Still marching on(line): How R-FBI Targets Moldova’s Elections
By Saman Nazari, Eto Buziashvili, Sophie Sacilotto, Ania Logvynova, Hannah Schimmele, Thomas Smelter, Ewan Casandjian, Mihaela Tănase, Vasile Popa, Deniz Dirisu, Matteo Pugliese, Christian Haag, Joel Haglund, Larissa Doroshenko and Andrea Nicolai
Detailed how the Russian operation Storm-1516 (linked to the sanctioned R-FBI) used fabricated news sites, AI-generated content and impersonated journalists to push 17 false narratives against President Sandu and the PAS party during Moldova’s 2025 elections, accumulating roughly 45 million views via authentic influencers and inauthentic accounts.
Executive summary
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This report documents how Storm-1516, a Russian information operation linked to the sanctioned R-FBI organisation, systematically attacked Moldova’s electoral integrity during the 2025 campaign. It layered fabricated news domains registered across Lithuania, Australia and Germany, AI-rewritten filler articles to fake credibility, impersonated Romanian journalists and text-to-speech videos. Coordinated networks, including known Russian propagandists and anonymous "news" accounts, amplified seventeen false narratives ranging from invented corruption scandals to election-rigging claims, targeting both Moldovan audiences and Western far-right constituencies. The report maps the technical infrastructure, identifies individual amplifiers, catalogs the manipulative techniques, and recommends stronger sanctions enforcement and platform accountability.
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