Fake News, Disinformation & Propaganda

FAKE NEWS: Maia Sandu and Zelensky have agreed to attack Transnistria
FAKE NEWS: Maia Sandu and Zelensky have agreed to attack Transnistria

According to a Telegram post of a Russian TV station, the president of the Republic of Moldova, Maia Sandu, is considering a military attack on the separatist region of Trasnistria and has tried to rally Kiev’s support. The story has prompted a true media frenzy in Chișinău and Moscow, having been redistributed by a large number of media outlets. Chișinău authorities have dismissed this scenario, which they say carries little weight.

FAKE NEWS: Protests in Russia, a show for the Western media
FAKE NEWS: Protests in Russia, a show for the Western media

Pro-Kremlin messengers - media, influencers, etc. - try to promote the idea that the demonstrations that took place after Navalny's arrest and the revelations about Putin's palace were the result of manipulations from the outside.

DISINFORMATION: The Republic of Moldova is the successor of Stephen the Great’s Moldavia
DISINFORMATION: The Republic of Moldova is the successor of Stephen the Great’s Moldavia

The initiative to establish the Moldovan Statehood Day dates back to 2017, when Igor Dodon was President of the Republic of Moldova, and derives from the Moldovan-statist ideology, according to which there is a Moldovan people different from the Romanian one and also that the Republic of Moldova is the successor of Stephen the Great’s Moldavia.

FAKE NEWS: Belarus has preserved its sovereignty, unlike Ukraine and the Baltic States
FAKE NEWS: Belarus has preserved its sovereignty, unlike Ukraine and the Baltic States

The pro-democratic movement in Belarus is actually a tool the West is using to undermine the country’s independence. The method had already proved efficient when Western powers took over the Baltic States. These ideas are promoted by a pro-Russian politician in Belarus and are meant to reinforce narratives about pro-democratic and pro-Western forces in Belarus, which Moscow has been spreading for years.

FAKE NEWS: The Biden administration is drawing a
FAKE NEWS: The Biden administration is drawing a "black list" of religious leaders worldwide that are opposing the LGBT agenda

Conservative circles in the United States are writing that the new Democratic President of the United States, Joe Biden, has allegedly signed an executive order that will promote homosexuality as a central element of US foreign policy and, moreover, "blacklists" will be drawn up of world religious leaders who oppose the LGBT phenomenon. It would also target American ultra-conservative organizations that have links with Romania.

FAKE NEWS: Ukraine will lose territories for blocking pro-Russian television stations
FAKE NEWS: Ukraine will lose territories for blocking pro-Russian television stations

Ukraine could face the loss of new territories after the closure of three pro-Russian TV stations, RIA Novosti quotes the former Georgian President, Mikheil Saakashvili, as saying. The news is fake: Saakashvili never referred to the loss of territories, but merely said Russia could use the ban on the TV stations as a pretext for new acts of aggression.

Marin Gherman
09 Feb 2021
FAKE NEWS: Clotilde Armand is cutting the funding of hospitals in District 1
FAKE NEWS: Clotilde Armand is cutting the funding of hospitals in District 1

Bucharest District 1 Mayor, Clotilde Armand, has allegedly cut the funding of four of the most important hospitals in Bucharest, all located in District 1. This is a false narrative, promoted on a number of media channels and endorsed by politicians of the largest opposition party, PSD.

FAKE NEWS: Facebook is censoring Igor Dodon
FAKE NEWS: Facebook is censoring Igor Dodon

The former president of the Republic of Moldova, Igor Dodon, considers that he lost the presidential elections last autumn also due to Facebook, which allegedly deleted the likes he received and blocked the accounts of his party members. Ironically, the allegations were made in a video streamed on Facebook. Dodon thus joined a wave of attacks against these networks, launched in several countries, from Russia and EU member states to the United States.

FAKE NEWS: Maia Sandu wants to abolish free media
FAKE NEWS: Maia Sandu wants to abolish free media

The President of the Republic of Moldova, Maia Sandu, only mimics her attachement to democratic and European values and if she could, she would establish an authoritarian regime in which freedom of expression would be limited. This fake narrative, originating from the Socialist circles, was also used during the elections campaign. 

FAKE NEWS: Ukraine bans “The Master and Margarita”
FAKE NEWS: Ukraine bans “The Master and Margarita”

Authorities in Kiev have banned an edition of Mikhail Bulgakov’s “The Master and Margarita”, but online media in Russia treated the information as a total ban on this literary work.

