Interfering from Exile – Ilan Shor’s Demonstrations in Moldova
By Saman Nazari, Jakub Kubś, Hannah Schimmele, Ewan Casandjian, Joel Boehme and Thomas Smelter
Exposed coordinated inauthentic behaviour promoting a Telegram bot tied to fugitive oligarch Ilan Shor ahead of Moldova’s 2025 election: a network of ~117 amplifying accounts republished his content to evade EU sanctions, while the bot offered $3,000/month to protest and harvested passport, geolocation and facial data from participants.
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This report (Alliance4Europe and GLOBSEC, with Cu Sens and Ziarul de Garda) documents coordinated inauthentic behaviour linked to Ilan Shor, a Moldovan oligarch exiled in Russia after a $750 million bank fraud. In August 2025 Shor promoted a Telegram bot ("MD Live Check 897") offering $3,000 monthly payments to demonstrate against Moldova’s pro-EU government. Researchers identified a network of roughly 117 amplifying accounts across multiple platforms systematically republishing his content to circumvent EU sanctions, while the bot collected sensitive data — passport information, geolocation and facial images — from participants and 23 Telegram channels and outlets expanded reach to about 366,000 followers.
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