The election campaign in Poland is marked by bizarre candidates, debates unrelated to the president's duties, and the influence of Russian narratives and MAGA ideology.
The specter of foreign interference looms large over Poland’s upcoming presidential election. Will Warsaw face a rerun of the Romanian scenario, where Russian actors disrupted elections? And more importantly, is Poland prepared to withstand the onslaught?
Aleksandr Lukashenko won his seventh term as president with 86.82% of the vote and a turnout of 85.9%, results typical for dictatorial regimes. The figures were touted as proof of stability in Belarus, popular support for Lukashenko and tolerance of the opposition. However, the elections were neither free nor fair, but just a show that fooled no one.
The “coup d'état” is proven by the fact that the decision to cancel the election was implemented before the Constitutional Court’s ruling, a well-known conspiracy attorney claims.
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The Belarusian opposition holds no hope for the coming presidential elections, due on January 26, to be fair. Strongman Alexander Lukashenko, in power for 30 years, will likely extend his rule, which means that the country will remain at odds with the West and in Russia’s grip.
In 2025, presidential elections will be held in Poland. People are already saying that we need to take seriously the scenario in which Russia influences the outcome – as it happened in Romania.
Narratives identical or similar to those fostered by Russian propaganda have also been circulated in the current election campaign in Romania. They transpired not only in the rhetoric of far-right parties, which for years have internalized such theses, but also in the statements of certain politicians aligned to Romania's pro-Western course.
Declassified documents presented by Romanian intelligence prove that Călin Georgescu is supported by a state actor. The state in question is not named, but its actions are similar to operations previously carried out by Russia.
There are no anti-EU, anti-NATO or far-right parties in Romania, claims Ion Cristoiu, a well-known promoter of narratives of Russian origin.
Romanian influencers, like the sports agent Ana Maria Prodan, continue to promote Călin Georgescu. Just like their favorite, influencers have been amplifying a series of Russian narratives, most of them adapted to Romania, but also all kinds of pseudo-scientific or conspiracy nonsense.
Soros asked Maia Sandu to support Elena Lasconi, said a former pro-Russian prime minister from Chisinau after the USR (Save Romania Union) candidate obtained the majority of votes in polling stations in the Republic of Moldova.
Georgescu was once considered a technocrat with a solid international career. When that career ended, he adopted a pro-Russian and anti-Western discourse and expressed his admiration for Ion Antonescu and Corneliu Zelea Codreanu.
From Diana Șoșoacă's “pen revolution” to George Simion's “giro giro girofaru” posts and #CălinGeorgescu, sovereigntists have taken Romania’s TikTok by storm, a space where they campaigned even on election day. Altogether, sovereigntist candidates grabbed nearly 40% of total votes.
At the West’s bidding, Moldova is ready to further worsen relations with Russia and introduce visas for Russian citizens, according to a false narrative launched in Tiraspol.
The pro-Russian parties have launched the campaign for the legislative elections that will take place in 2025 in the Republic of Moldova with disinformation, claiming that Maia Sandu is not a legitimate president. The stake: the European path of the country.
At home, Donald Trump could adopt certain illiberal measures. At international level, we could see new policies towards Russia and Ukraine, a trade war with China, tensions with Europe and an escalation in the Middle East.
Maia Sandu lost the elections in Moldova, so she is only the president of the diaspora, writes the pro-Kremlin media, pushing this conclusion through disinformation and manipulation and misinterpretation of facts.
Russia lost a battle in the hybrid war against Chișinău, but the election also revealed Moldova's vulnerabilities, the pro-Europeans' faulty communication and the need for the authorities to do more. Veridica’s staff and contributors analyze the result of the election.
The election and the referendum took place in an undemocratic climate, and now Parliament can decide, by a simple majority vote, to discard neutrality and unite with Romania, Russian propaganda claims.
Russia has also co-opted North Korea in the war against Ukraine and is stepping up its operations in Moldova and Georgia. Moscow seems to be preparing for a final showdown against the West.
According to a narrative that appeared in Russia in the context of the presidential elections in the Republic of Moldova, Moldovan politicians are not divided into pro-Russians and pro-Europeans, they are either pro-Moldovan or pro-Romanian.
The American television station CBS favors the Democratic candidates for the White House, by spreading disinformation and fake news, according to pro-Russian blogger Dan Diaconu.
Polls show there is no clear frontrunner in the race between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. Both candidates are now focusing on the “swing” states, which will decide the next US presi-dent.
(Pro-Russian) candidates in the presidential election in the Republic of Moldova campaign by spreading panicky messages, arguing, among other things, that the Romanian army will cross the Prut River or that Moldova will go to war.
Huge amounts of money are spent in election campaigns overseas, which is far too much, even for Americans.
The presidential “election” in Russia is the pinnacle of a long series of crimes, abuses and diversions designed to turn Putin's dictatorship into a totalitarian system in the truest sense of the word. Launched as an iron-fisted regime meant to speed up the country's structural modernization, Putin's dictatorship ultimately led to Russia's complete break with Europe and its firm anchoring in the Asian political model.
Why the year 2024 is a test for liberal democracies around the world and disinformation might be fatal to them.
Azerbaijan's authoritarian leader, Ilham Aliyev, was re-elected president after winning the Nagorno-Karabakh war and can turn his country into an energy and trade hub halfway between Asia and Europe.
According to the pro-Russian media, the referendum on the European integration of the Republic of Moldova is, in fact, aimed at getting the country involved in the war on the side of NATO.
The victory of the pro-independence candidate in the Taiwan elections complicates once again China-USA relations. China’s economic difficulties, the elections in the USA and the crisis in Yemen can however prevent an escalation.