ASSESSMENT OF PROMOTION CAMPAIGNS
SPENDINGS ON META PLATFORM DURING JANUARY 31 - FEBRUARY 28, 2025 AUTHOR : ANDREI RUSU, WATCHDOG.MD CO - AUTHORS : ANDREI CURĂRARU, CĂTĂLINA BUDURIN Summary Between January 31 to February 28, the Russian Federation, through its fugitive oligarchs, changed its strategy...
Analysis – How much did the oligarchs spend on online ads in August 2024
Author: Andrei Rusu Co-authors: Eugen Muravschi, Andrei Curăraru In August 2024, fugitive oligarchs Ilan Șor and Veaceslav Platon, with support from the Kremlin, ramped up their online disinformation campaigns targeting Moldova's European path. The estimated cost of...
Evaluation of the promotional campaigns of Șor and Platon. Analysis of investments and tactics used in July 2024.
In just a short period of 90 days, fugitive oligarchs Ilan Șor and Veaceslav Platon spent approximately 136,000 euros on Facebook advertising. Fig. 1 - Comparison of the amounts spent by Ilan Șor and Veaceslav Platon on Facebook advertising for disinformation over a...
Evaluation of disinformation campaigns financed by Șor and Platon: impact and limited reaction of social platforms
Author: Andrei Rusu, WatchDog.MD Co-authors: Andrei Curăraru, Valeriu Pașa Fugitive oligarchs Ilan Șor and Veaceslav Platon intensified their disinformation campaigns on online platforms. Between June 1 and June 30, 2024, both spent about 55,250 euros promoting...
What are the odds of Vlad Plahotniuc’s sanctions being lifted?
Plahotniuc v Council: Prospects and challenges Vlad Plahotniuc has challenged the Council's decision to impose sanctions, including a visa ban and asset freeze, due to his alleged actions destabilizing Moldova. His challenge is based on two main arguments: first,...
Case study: NATO SUMMIT IN BUCHAREST
One of the major events of November 2022 was the NATO Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Bucharest on 29-30 November, where Western leaders were called to assess the implementation of NATO’s strategic concept, adopted last summer in Madrid, and to discuss how the West can...
“LEOPARDS” – ON THE TRAIL OF DISINFORMATION
Germany has given the green light for the delivery of Leopard tanks to Ukraine, the government in Berlin announced on 25 January. Shortly after Berlin's announcement, US President Joe Biden confirmed that the US would send Ukraine 31 Abrams tanks. Thus, after weeks of...
Reflection of the main geopolitical actors in Moldovan TV news in November 2022
The study looked at how 12 countries, 4 international organisations and 11 foreign leaders from Europe, North America and Asia were covered in the news of 8 of the most popular TV channels. Each of the monitored subjects was given one point for each mention in the...
The image of international actors in Moldovan TV news
The WatchDog.MD Community launched an initiative in 2022 to monitor the coverage of international issues in TV news in Moldova. The effort is supported by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) under the project “Strengthening the quality and information capacity...