How the Russian -funded news network aims to disrupt the European elections

The British Broadcasting Corporation found that the network funded by Russia is secret trying to disrupt the upcoming democratic elections in the Eastern European country.

Using a secret correspondent, we discovered that the network promised to pay the participants if they published propaganda supporting Russia and the fake news that undermines the ruling party in support of the European Union in Moldova before the parliamentary ballot on September 28 in the country.

Participants were pushed to find supporters of Russia’s opposition to Russia in Moldova to register secretly-and also to implement the so-called reconnaissance. This was done in the name of an organization that does not exist, which makes it illegal. The results of these selective samples, organized from the network suggested, can lay the basis for questioning the election results.

The results of the so -called reconnaissance have already been published, indicating that the ruling party has already been published online.

In fact, official opinion polls indicate that the ruling Labor and Solidarity Party (PAS) founded by President Mia Sando is currently progressing on the national electoral bloc loyal to Russia (bep).

We have found links between the Secret Network and the Moldovan Shor – which was punished by the United States because of “Kremlin’s malicious influences” and now fleeing in Moscow. The United Kingdom also approved corruption.

We have also found links between the network and a non -profit organization (NGO) called Evrazia.

Evrazia has connections with Mr. Shore and was imposed by the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union for bribing the citizens of Moldovan to vote against the European Union membership last year. A referendum to join, But with a very small margin.

“In 2024, the axis of the” Ilan Shore) campaign was money, “said Moldova Police Chief Fererell Serrenotiano, to the BBC Worm.

We asked Ilan Shore and Evrazia to respond to the results of the investigation – they did not provide a response.

• If you are in the United Kingdom, you can watch the story on Global Eye, BBC 2 at 19:00 GMT on Monday, September 22nd

Experts say that Moldova may be small, but it falls between Ukraine and Romania in the European Union, it has strategic importance for both Europe and the Kremlin.

The global service infiltrated the network – coordinated on the Telegram application – through a link that was sent to us by those whose violations are sent.

This gave us an insight into how the anti -democratic advertising network works.

Our secret correspondent Ana and 34 other recruits were asked to attend secret online seminars that “prepare the participants.” With titles such as “How to move from your kitchen to the national leader”, it seemed to serve as an examination. Anna and the others had to pass regular tests as they learned.

Then our correspondent was contacted by the network coordinator called Alina JUC. JUC’s social media file says it is from Transnistria, a separatist area in East Moldova loyal to Moscow, and Instagram shows that she has made multiple trips to Russia over the past few years.

MS JUC Ana told that it would pay 3000 Moldovan Lei ($ 170, 125 pounds) per month to produce Tiktok and Facebook publications in the period before the elections, and that it will send money from Promsvyazbank (PSB)-a Russian bank owned by the state and works as an official Russian defense bank, which is one of the contributors to the contributors to One company.

Ana and other recruits have been trained to produce publications on social media using ChatGPT. The content “attracts people if the image contains some satire … in reality”, they were told, but a lot of artificial intelligence should be avoided to ensure the feeling of “organic” posts.

Inside the Telegram Group, Ana and BBC managed to access the previous instructions issued to the participants. Initially, national jobs were asked for historical figures in the history of Moldovan – but gradually the demands have become public in public.

Anna has been asked to publish baseless allegations – including that the current government in Moldova plans to falsify the election results, Ordova’s potential membership in the European Union depends that its citizens become LGBTQ+, and that President Sando is easy to smuggle children.

Social media campaigns are now essential in the national elections. We watched the social media publications that support the ruling PAS in Moldova, but we did not reveal any clear confirmation campaign.

During our secret exercise with the network, we only participated in the posts that were actually accurate, and we restricted their number.

We wanted to know who was on the network, where we had evidence that it was made up of multiple groups similar to the groups that we infiltrated. We searched for similar activity patterns through other accounts that we can monitor through our receipt.

We concluded that the network consists of at least 90 accounts from Tiktok – some of which disguise as news ports – which published thousands of videos that total more than 23 million views and 860,000 likes since January. Moldova’s residents is only 2.4 million.

We participated in the results we reached with the United States Dig -Breed Forensic Research Laboratory, and told us that its analysis indicates that the network may be greater. The broader network has collected more than 55 million views and more than 2.2 million likes on Tiktok since January.

The network did not publish just misleading information. Mrs. JUC also offered Ana 200 Moldovan Lei ($ 12, 9 pounds) per hour in cash for an informal vote, as they held an interview with people in the capital of Moldova about their favorite candidates in the elections.

Before the task, the participants were provided with training on how to influence the skill of being polled.

They were also asked to link a secret of the interviews who said they supported the pro -Russian opposition.

Mrs. JUC revealed that this is “preventing voting from forgery”, which indicates the results of the survey and secret recordings will be used, in the event of PAS, as a presumed evidence that he won unresolved.

Our evidence also indicates that it is the network to which our correspondent has joined from Russia. I heard Anna – and it was photographed – Alina Yuk on the phone asking for money from Moscow.

“Listen, can you bring money from Moscow … I just need to give my people their salaries,” we said.

It was not clear who would send money, but we found links between the network and the ILAN Shor through Evrazia NGOs.

Ilan Shore and Evrazia did not respond to our investigation results.

The British Broadcasting Corporation found pictures of the Anna processor, Alina Yuk, on Evrazia on the Internet – and one of the Telegram groups added “Evrazia leaders”.

The UK Ministry of Foreign Affairs says that Evrazia is working in Moldova on behalf of the fleeing few, Elian Shore … to destabilize democracy in Moldovan. “

We asked Alina JUC to comment on the results we reached – you did not respond.

Tiktok said it carried out additional safety and security measures before the elections and continued to “confront deceptive behavior strongly.” Facebook Meta did not respond to our results.

The Russian Embassy in the United Kingdom denied its involvement in fake news and electoral intervention and claimed that the European Union was the one that was interfering in the election of Moldova.

Additional reports: Malvina Cojocari, Andea Jitaru, Angela Stanciu