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Republic of Moldova before elections – 18th October, 2024

A previous brief mentioned how the popular propaganda narrative on “stolen elections” was adapted for the Moldovan context. On Friday, a new avatar of this piece of disinformation was circulated, as a worried news story: “Something is fishy here: Why weren’t representatives of the CIS Interparliamentary Assembly invited to Moldova as observers at the elections?”, reads the title of the article decrying the absence of representatives from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). A quick reminder: CIS was formed after the dissolution of the USSR, as an intergovernmental organization in Eurasia. While Moldova was one of the founding members, the country has been progressively distancing itself from the CIS, with significant legislative actions and statements from officials indicating a move towards EU integration and away from Russian influence. As part of this process, in November 2022 the Moldovan MFA stopped participating in CIS reunions and in July 2023 Moldova passed a law on denunciation of the agreement on Moldova’s membership in the Inter-Parliamentary Assembly of the CIS countries. A full withdrawal is planned for the end of this year. While this short history brief puts things into perspective, pro-Kremlin websites frame CIS absence in monitoring these elections as a means to pervert their result in favour of Sandu.

Ilan Şor was left with no official candidates in this election, but this didn’t stop him from getting involved. Apart from paying people to protest againts the establishemnt, it was heavily implied that on the Friday before the elections he will announce his public support for one of the independent candidates in the presidential race, Victoria Furtună, and urge his followers to vote for her. The secrecy was presented as a way to safeguard her place on the ballot, since as soon as a Şor-backed candidate would have been announced publicly, they would have been excluded from the race – or so the story goes. The surprise announcement was exposed early last week, through Ziarul de Gardă’s investigation, thus Ilan Şor was forced to rethink his strategy. As if inspired by Thomas Aquinas and his negative theology, the Moldovan fugitive stated: “I urge you to vote for any candidate. Anyone except Sandu. Our candidate is not Sandu. Friends! Every voice you cast against her is a powerful blow.”

On the Facebook groups of the Moldovan diaspora in Italy, a fake article from a questionable Italian publication is being distributed with the purpose of denigrating Maia Sandu on ahead of the October 20 elections. The article contains unproved allegations of conflicts of interest involving Veronica Dragalin, the Moldovan anti-corruption prosecutor, her family and President Maia Sandu. The main allegations are directed towards the influence of Veronica’s father, Vladimir Dragalin, CEO of Janssen, over Moldova’s purchases of COVID-19 vaccines. The article suggests that there is a conflict between Veronica Dragalin and Maia Sandu over the accusations against Judge Tatiana Răducanu, but this speculation is seen as a diversion to minimize possible damage to the reputation of the presidential administration. Although the articles suggest a rift between Dragalin and Sandu, in reality, this information appears to be falsified to create the appearance of conflict, while the close relationship between the two remains intact.  This article is being distributed in Italy because it has the largest diaspora of Moldovans, in an attempt to prevent them from voting for Maia Sandu. The article was also picked up by a number of Facebook pages affiliated to fugitive oligarch Vladimir Plahotniuc. The day after the article appeared, the propagandist Gabriel Călin promoted a video clip based on the so-called investigation.

We are usually told to listen to experts – this is why the Komsomolskalya Pravda quotes the editorial board’s expert opinion for today’s op-ed: “Experts’ opinion on why it is necessary to say “NO” at the referendum on October 20: This is not a plebiscite about European integration, but about a DANGEROUS change to the Constitution of Moldova” . In a take that has been circulated again and again within the last weeks, those in charge of disinformation do their best to “debunk” EU myths that might sway the public’s support for the referendum, including high rates of poverty, agriculture land owned by foreigners and the mandatory LGBT+ agenda. The message is backed up by other articles on the website, such as the story of a determined young Moldovan living for 10+ years in the Russian Federation, ready to spend hundreds of Euros to travel to Moscow, the only place where he can vote against Sandu and “her referendum”.

Another quoted expert is political scientist Alexander Nosovich. He went on to say the following on the presidential elections in Moldova: “Whether there will be gigantic ballot stuffing and total election fraud will be decided by the triumvirate of three B – Brussels, Bucharest, Berlin

Another stolen elections narrative unfolded on Telegram: “The current government has stolen from citizens the right to vote for a liberal, pro-European candidate in this election by restricting our access to elections where we could represent the pool of liberal votes. It would be immoral to vote for a candidate other than the one we previously nominated. Thus, the current elections cannot be called either free or fair…”, writes Bodgan Ţîrdea on his Telegram channel, attributing this quote to the CUB Party. What Ţârdea fails to mention is that the party left a larger political coalition, Blocul Împreună, after their proposal for the internal race to appoint a presidential candidate did not get the nomination. CUB tried to register their own candidate in the presidential race, but the Electoral Commision rejected their submission quoting issues with the signatures on the support lists. The post partially quoted by Ţîrdea includes the full support for the referendum, not only political frustrations.

Gagauz public figure Mihail Vlah calls for people to come out to the referendum and vote NO. He reminded the unionists that both Gagauzia and Transnistria were formed precisely because of the idea of unification with Romania. He also noted the increasing number of information leaks that even Russian-speaking residents of Moldova have already agreed to unification. Vlah called on residents of Gagauzia, Transnistria and the diaspora to take an active part in the elections and “say NO to the Sandu regime and its fake referendum on changing the Constitution.”

Based on a quote from former Ukrainian Defense Minister and current Ambassador to the United Kingdom Valeriy Zaluzhny, who stated that the Ukrainian people are ready to call upon women to save Europe from war if need be, a pro-Russian Telegram channel posts: “Someone is already ready to throw women into the meat grinder of war; and at the demand of Western “partners” is discussing lowering the draft age to 21… Do you think Maia Sandu will stop at some sacrifices for the sake of Europe’s prosperity?! We can already see: Sandu will do anything, even if the main obstacle on her way is the people of Moldova!”

Stop Fals has dedicated an ample article on a very active pro-Russian propagandist, Gabriel Călin: Examples of his rhetoric include accusing the current government of having sold Moldova to the Europeans and Americans, of wanting to draw it into war following the “Ukrainian scenario” or of preparing the “invasion of the Transnistrian region”. Călin also spreads falsehoods and speculations about the referendum on EU accession, the energy crisis and the introduction of visas for Moldovans in the EU and CIS countries. We have analyzed his social media activity and show you why the theses and narratives he promotes do not correspond to the truth and make him a mouthpiece of Russian propaganda. Gabriel Calin has two TikTok accounts, where he has over 80,000 followers. On this platform he publishes his own videos and does live streams with pro-Russian activists and politicians. He also has a Telegram channel (about 5,200 subscribers), another on Facebook (over 7,300 followers) and a YouTube channel (almost 14,000 subscribers) where he usually publishes interviews with politicians supported by the Kremlin and, more recently, with representatives of power in Moscow. For a full overview on his activity and narratives, read the original article.

Another Komsomolskalya Pravda article reports that Moldova’s Intelligence and Security Service (SIB) claimed to have thwarted planned protests and acts of sabotage following the presidential elections. The SIB presented evidence, including drawings allegedly made by children, to support their claims. The head of SIB, Alexandru Musteață, stated that a group of young people had been trained in camps in Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina by foreign instructors linked to the Wagner Group. These individuals were reportedly trained in tactics to destabilize the constitutional order and provoke law enforcement. Despite these claims, the SIB assured that the situation is currently under control and the risk of mass unrest is low.

This newsletter is part of our ongoing work with the Bulgarian-Romanian Observatory of Digital Media, member of EDMO.  

Funky Citizens