THE ROLE OF FAITHBASED MESSAGING IN KREMLIN FIMI OPERATIONS
Author: David Smith Produced in cooperation with WatchDog.MD Community During Moldova’s 2024–2025 election cycle, religious institutions and faith-based messaging became a significant vector in Kremlin-aligned influence operations. This report examines how this...
Will Moldova build nuclear reactors or not?
Author: Eugen Muravschi "Moldova will build a modular nuclear reactor", "Moldova enters the nuclear era with a modular reactor", "Moldova intends to build a modular nuclear reactor" – this is how some local websites presented a post by the Minister of Energy following...
Externally Facing Influence Campaigns
This report examines a less-studied category of Russian-linked foreign information manipulation and interference (FIMI) targeting Moldova during the 2024 - 2025 election cycle: bespoke, “grasstops” influence operations aimed at policymakers, think tanks, journalists,...
MOLDOVA COULD RETURN TO PURCHASING ENERGY FROM MOLDGRES
Authors: Sergiu Tofilat, Eugen Muravschi Recently, there have been reports that Moldova may resume energy purchases from MoldGRES. This is despite the fact that in February 2025, the government publicly committed to abandoning energy from Russian sources, which...
Border ammo incident – a false flag operation used by Russian propaganda
The detention of a truck carrying weapons at the Moldovan-Romanian customs post in Leușeni-Albița quickly turned into an intense disinformation campaign against the governments in Chișinău and Kyiv. Moreover, the incident bears all the hallmarks of a false flag...
ANALYSIS OF ONLINE ADVERTISING EXPENDITURES OF ELECTORAL COMPETITORS IN THE PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS OF SEPTEMBER 28
Between August 31 and September 29, candidates in the September 28 parliamentary elections spent a total of approximately €237,167 on 2,903 advertisements on the META platform. On Google platforms, the identified electoral competitors sponsored 2,046 advertisements,...
DISINFORMATION CAMPAIGNS BY THE KREMLIN AND FUGITIVE OLIGARCHS ON META AND YOUTUBE PLATFORMS August 2025
Authors: CĂTĂLINA BUDURIN, ANDREI RUSU Summary Between July 31 and August 29, 2025, the Russian Federation, through the network led by oligarch Ilan Șor, along with several local political actors sponsored 571 advertisements on Meta platforms, with a total estimated...
How the Republic of Moldova Is Perceived from the Left Bank of the Dniester River.
Dr. Tatiana Cojocari, WatchDog.MD Community Context From Chisinau’s perspective, the population on the left bank of the Dniester is seen as mostly having strongly favourable opinions of the Russian Federation and equally strong anti-Western sentiments. It is no...
DISINFORMATION CAMPAIGNS BY THE KREMLIN AND FUGITIVE OLIGARCHS ON META AND YOUTUBE PLATFORMS. MAY – JULY 2025
Authors: Andrei Rusu, Andrei Curăraru Between April 30 and July 28, the Russian Federation, through the network led by oligarch Ilan Shor, and several local political actors sponsored 1,505 advertisements on Meta platforms, with a total estimated budget of €45,000. On...