“Moldova is full of surprises”, “Moldova live”, “Inspiration from Moldova”… Strange Facebook pages have appeared in the last few months. Mostly in Romanian, some named in Russian, they present themselves primarily as journalistic or breaking news sites, displaying Moldova's colors and publishing extensively on local politics and economics.
According to information shared with Le Monde by the NGO Reset, these fake pages have been used since July 2023 as part of an interference campaign to defend pro-Russian figures and interests in Moldova with the help of the advertising agency Facebook.
Manipulative interventions of this kind are not uncommon. However, according to Reset, this is characterized by the significant resources invested: the estimated advertising budget for the campaign is between 198,000 and 280,000 euros, which, according to the organization, represents almost a quarter of the total money spent on Facebook Political ads in Moldova since 2020. A preliminary report consulted by Le Monde lists 605 ads identified since July that have received at least 155 million views.
Attack the European Union
The main goal of this campaign: to encourage investment in Moldova by Ilan Shor, a famous pro-Russian Moldovan oligarch who fled the country and is now subject to both American and European sanctions because of his ties to the Russian authorities. “Ilan Shor’s team repaired the roads on Trandafirilor Street in Orhei. “The potholes were filled, the asphalt was renewed, as were the markings on the ground,” boasts, for example, an advertisement on the “Moldova en direct” website that was financed with over 1,500 euros and viewed up close. a million people.
Some of the content identified by Reset was also broadcast ahead of the November 5 local elections. They promoted the candidates of Chance, a pro-Russian organization and clone of Shor, the old political group to which the exiled oligarch gave his name. Although the Chance party was banned from participating in the elections before the vote, a Moldovan court recently overturned that decision.
The campaign also aims to attack the European Union (EU) and the government of Moldova, while neighboring Ukraine is making new efforts to move closer to the EU and the European Union Commission has recently advocated starting accession negotiations. For example, in October, the website Patriots of Moldova aired a video by Ilan Shor in which he claimed that European monetary aid to the country was a bait and a trap and that Moldova should develop on its own.
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