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Russian and pro-Russian propaganda has been promoting narratives regarding threats to the identity and even existence of Moldova and Moldovans for years. These narratives, delivered in the form of fake news, disinformation and conspiracy theories, are grouped into several themes. The "identity"- related ones speak of a threat allegedly coming from Romania/the West/NATO/EU/Soros - either individually or grouped in two or more. A second important category are the so-called healthcare narratives, which promote the theory according to which vaccination or intentionally triggered pandemics are used to enslave/eliminate the population. The West's promotion of a so-called "LGBT agenda" that undermines the nation’s moral values based on the "traditional family" represents a third category of narratives. Finally, the last category relates to alleged dangers posed by migrants. The Republic of Moldova is the poorest country in Europe, so it is not a destination of choice for migrants.
All these broad categories of narratives are used regularly, but how intensely they are promoted also depends on domestic and international political circumstances. The migrant narrative, for example, was used effectively during the exodus of Syrian war refugees, when a powerful disinformation campaign was waged across Europe about them (it turned out that the main actor behind this campaign was Russia); health-related narratives were promoted more intensively amid the pandemic, etc.
These narratives are promoted by representatives of the pro-Russian parties in Chisinau and their affiliated media, clerics such as the bishop of Balti, Marchel, but also the Metropolitan Bishopric of Moldova as a whole, and directly by Russian officials and the Moscow-based media, which dominated the information space of the Republic of Moldova for years. The influence of the latter diminished with the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, which determined the government in Chisinau to ban the rebroadcasting of Russian news programs and propaganda shows on its territory, in order to protect the information space of the Republic of Moldova. Also, within this effort to combat Russian and pro-Russian propaganda and disinformation, dozens of Russian and local websites were blocked, and in 2023 the Chisinau authorities expelled the director of the Russian agency Sputnik Moldova, Vitali Denisov, a former Russian colonel.
The main political figures promoting these narratives in recent years have direct ties to Russia and its secret services: former president Igor Dodon, who, as an extensive media investigation revealed, has even received a code name, Kremlinovich, and the fugitive Ilan Shor, sentenced to 15 years in prison in the "billion dollar theft" case, regarding the looting of the banking system of the Republic of Moldova. In 2023, Shor's name was also linked to an FSB plan to stage a coup d’etat in the Republic of Moldova.
EU/NATO/Romania/Soros want to destroy Moldovans’ identity
The goal of Soros’ “disciples” is the destruction of Moldova as a state, a pro-Russian publication in Chisinau wrote in 2020. The article is part of a broad campaign, carried out over several years, with the aim of demonizing civil society, and the arguments used are identical to those launched by the pro-Kremlin propaganda in its campaign against the Russian civil society. Similar campaigns, more or less intense, also run in a number of Western or ex-communist countries, the most notable case being Viktor Orban's Hungary, which even today continues to promote such narratives. In the Republic of Moldova, this thesis was not only promoted by a certain part of the media, but also by politicians, the most notable case being that of MP Bogdan Ţardea, a member of the pro-Russian Socialist Party, who even launched a book on this theme, "Civil society in the Republic of Moldova. Sponsors. NGOcracy. Culture Wars".
Narratives such as the new president of Moldova, Maia Sandu, the embodiment of the Soros scenario, or the US Ambassador to Chisinau is coordinating Maia Sandu to bring the Republic of Moldova under the control of the West, were disseminated in the context of the presidential (2020) and parliamentary elections (2021) held in the Republic of Moldova, which were won by pro-European Maia Sandu and her PAS party.
The threats described by Russians and pro-Russians are not limited to "Sorosists," a term that is relatively vague. NATO is one of the favorite scaremongers, especially since there is also an old background of Soviet propaganda in which the North Atlantic Alliance was seen as the main threat. The thesis that NATO/the Americans/the West will push Moldova towards a devastating war was initially used before the war in Ukraine and greatly amplified after its outbreak. Over the years, Veridica has debunked several narratives on this topic, for example that Moldova is an American launch pad for a war with Russia or that Western politicians want to use Moldovans as cannon fodder in the geopolitical fight. Such disinformation is promoted directly by the Russian press, which has recently written that Moldova will deploy its soldiers to Ukraine under the French flag.