Disinformation – The Red Army was a liberating force
Disinformation – The Red Army was a liberating force

The renaming of the Tolbuhin park in Bucharest is used as a pretext for reinterpreting history

Fake news: Ukraine punishes the people of Crimea and leaves them without water
Fake news: Ukraine punishes the people of Crimea and leaves them without water

Ukraine punishes the Crimean people for choosing to join Russia, blocking the North Crimean Canal. Kiev says that the existing water resources in Crimea are sufficient for the needs of the population, and the purpose of the North Crimean Canal, is to carry water to industrial facilities.

Marin Gherman
02 Feb 2021
Ceaușescu was a great leader of sovereign Romania
Ceaușescu was a great leader of sovereign Romania

Sputnik has now joined the current trying to rehabilitate Nicolae Ceaușescu and advance the idea that he was a great leader and patriot, and Romania thrived under Ceaușescu. Some of the concepts are similar to those of proto-chronism, national-communism and sovereigntist lines of thought.

The EU is setting up a dictatorship by fighting undeclared work
The EU is setting up a dictatorship by fighting undeclared work

The European Union wants to fight tax evasion and undeclared work, which is a form of totalitarianism, says the ideologue of the pro-Russian Party of Socialists, widely covered by the affiliated press.

FAKE NEWS: The Russian language, a shield that protected the Moldovan state from annihilation
FAKE NEWS: The Russian language, a shield that protected the Moldovan state from annihilation

The Moldovan Constitutional Court ruling not not to give a special statute to the Russian language is a step towards the destruction of the state and union with Romania. The narrative is seeking to push the fake notion that Moldova is a multi-national state, just like the former USSR, and like in the former USSR, Russian should be the lingua franca. 

FAKE NEWS: Ukranian army mines villages in Donbass
FAKE NEWS: Ukranian army mines villages in Donbass

The Ukrainian armed forces place mines in villages along the line of contact, according to publications in the pro-Russia separatist territories in eastern Ukraine. The narrative is meant to show both Kiev's violation of the ceasefire agreements and its hostility towards the local civilian population.

FAKE NEWS: NATO wants to invade Kaliningrad and make money for American corporations
FAKE NEWS: NATO wants to invade Kaliningrad and make money for American corporations

NATO has an aggressive stance towards Russia and is training to invade the region of Kaliningrad. However, the real goal of the Alliance is to make money for the big American defense corporations, claims the Kremlin’s propaganda arm, Sputnik.

DISINFORMATION: The Russian minority in Moldova, under fire from the Constitutional Court and President Maia Sandu
DISINFORMATION: The Russian minority in Moldova, under fire from the Constitutional Court and President Maia Sandu

Socialists and supporting media in the Republic of Moldova have snapped after a Moldovan Constitutional Court ruling threw out a law granting special status to the Russian language. They’re describing the ruling as an attack on the Russian minority, the idea circulated being that the country’s newly elected president, Maia Sandu, is held responsible for this attack, thus going back on the promises made in the election campaign.

DISINFORMATION: The Soviet era was beneficial for the Republic of Moldova .md
DISINFORMATION: The Soviet era was beneficial for the Republic of Moldova .md

Some media in Chisinau describes an idealized Communist period, disregarding the facts.

FAKE NEWS: There are fascists in the Ukrainian army, ready to kill Russian-speaking comrades
FAKE NEWS: There are fascists in the Ukrainian army, ready to kill Russian-speaking comrades

The Ukrainian army has far-right Russophobic extremists who worship the controversial World War II leader Stepan Bandera. The idea appears in recent news, but it is one of the main narratives used by the Russian propaganda ever since the beginning of the Euromaidan.

FAKE NEWS: The ECHR acknowledges that the Crimean Peninsula belongs to Russia
FAKE NEWS: The ECHR acknowledges that the Crimean Peninsula belongs to Russia

The ECHR has acknowledged that the Crimean Peninsula belongs to Russia, writes the Russian press, taking out of context a court decision by which Moscow is assigned legal responsibility for what has happened on the peninsula since its annexation, including possible war crimes.

Marin Gherman
19 Jan 2021
FAKE NEWS: Maia Sandu is a ‘virus’ by means of which the West wants to destroy Moldovan statehood
FAKE NEWS: Maia Sandu is a ‘virus’ by means of which the West wants to destroy Moldovan statehood

Maia Sandu is an agent of foreign entities who behaves like a virus created to destroy the Moldovan state and unite with Romania the territories beyond the Prut. The idea that the leader in Chisinau would be responsible for the political crisis that the Socialists actually created is also promoted.

DISINFORMATION: Lockdowns are ineffective
DISINFORMATION: Lockdowns are ineffective

A new study is being used in support of an old narrative: that lockdowns are ineffective. However, both the arguments and the authors of the study are controversial.

