“Ilan Shor, who is also a citizen of Israel, does not mind that President Vladimir Putin pays homage to Alexander III by attending the unveiling of the monument to the peacemaker emperor, who laid the foundations of institutionalized anti-Semitism in the Russian Empire, which resulted in the wave of pogroms against the Jewish population. Ilan Shor does not mind the statements of Putin’s adviser Aleksandr Dugin, ideologue of Russian imperialism, who on the same day – April 7, 2024 - when Shor was speaking about the pain in the hearts of the Jewish and Moldovan peoples, declared that Jerusalem will become Russian or will not exist at all. Likewise, Ilan Shor does not mind the fact that Israel’s main enemies – the HAMAS group, which on October 7, 2023 started a new phase of the war against the Jewish state, or Iran, which attacked Israel on April 13, 2024 - are partners of the Putin regime, pursuing the goal of international destabilization in order to change world order...”
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Examination of Audiovisual Council’s activity report

Parliament on April 11, 2024 debated the activity report of the Audiovisual Council (AC) for 2023 (see min. 00.55.55 – 03.00.40). The question and answer session was the most interesting part of the debate. For example, representatives of the Communist-Socialist opposition have repeatedly asked for explanations about the withdrawal of broadcasting licenses of 13 TV stations between 2022 and 2023. The arguments regarding the authorities’ alleged abuse against the 13 TV channels were limited to the fact that, from a legal point of view, there would be no basis for sanctioning the TV stations for manipulation by omission.

On the other hand, AC chairwoman Liliana Vițu noted that Article 13 of the Audiovisual Media Services Code expressly refers to the need to ensure correct information. In this regard, the deliberate omission of the context relating to Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and its consequences for the correct information of viewers is sufficient to ascertain the manipulative nature of the activities of the mentioned TV channels, which carried out a concerted activity. In this connection, it should be noted that for more than two years, after the outbreak of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, the Communist-Socialist opposition, as well as the Shorist one, has categorically avoided publicly expressing its attitude towards the given aggression, reflecting in the public space the social, economic and political phenomena in the Republic of Moldova and in the region as if the war in Ukraine does not exist.

In fact, this kind of manipulation by omission has been studied in all aspects and reflected in academic publications, including of Russia, long before the start of the aggression against Ukraine: “Manipulation by omission is not an ordinary lie. This technique is designed to create ambiguity and uncertainty in the narrative. It serves as a tool of deception. Omission of significant information is a much more subtle tool of deception than outright false testimony. Omission of important details allows essential things to escape, in order to divert attention to the secondary. The lack of complete information distorts the picture of the whole (for example, the plan of a military operation), from which the deceiver profits, aiming the conscience in the suitable direction.” This is exactly what the 13 TV stations were doing and, unfortunately, this is what the Communist-Socialist opposition, the Shorist opposition and their affiliated media continue to do with great success.

Sample of manipulation by shifting emphasis

Manipulation occurs not only by omission, but also by shifting emphasis or by combining omission and shifting emphasis. The most recent example in this regard is the way in which Ilan Shor, who was sentenced to 15 years in prison and, respectively, the leader of an organized criminal group, is extremely active on the territory of the Republic of Moldova. For example, on the occasion of the 121st anniversary of the April 1903 pogrom, Ilan Shor stated that: “The Jewish pogrom that took place in Chisinau 121 years ago was and remains one of the most tragic events in the history of the country. It left an unhealed wound in the hearts of the Jewish and Moldovan peoples...”.

There is no doubt that the pogrom of 1903 was a horrible crime that can only be condemned. The problem is that the author of the invoked statement avoided mentioning that the monstrous crime occurred in the Russian Empire, which installed its own administration, and in Bessarabia that was occupied in 1812. Moreover, the whole truth is that the Kishinev pogrom was one of the wave of pogroms that occurred between 1881 and 1905 in the southern part of the Russian Empire, in the so-called belt of permanent Jewish settlement. In this regard, it is noteworthy that the wave of pogroms began with the enthronement, on March 1, 1881, of Tsar Alexander III to the imperial throne. The given monarch was an outspoken anti-Semite, who was convinced that the hostile attitude towards the Jews was justified by their economic domination and exploitation of the local population, and who signed, in March 1891,  the order to evacuate the Jews from Moscow. Obviously, he ignored the discriminatory conditions to which the Jews were subjected after they became part of the empire, following the expansion of the empire as a result of the partition of Poland at the end of the eighteenth century.

In this connection, it is noteworthy that historians point out that the pogrom of 1903 was the result of the “conspiracy theory” that was officially formulated by Alexander III in the spring of 1881, immediately after his enthronement, invoking the involvement of Jews in the start of an eventual revolutionary civil war in Russia. In this regard, there was reason to assume that one of the inspirers of the 1903 pogrom against the Jews was Pavalake Krushevan, an active member of the Black Hundreds, editor of the anti-Semitic newspapers Bassarabets and Znamya, in which the Protocols of the Elders of Zion was first published. By the way, famous Italian writer, Umberto Ecco, wrote an exceptional novel, entitled “The Prague Cemetery”, about the history of this work and the role of the Tsarist okhrana in this regard.

The truth is that in the archives of the Imperial Minister of Internal Affairs, Vyacheslav Plehve, there were found documents attesting to his correspondence with Krushevan, which talks about how to discourage the Jews from indulging in revolutionary actions. In this context, it is worth mentioning that an investigation dedicated to the 1903 pogrom was launched in Chisinau on the occasion of the 110th anniversary of the tragic event in 2013. According to the author, Josefina Cușnir, Minister Plehve allegedly chose Chisinau for the pogrom, not another city, because “Krushevan was in Chisinau with his newspaper, which was ready not only to fulfill its resounding ideological mission, but also to attribute to itself all the odious glory.” Those who are interested in the history of the 1903 pogrom, in general in the wave of pogroms in the Russian Empire from 1881 to 1905, are recommended to read the mentioned investigation.

Why are the aforementioned things important? Because recently, the criminal Ilan Shor, who refers to the wounds in the hearts of the Jewish and Moldovan peoples, became the devoted exponent of the pro-Russian forces in the Republic of Moldova, replacing Igor Dodon in this capacity. Ilan Shor, who is also a citizen of Israel, does not mind that President Vladimir Putin pays homage to Alexander III by attending the unveiling of the monument to the peacemaker emperor, who laid the foundations of institutionalized anti-Semitism in the Russian Empire, which resulted in the wave of pogroms against the Jewish population. Ilan Shor does not mind the statements of Putin’s brain Aleksandr Dugin, ideologue of Russian imperialism, who on the same day – April 7, 2024 - when Shor was speaking about the pain in the hearts of the Jewish and Moldovan peoples, declared that Jerusalem will become Russian or will not exist at all. Likewise, Ilan Shor does not mind the fact that Israel’s main enemies – the HAMAS group, which on October 7, 2023 started a new phase of the war against the Jewish state, or Iran, which attacked Israel on April 13, 2024 - are partners of the Putin regime, pursuing the goal of international destabilization in order to change world order...”

What does Center for Strategic Communication and Combating of Disinformation do?

It would seem that there are so many topics of public interest that are deliberately distorted by the exponents of the Fifth Column, which promotes the narratives  of the Russian imperialism in the Republic of Moldova, that there is indeed a pressing need for the activity of a competent center specialized in combating disinformation. Although the creation of such an institution was announced and even a law was adopted in this regard, we know absolutely nothing about the fate of this institution.