Clearly Putin didn’t like his puppet being replaced, that was probably why he ordered his opponent to be poisoned in the 2004 election. To be honest, it is a bit of a surprise to me that he didn’t kill off the Moldavian opposition. Particularly since they already went to the bother of stationing a military base there in Transnistria. But since Moldavia is not as attractive, perhaps they decided it wasn’t worth the bother.
To return to my point though, I just struggle to view voting for democracy, or wanting to join the EU as hostile acts. Joining NATO, perhaps yes if you expected Russia to be invaded tomorrow, otherwise not particularly credible.