Finally, a series of narratives regarding the threats to the Republic of Moldova were launched in the context of the fast rapprochement with the European Union and the opening of accession negotiations; a recent disinformation claimed that Moldova’s EU referendum will actually be about war.
Narratives promoted by the Metropolitan Bishopric of Moldova, canonically subordinated to the Russian Patriarchy: vaccines and the pandemic, tools to enslave the Moldovans and destroy their Church
The so-called healthcare narratives, regarding in particular vaccination and the Covid-19 pandemic, also circulated extensively in the Republic of Moldova, where one of the most influential factors in their spread was the clerical environment. The Metropolitan Bishopric of Moldova, canonically subordinate to the Russian Patriarchy - an institution that closely collaborates with the Kremlin and contributes to the spread of narratives promoted by it - has even institutionally promoted conspiracy theories and false narratives through an address to the state authorities in which it presented vaccination as "a way through which the globalist antichrist system wants to insert into people's bodies microchips with the help of which it can control them, by means of 5G technology".
The Bishop of Balti and Falesti, Marchel, one of the most controversial clerics in the Republic of Moldova was at the forefront of disinformation about Covid, stating that the virus was invented by Satanist globalists, which is why he urged Christians not to accept vaccination.
Another narrative launched by Sputnik in the context of the pandemic, starting from the anti-Covid measures taken by the authorities, was that pro-Europeans in the Republic of Moldova want to destroy the church . The "proof" presented by the Russian publication would be the limitation of the number of believers in places of worship. This type of narrative also circulated in other countries in the region, including Romania, which is evidence it was a concerted campaign.
The LGBT agenda - one of the main themes of propaganda in Moldova
An important part of the Moldovan society is conservative, so anti-LGBT campaigns have a fertile ground for development in the Republic of Moldova. Their main promoter is the Orthodox Church, and its most vocal characters include the bishop of Bălți and Fălești, Marchel, who, for example, in 2013 urged the representatives of the European Union “to take the sexual minorities with them, to Europe”. The anti-LGBT speech, like the one regarding medical conspiracies, was taken over and institutionalized by the Metropolitan Bishopric of Moldova, which denounced the decadence and worthlessness of Western society and "the cultivation of all kinds of imbecilities and actions incompatible with the moral and spiritual status of the human being".
Topics related to the LGBT community have been used for years by the Russian propaganda (or ultraconservatives influenced by it or with similar ideas) in its attempts to discredit the European Union. Thus, the EU is presented as "Gayropa", a space in antithesis to that of traditional, Christian values, which Russia would represent; a false equivalence is drawn between homosexuality and pedophilia, to convince the public that pedophilia is being legalized; also, the idea of an "LGBT agenda" that the EU is allegedely trying to impose is induced. For example, they are trying to inoculate the idea that the EU makes the accession of the Republic of Moldova conditional on the legalization of same-sex marriages, that the West imposes elections to undermine the state and promote the LGBT agenda, or that in Moldova the TV stations that promote “traditional family values” are shut down.
The anti-LGBT propaganda is also fueled by Chisinau politicians, usually conservative or pro-Russian, such as the former president and main leader of the anti-European opposition Igor Dodon, or local politicians .
30,000 Syrians in Moldova – the most emblematic fake-news campaign
In the context of the 2016 refugee crisis in the European Union, a pamphlet appeared on a humorous website in the Republic of Moldova (which disappeared shortly afterwards) - guralumii.net - according to which Maia Sandu, a candidate in the second round of the presidential elections, had allegedly promised the then German chancellor, Angela Merkel, that Moldova would host 30,000 Syrians if she became president. The subject was picked up by a large number of portals (none of which are accessible anymore), some presenting it as a pamphlet, others suggesting it was true information. A few days later, another pamphlet site wrote that the first 10,000 Syrians had arrived in Moldova and had been accommodated in Igor Dodon's native village. Although it was clearly false information, representatives of the Department for Emergency Situations called the local town hall to make sure that the Syrians had not really arrived there.
