Unmasking Disinformation: Russian Efforts to Manipulate Moldova's Elections

Mon Sep 29 2025 00:23:59 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)

A covert Russian operation seeks to undermine Moldova's upcoming elections through propaganda and misinformation tactics, as revealed by an undercover BBC investigation.

An undercover investigation by the BBC has uncovered a Russian-backed disinformation network aiming to disrupt Moldova's elections scheduled for September 28. Participants were promised payments for spreading fake news to undermine the pro-EU ruling party. Links have been established between this network and sanctioned Moldovan oligarch Ilan Shor. While official polls show the ruling party ahead, deceptive tactics are in use to distort public perception ahead of the election.

A secret Russian-funded network is attempting to disrupt upcoming democratic elections in an eastern European state, the BBC has found.

Using an undercover reporter, we discovered the network promised to pay participants if they posted pro-Russian propaganda and fake news undermining Moldova's pro-EU ruling party ahead of the country's 28 September parliamentary ballot.

Participants were paid to find supporters of Moldova's pro-Russia opposition to secretly record - and also to carry out a so-called poll. This was done in the name of a non-existent organisation, making it illegal. The results of this selective sampling, an organiser from the network suggested, could lay the groundwork to question the outcome of the election.

The results of the so-called poll, suggesting the ruling party will lose, have already been published online.

In fact, official polls suggest the ruling Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) founded by President Maia Sandu is currently ahead of the pro-Russian Patriotic Electoral Bloc (BEP).

We have found links between the secret network and Moldovan oligarch Ilan Shor - sanctioned by the US for the Kremlin's malign influence operations and now a fugitive in Moscow. The UK has also sanctioned him for corruption.

We have also found links between the network and a non-profit organisation (NGO) called Evrazia.

Evrazia has connections to Mr Shor and was sanctioned by the UK, US and EU for allegedly bribing Moldovan citizens to vote against EU membership last year. The referendum on joining passed, but by a very small margin.

In 2024 the focus of [Ilan Shor's] campaign was money. This year the focus is disinformation, Moldova's chief of police, Viorel Cernauteanu, told the BBC World Service.

Moldova may be small, but sandwiched between Ukraine and EU-member Romania, it has strategic significance for both Europe and the Kremlin, experts say.

Our undercover reporter Ana, and 34 other recruits, were asked to attend secret online seminars which would prepare operatives. With titles like How to go from your kitchen to national leader, they seemed to serve as a vetting process. Ana and the others had to pass regular tests on what they had learned.

Ms Juc told Ana she would be paid 3,000 Moldovan lei ($170, £125) a month to produce TikTok and Facebook posts in the run-up to the election, and that she would be sent the money from Promsvyazbank (PSB) - a sanctioned Russian state-owned bank which acts as the official bank for the Russian defence ministry, and is a shareholder in one of Ilan Shor's companies.

Ana and the other recruits were trained to produce social media posts using ChatGPT, told that content attracts people if the picture contains some satire… over reality, but too much AI should be avoided to ensure posts felt organic.

Inside the Telegram group, Ana and the BBC had access to previous instructions issued to participants. Initially, they had been asked for patriotic posts about historical figures in Moldovan history - but gradually the demands had become overtly political.

Ana was asked to post unfounded allegations - including that Moldova's current government is planning to falsify the election results, Moldova's potential EU membership is contingent on the country changing its sexual orientation to LGBT, and that President Sandu is facilitating child trafficking.

The network did not just post disinformation. Ms Juc also offered Ana 200 Moldovan lei ($12, £9) an hour in cash to conduct unofficial polling, interviewing people in Moldova's capital about their preferred candidates in the election.

Before conducting this task, participants were given training on how to subtly sway those being polled.

They were also asked to secretly tape the interviewees who said they supported the pro-Russian opposition.

Our evidence also suggests the network our reporter joined is being bank-rolled from Russia. Ana overheard - and filmed - Alina Juc on the phone asking for money from Moscow.

The Russian embassy in the UK denied involvement in fake news and electoral interference and claimed that it was the EU that had been interfering in Moldova's election.