Moldova sounds alarm over Kremlin's covert influence campaign across Europe

Moldova’s National Security Adviser, Stanislav Secrieru, has sounded the alarm over escalating Russian efforts to influence Moldovan voters living abroad across Europe ahead of the pivotal parliamentary elections scheduled for September 28.

Secrieru detailed a surge in disinformation campaigns aimed at nearly 250,000 diaspora voters, a demographic crucial to the country’s pro-Western government, Caliber.Az reports, citing foreign media.

“Russia and its proxies are now actively focusing their efforts on the Moldovan diaspora,” Secrieru stated, highlighting the renewed offensive led by the Kremlin-backed network known as Matryoshka. This operation employs sophisticated tactics including the creation of fake media outlets designed to mimic credible European news sources in both appearance and tone. These outlets disseminate fabricated reports intended to erode trust in Moldova’s democratic institutions and create confusion among Moldovan communities abroad.

“The campaign is designed to demobilize diaspora voters — encouraging them to stay home — and to manipulate those who do vote into supporting a fake pro-EU force,” Secrieru explained.

Moldova’s diaspora has historically played a decisive role in elections, most notably in the 2020 presidential vote where the liberal incumbent Maia Sandu secured a landmark victory despite allegations of Russian interference. Similarly, a concurrent referendum on Moldova’s bid for EU membership narrowly passed thanks to ballots cast abroad, a vote Moscow reportedly targeted through cash-for-votes schemes supporting pro-Russian opposition parties.

Looking ahead to the upcoming September election, Secrieru warned of potential tactics reminiscent of previous polls, such as “hoax bomb threats at polling stations in European cities” and “staged protests abroad aimed at projecting false dissatisfaction.” He urged European governments to enhance monitoring efforts and proactively counter any attempts to sway the vote before, during, and after election day.

Last week, President Sandu underscored the gravity of the threat, declaring that “the Russian Federation wants to control the Republic of Moldova from autumn onwards,” and warned that Moscow is intensifying support for her political adversaries. The ruling Party of Action and Solidarity is campaigning on the achievement of EU candidate status and aims to maintain its parliamentary majority to continue advancing accession negotiations with Brussels.

The European Union has stepped up assistance to Moldova to strengthen its resilience against what the EUvsDisinfo network characterizes as a “coordinated campaign” designed to undermine Sandu, “manipulate online discourse and undermine trust in legitimate information sources.”

By Vafa Guliyeva