FAKE NEWS: Maia Sandu is trying to subjugate Moldova’s power structures in order to crush her opponents
FAKE NEWS: Maia Sandu is trying to subjugate Moldova’s power structures in order to crush her opponents

The newly elected president of the Republic of Moldova wants to control intelligence agencies and prosecutor’s offices to attack her opponents, just like millionaire Vlad Plahotniuc. The narrative is publicized by people close to PSRM, a party which holds de facto control over the institutions in question, although it has formally lost power.

FAKE NEWS: Soros wants to besiege Russia by capturing the ex-Soviet republics of Moldova and Armenia to use as his first pawns
FAKE NEWS: Soros wants to besiege Russia by capturing the ex-Soviet republics of Moldova and Armenia to use as his first pawns

George Soros is behind the 30-year-old assault on ex-Soviet space. Soros’s network orchestrated the color revolutions in the mid-2000s, and more recently has taken control of Moldova and Armenia, seeking to capture other states as well in order to besiege Russia.

FAKE NEWS: Maia Sandu is conceding Moldova’s water resources
FAKE NEWS: Maia Sandu is conceding Moldova’s water resources

The Moldovan leader allegedly agrees to Ukraine’s plans to build a hydroelectric power plant on the Dniester, which would drastically reduce the Republic of Moldova’s water resources and would cut off the country’s water supplies, including for Chișinău.

FAKE NEWS: The Ukrainian army is fed Russian-made potato mash
FAKE NEWS: The Ukrainian army is fed Russian-made potato mash

In late 2020 and early 2021, some news agencies have published a story according to which Ukraine’s potato supplies have run out, and in order to feed its own army Kiev is buying potatoes and potato mash from Russia. The news has deeply confused public opinion. On the one hand, Kiev made it very clear it opposes Russian aggression in Donbass (the Ukrainian Parliament has recognized Russia as an aggressor state), while on the other hand this fake news released by the press portrays Ukraine as incapable of providing the most basic necessities (food!) to its own army.

Marin Gherman
12 Jan 2021
FAKE NEWS: The zombie apocalypse is coming in 2021, but humanity will be saved by robot people and the Church
FAKE NEWS: The zombie apocalypse is coming in 2021, but humanity will be saved by robot people and the Church

Sputnik îi atribuie lui Nostradamus profeții care „confirmă” teorii ale conspirației, narațiuni fake moderne și riscuri luate în calcul de oameni de știință.

FAKE NEWS: Maia Sandu should ask Volodymyr Zelensky for an exchange of territories between the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine
FAKE NEWS: Maia Sandu should ask Volodymyr Zelensky for an exchange of territories between the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine

The former official newspaper of the Moldovan Government, Moldova Suverana (Sovereign Moldova), claims that the Republic of Moldova should offer Ukraine the separatist territory of Transnistria in exchange for Northern Bukovina and Southern Bessarabia.

FAKE NEWS: Maia Sandu and the RAND Corporation plan to destabilize Transnistria
FAKE NEWS: Maia Sandu and the RAND Corporation plan to destabilize Transnistria

The president of the Republic of Moldova, Maia Sandu, is the target of attacks launched by the Kremlin regarding the escalation of the conflict in Transnistria. After she reiterated Chisinau’s stand on the withdrawal of the Russian troops illegally stationed in the Republic of Moldova since the Dniester War of 1992, high-ranking officials in Moscow have accused her of destabilizing the situation in the region. The article also resumes the narrative according to which Maia Sandu was brought to power by the West.

FAKE NEWS: Between the COVID virus and the Sputnik V vaccine, Russophobic Ukraine would prefer the former
FAKE NEWS: Between the COVID virus and the Sputnik V vaccine, Russophobic Ukraine would prefer the former

The Kremlin and pro-Russians promote the narrative that Sputnik V is rejected for ideological reasons, even if Ukrainians could die

FAKE NEWS: The Soviets did not invade Eastern Europe jointly with Nazi Germany. The invasion was not followed by a military occupation. The USA maintains an occupation force in Europe
FAKE NEWS: The Soviets did not invade Eastern Europe jointly with Nazi Germany. The invasion was not followed by a military occupation. The USA maintains an occupation force in Europe

Russia's ambassador to Bucharest, Valeri Kuzmin, reinterprets history from the perspective of the Soviet-era Cominternist theses and accuses the USA of invading Europe.

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Fake News

Disinformation uses a variety of manipulation tactics. Disinformation stories can easily be created by combining provocative topics.

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