Chisinau, Moldova (AP) – Moldova is facing a flood of disinformation driven by artificial intelligence ahead of a critical parliamentary election.
Ahead of Sunday’s vote to select a new 101-seat parliament, several online monitoring groups have tracked propaganda and disinformation campaigns attributed to Russia. Their aim is to reduce support for the ruling European behavior and solidarity parties, or PAS, which many votes consider as East and West geopolitical choices.
Researchers say the coordinated campaign shows a new phase in Russian impact operations built on fresh infrastructure and massive use of AI. The spoofing website impersonates legitimate western media and pays Africa’s “engagement farms,” but AI bots are deployed in a flood of comments sections that disregard the PA and the EU.
Moldovan President Maia Sandou She warned that Sunday’s vote would be “the most important” in her country’s history.
She said that joining the EU will protect Moldova “the biggest threat we face: from Russia.”
Monday police 74 people were arrested in 250 attacks As part of an investigation into a suspected Russian-backed plan to incite popular riots and destabilize the country.
Pro-European PAS, founded by Sandhu in 2016. He won a clear majority in the 2021 parliamentary elections But the risk of losing it on Sunday is that there is no viable pro-European alternative to vote, but none of some Russia-friendly.
In the wake of Russia’s complete invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Moldova applied to join the EU and was given the candidate status that year, Brussels I agreed to hold membership negotiations last year.
Moldovan authorities have long warned that Russia is in a hybrid war – interfering with elections, disinformation campaigns, illegally funding Russian political parties – are trying to derail the country’s path to EU membership. Moscow has repeatedly denied interference in Moldova.
Masking AI-generated sites
Since 2022, ResetTech, a global nonprofit that monitors digital threats to democracy and Russia’s online impact operations, has investigated RestMedia, an English-generated platform that declares “to uncover and address the key issues that will shape the future of Europe and we promise to address them.”
RestMedia mimics investigative journalism with serious articles and well-designed graphics, according to a Reset Tech report shared with The Associated Press, but all content is generated using AI tools. About a quarter of the content focuses on Moldova, but is “translated and amplified” by websites in other EU languages. It publishes “propaganda lined up in the Kremlin” attacking Sandhu, PA and the EU.
What is disinformation? Incorrect information is created and spread intentionallymainly because of confusion or misleading.
“We’ve learned to detect fingerprints of these Russian secret services in many different countries…and we’ve seen them really active in Moldova,” Ben Scott, director of Reset Tech, told the Associated Press. “And it’s not surprising, as Moldova has such a significant election.”
“Entertainment Farm” in Africa
The 36-page report reveals that RestMedia will pay Africa’s “engagement farm” and promote the narrative across X’s verified accounts with a “in-employment” scheme. RestMedia “will try to cover up the infrastructure,” but researchers have discovered “a clear technical link to Russia” via IP addresses and website metadata.
“I’m not at all shocked by the refined stuff because it’s not refined. What’s noteworthy about it is how big it is,” Scott said. “If several researchers from NGOs like us can find a big Russian information tactic targeting Moldova, why can’t big companies… do they not do that?”
In a statement, Google said it would actively track and tackle the coordinated election impact operations. “YouTube has ended more than 1,000 channels since June 2024 as part of a coordinated impact manipulation targeted at Moldova as part of an active coverage of the 2025 Moldova election.”
Between August 5 and September 4, the Expert Forum, a Romanian think tank monitoring Moldova’s elections, said that “Fear and Ress” had tracked 100 fraudulent Tiktok accounts, which had a total of 13.9 million views in a campaign that attacked PAs. The NGO later found “Mirror Network” on Facebook for 100 Tiktok accounts.
“What we’re looking at today is fundamentally different from the classic disinformation campaign,” he says. “AI can generate full profiles, realistic photos, reliable biography and a variety of content in weeks of manual work.”
Promo-Lex, a Moldovan nonprofit that monitors elections, has also discovered 500 fake Tiktok accounts that posted the same video, graphics, and anti-EU and anti-Sandoo stories. The network, driven by 25 “core accounts,” used the trending method to “manipulate Tiktok’s algorithm to force posts” using two election-related hashtags.
The Moldovan government tried to counter the slu. On September 16, Sandhu signed a law approving the establishment of the centre to combat disinformation.
Spoofing websites mimic western media
One site that mimics the US lifestyle outlets is OK! The magazine ran a produced story entitled “Moldovan President in Celebrity Sperm Scandal!” And they misused the name of a real reporter. Unmarried and childless Sandou claimed he had purchased gay celebrity donors to have children from gay celebrity donors such as Ricky Martin and Elton John.
“This article aims to trust Sandhu while arming with gender stereotypes and targeting her personal life.
Another article about fake news sites is referenced as its primary source. An EU-approved report by the Russian Foundation accused Sandhu of running a child traffic campaign through Ukraine on the European pedophile network.
“Kremlin operatives use AI, cheap, ready-made software to create quick, dirty images of websites that look great,” Scott said. “It not only brings false information to voters looking to consider their country’s highly consequential issues, but it also leads people to believe that over time they can’t trust anything.”
According to Reset Tech, the network uses methods and digital assets that link to methods that affect information in Russia, often referred to as Storm-1516. The analysis was built on research by the recorded Future Insikt group and the foreign information manipulation and interference information sharing and analysis centres consisting of DFRLAB, EU DISINFO LAB, Alliance4Europe and Debunk.
Russian oligarchs accused of interfering
The fugitive Pro-Russian Moldovan Oligarh Ilan Shor, He was convicted of fraud and reportedly lives in exile in Moscow, accused of funding a large Russian-backed network of political ads on Facebook and YouTube ahead of the election.
Between April 30 and July 28, a network led by Shor and several other political actors paid 1,505 ads on the meta platform at 45,000 euros ($53,000), according to Chisinau-based think tank Watchdog. Hundreds of ads have also been placed on YouTube.
During the period when Watchdog was being monitored, the main “propaganda tale” promoted on two platforms was that the PA rigged elections, persecuted the Orthodox Moldovan church, and claimed that the pro-EU party had put Moldova in poverty.
Moldovan authorities conducted a series of attacks in a series of elections allegedly linked to “criminal organisations” as part of an investigation into voter corruption, illegal party funding and money laundering.
During the September 18 attack, when one person was detained, police said they had seized cash, laptops and bank documents, and that the suspect had been directed via Telegram from “curators of the Russian Federation” on how to distribute and comment on Facebook, Tiktok and Telegram’s Diolformation Videos. Shoal denied any misconduct.
“We know how to fight Russian propaganda (and pro-Russian oligarchs),” says Andrei Russ, a media surveillance expert at Watchdog. “But we need more support from our partners. …If this election is corrupted, words will not save our country from the pro-Russian regime.”
