Monitoring Russian narratives regarding Moldova: 14-20.04.2025

The Institute for Conflict Studies and Analysis of Russia, together with Watchdog MD, has begun weekly monitoring of Russian propaganda attempts to interfere in the electoral process in Moldova and its attempts to influence the domestic political situation in this country. This publication was produced with the financial support of the European Union and Equal Rights & Independent Media (ERIM). Its contents are the sole responsibility of IKAR-WatchDog.MD and do not necessarily reflect the views of the EU and ERIM.

The goal of the weekly monitoring report is to study social media to identify key propaganda narratives, trending topics, active propagandists, and audience engagement statistics related to the political landscape of Moldova. The data is collected from the Russian segment of Telegram using AI-powered tools and manual sampling.

Rating of topics that were discussed on 14-20 April 2025 in the Russian information space regarding the Republic of Moldova, focusing on three narratives: Moldova is being used for training of terrorists, the Moldovan Orthodox Church is being oppressed, Chisinau wants to liquidate Gagauz autonomy.

1. The main narrative promoted by Russian propaganda is that Moldova is used to train terrorists. The narrative is linked to the FSB's detentions of Moldovan citizens who allegedly colluded with Ukrainian special services - arrests that actually took place in 2023-2024. The repeated media coverage of these arrests has served as a pretext for creating a negative image of the Republic of Moldova in Russian society. The goal of these concerted campaigns is to present Moldova as a threat and enemy to Russia. Similar tactics of promoting negative messages were used against Ukraine before the illegal annexation of Crimea and the full-scale invasion in 2022.

2. The narrative of the destruction of the Orthodox Church of Moldova is persistent and is linked to a minor incident during the reporting period. Russian propaganda often uses such events to spread the idea that the Orthodox Church in Moldova is being persecuted.

3. The promotion of the narrative about the "liquidation of the Gagauz autonomy" aims to create the impression that the current government in Chisinau is "dividing" society and "fighting" an inconvenient opposition. The presence of Eugenia Gutsul in Russian propaganda messages is explained by the fact that the Bashkan of Gagauzia is being persecuted for illegally financing political parties and violations in the management of financial resources.

For a detailed report, see the presentation.