The best-known investigative publication in the Republic of Moldova, "Ziarul de Gardă" described in detail back then how the lie about Syrians developed: from a website pamphlet to information broadcast by the most watched television in the country.
The refugee disinformation campaign took place against the backdrop of the presidential election campaign that Maia Sandu would lose that year.
Migrants are not the biggest issue facing the Republic of Moldova, a country which, due to its economic situation, is not at all attractive. However, perhaps as a result of the story with the 30,000 Syrians, periodically, especially during election campaigns, scaremongering fake news are emerging about the "invasion" of Moldova by migrants. For example, in the campaign for the 2019 parliamentary elections, a pro-Russian portal (blocked in the meantime by Moldova’s intelligence service for promoting fake news) wrote that Moldova accepted the first refugees from Bangladesh that Italy had rejected. The news was quickly picked up by at least five other media outlets.
The Syrians “returned” to the Republic of Moldova, already headed by Maia Sandu, in the parliamentary elections of 2021, but the fake didn’t have the same impact as in 2016.
Why false narratives regarding identity "catch on" in the Republic of Moldova
Such narratives catch on very well because, first of all, they are a continuation of the Soviet propaganda that marked us for more than half a century, says historian Octavian Țîcu, author of the volume "Homo Moldovanus Sovieticus. Theories and practices of identity building in the MSSR":
"When we talk about such slogans that were cultivated during the Soviet period, we have to keep two aspects in mind. The first is the Soviet legacy. The second: Russian propaganda in the post-communist period and especially the second stage of the Putinist period. The first is related to the Soviet propaganda’s generally anti-Western narrative, which primarily cultivated the idea of the difference, the dichotomy between Moldovans and Romanians. Romania was seen as an adversary state, and the Moldavian SSR as a different Soviet state, opposite to Romania, with a distinct identity. This explains why Romania continues to be seen as a danger, and why Putinist propaganda easily succeeds here in maintaining adherence to Moldovanism.
The anti-Western and anti-NATO discourse was obvious during the Soviet period, cultivated at school, in the educational process, and at the level of official propaganda. We have a society that grew up surrounded by such propaganda, and in addition to the Romanians/Moldovans that grew up in this environment, we also have national minorities that claim they are part of the Russian World and that mostly kept seeing themselves as an outpost of the Russian World in the Republic of Moldova even after the independence. That's why these two elements of the Soviet heritage are the ones that make up the basis of propaganda".
Regarding the false narratives related to civil society, Octavian Tîcu says that there is a direct link to Moscow's discourse and policies, which derives from Vladimir Putin's fear of losing power:
"Soros and other similar groups are organizations of open societies, which promote democracy, human rights, the independence of the justice system, dangerous for Russia, which is an authoritarian state with tendencies towards totalitarianism. Therefore, any association with such foundations and emanations of the Western world is turned into a subversive discourse based on conspiracies, but can be easily disavowed when we know the truth. Since 1992, the Soros Foundation has annually invested about 10 million dollars in the Republic of Moldova, in sectors where the state was completely helpless".
The historian also raised an alarm signal about the difficulty of combating these false narratives, given that an important part of the political class both adheres to and promotes them:
"It is also a contribution of the pro-Russian, Putinist political parties, which claim roots in the sovereignist, Moldovanist, Eurasian, pro-Russian and pro-Putinist idea. They have been present in our public space over time, they led the Republic of Moldova at some points in time - during the Agrarian Party stint in power, and during the presidencies of Petru Lucinschi, Vladimir Voronin, and Igor Dodon. Pro-Russian parties such as the Socialist Party, Shor's parties, the Communist Party, including Chisinau Mayor Ivan Ceban's MAN, are political tools, vehicles that promote these slogans, inoculate them and make them visible in the public space. They build a mosaic that is not encouraging for the future of the Republic of Moldova, given the conditions in which electoral preferences are extremely fluid and unpredictable, from one electoral round to another".
