Moldova Flooded with Deep Fakes and Disinformation as Voters Face Stark Choice Between East and West

Nicolae Chicu, a journalist who spent years uncovering Russian disinformation and influence operations in his native Moldova, has unexpectedly become part of the story himself. His YouTube channel was hacked, and his investigation into Russian security services was deleted.

Chicu is 28 and part of a generational shift in Moldova favoring integrating with the EU. "I believe Moldova's future is in the European Union," he says. Nearby, the government building that once housed the headquarters of Soviet Moldova is now bedecked with a vast EU flag.

Polls suggest the electoral race is tight, and the pro-EU Party of Action and Solidarity may struggle to form a majority as it fends off a challenge from the Patriotic Electoral Bloc, a pro-Russian left-wing coalition of parties that opposes EU integration. "It's an election that decides the fate of the nation," says one EU official.

Moldovan officials have accused Moscow of orchestrating a complex vote-buying system akin to a multi-level marketing scheme over the messaging app Telegram, with voters offered payments in exchange for votes and commission for those who recruit others. Authorities had issued 25,000 fines for such vote-selling as of July.

Deep-fake videos, made with artificial intelligence, have proliferated. In one recent hoax, a video made to look like it came from the ministry of education showed two men kissing beside a child, with the announcement that lessons about "tolerance" would begin in September. Other viral videos claim the EU will saddle generations of Moldovans with debt, or draw the country into the war next door.

"Moldova is a testing ground for the Russians when it comes to disinformation," says the EU official. "Many of the things they later roll out in other EU countries are tested there first."

Senior Moldovan civil servants, members of government and other prominent journalists have described a spate of hacking attempts targeting them as the election draws near. Establishing with certainty who is behind a hack is often, by its nature, difficult.

"That's their modus operandi," says Chicu. He sees it as part of the information war he covered on his channel. "The aim of the Russians is to occupy this country by changing the outcome of the election," he says. "They have figured out that trying to buy minds is cheaper than waging a war."

The Russian government did not respond to a request for comment, but has denied such practices. For its part, the Russian foreign ministry has accused Moldovan authorities of "brainwashing" its population to support European integration and seeking to suppress the overseas vote of the Moldovan diaspora that lives in Russia.

"Moldova is being groomed to become the next Ukraine," Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a briefing this summer. An economic minnow, Moldova shares a 1,200km border with Ukraine, a third of it controlled by the breakaway pro-Russian region of Transnistria.

Moldovan and EU officials believe Moscow is pursuing a friendly government in Chisinau so that it can use Transnistria as a base for its war with Ukraine. They expect the election on September 28th may either make or break the country's ambitions to join the EU.

"Please go and vote, and tell your families, and tell your friends, and tell everybody," Commissioner Kos urged her Chisinau audience. "The future of Moldova is in your hands."