for the people of the Republic of Moldova and a defeat for Russia.”

The country’s aspiration to join the European Union will now be enshrined in the constitution, but the referendum was incredibly close.