Korte berichten over opmerkelijke ontwikkelingen, verzameld door de redactie.
Maia Sandu, de president van Moldavië, hield dinsdag een historische toespraak in het Europees Parlement over het Europese pad van Moldavië en de parlementsverkiezingen van 28 september. Sandu sprak over de methoden waarmee Rusland de politieke macht in Chișinău probeert te heroveren.
‘The Kremlin’s objective is clear: to conquer Moldova through the ballot box, to use us against Ukraine, and to turn us into a launchpad for hybrid attacks on the European Union. That is why these elections are so important. By defending them, we protect not only Moldova, but also regional security and stability. Ladies and gentlemen, interference does not begin and end on election day. It begins months before and persists long after. Like a virus, it finds cracks and strikes. We had barely recovered from last year’s Russian interference when, in January, we were thrown into an artificial energy crisis — meant to raise prices, leave Transnistria in cold and darkness, and divide citizens on both banks of the Dniester.
Then came the money. Illicit financing flowed through cryptocurrencies, shell companies, prepaid cards. Last year, in a single day, over one million euros in cash were intercepted at Chișinău airport. And our institutions estimate that, throughout the year, Russia spent the equivalent of 1% of Moldova’s GDP to influence the 2024 elections. Today, new funds are financing Kremlin-backed parties, buying influence, poisoning democracy. Last year it went even further — into a situation our democracy had never faced before: a vote-buying system. A sanctioned Russian bank opened 138,000 accounts to influence results through direct payments. It is nothing to be proud of, but it shows how Russia identifies vulnerabilities and exploits them. Democracy itself has become a target.
Russian representatives also finance protests — orchestrated on Telegram, with organized transportation and people lured by promises of thousands of euros. Deepfakes of politicians. Fabricated “international” websites posing as impartial news sources but serving Kremlin propaganda. And on social media, a Romanian research group discovered that just one hundred coordinated accounts promoted videos with 13 million views in a single month. Their comments — thousands of lines copy-pasted — reveal manipulation, not authentic debate.
Cyberattacks have struck government services. Last year, the postal service was hit — because it delivers pensions where banks cannot. Phishing campaigns target civil servants. Religion is weaponized. Criminal groups are recruited for sabotage and intimidation. A judge who recently ruled on political corruption received death threats. Our diaspora is targeted with online campaigns meant to divide families abroad and at home. Last year, fourteen polling stations in EU countries received fake bomb threats to disrupt voting.It is all the more dangerous because of three features:
- It constantly changes: new funding channels, new tricks, new disinformation narratives.
- It is digital: payments on Telegram, lies on TikTok, deepfakes on Facebook and Instagram. Over 80% of toxic content on TikTok is generated by AI.
- It exploits democracy itself: religious freedom turned into propaganda, freedom of assembly into paid protests, freedom of association into instant Kremlin-backed parties, free capital flows into illicit money in politics.
This is not just Moldova’s story. Crypto schemes tested in Chișinău are now helping to evade EU sanctions and fund Russia’s war machine. Vote-buying schemes tried in Moldova have also appeared elsewhere.’
