In a post on Facebook, the European Union Delegation to Moldova said that “Russian propaganda is getting stronger as the referendum on Moldova’s European integration approaches”, IPN reports, with reference to EuNeighboursEast.eu.
The European Union has urged Moldovan citizens “to check the reliability of information sources and beware of fakes” ahead of the referendum on Moldova’s European integration. A section on European integration is to be added to Moldova’s Constitution as a result of the referendum.
“Fake information and fake videos of high quality are spreading on the Internet, and hundreds of new social media pages are appearing overnight to replace blocked ones,” the Delegation said.
The EU also recommends reading an article on ‘Russian experiments with disinformation in Moldova’, produced by the EU-funded project ‘EUvsDisinfo’ and available in Romanian, Russian, Ukrainian and other languages.
The authors noted that Moldova has been in the Kremlin’s crosshairs for a long time. Economic pressure, energy blackmail, staged protests, and generally polluting the information environment are some of the elements in the Kremlin’s playbook to destabilize Moldova and sabotage the country’s accelerating EU path
The source also cites a recent analysis by WatchDog.md community on the organized nature of the disinformation campaigns carried out by the Russian Federation. These campaigns involve the distribution of messages by the Kremlin’s Moldovan agents, which are then chosen and disseminated by Russian Foreign Ministry’s spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. The main objective of these campaigns is to sow distrust, fear and anxiety among the population, suggesting that the pro-Western government is leading the country towards war.
Various people, including former President Igor Dodon and Ilan Shor, either supported or strengthened these speeches. A network of Telegram channels, Tik-Tok accounts, web pages and Russian media channels widely disseminated these messages. Fake mobilization letters were also sent to reservists, protests were organized, and an alleged anti-war movement was launched.
At the beginning of June, it was noticed thar the official Facebook and Instagram pages of Ilan Shor, who was subject to sanctions by the EU, the U.S., Canada and the United Kingdom, were blocked, as were the accounts of his close collaborators, such as Marina Tauber, Evgenia Guțul and Alexei Lungu. Meta said these accounts were considered “dangerous individuals or organizations” after their online and offline activities were assessed.
However, the expert community warned that Ilan Shor and another fugitive oligarch, Vyacheslav Platon (sanctioned by Canada), stepped up their disinformation efforts on social media platforms. In June alone, they spent €55,000 to spread messages such as: “Moldova is controlled by foreigners” and “Russia should be Moldova’s strategic partner”.
Such incidents are expected to become more frequent as the country enters a crucial period of the election campaign.
The Kremlin and its proxies are stepping up their attacks on the growing cooperation between the EU and Moldova and on the EU’s support for Moldova’s resilience, falsely labelling it as a:"sign of the country’s militarization”. According to Watchdog.md community, the narrative that “EU integration would drag Moldova into the war [in Ukraine]” accounted for 10% of the hostile rhetoric observed in the first weeks of May in the Moldovan information space.
With the elections and referendum scheduled in almost three months, the source notes, we will see much more from the pro-Kremlin ecosystem in Moldova and its neighborhood. It is also clear that the government and civil society will put much more effort into monitoring and debunking disinformation and preventing the various hybrid threats. We will closely follow these evolutions.
