It is rare to see such a faithful replica, with numerous, precise and sordid details, and to also have such a clear definition of the objective of a massive Russian secret services operation, as the one exposed by the Moldovan publication, Ziarul de Garda (text and VIDEO – HERE).
Moldova holds parliamentary elections on September 28, and the stakes of this election are higher than ever for Moscow after the previous attempts to recapture the small state failed on two occasions last year: Maia Sandu won the presidential elections and the referendum on EU membership passed.
However, a success by the pro-Russian party in the upcoming legislative elections has the potential to ensure that the Kremlin achieves its goals, thereby resetting the political landscape in the Republic of Moldova and diverting the pro-Western path desired by the majority of Moldovans, and putting the Russian harness back on the state apparatus, starting with the parliament, continuing with the government, and finally reaching the presidency.
As one of the Russian agents caught red-handed by Ziarul de Garda’s undercover investigation said soberly, didactically and sharply: “we are not here a club of enthusiasts who have gathered and are playing on the Internet. We have a clear mission and we must fulfill these tasks” / “(…) at the initial stage, people should not even realize (what we are doing.”
The value of ZDG’s journalistic scoop lies not only in exposing in depth and in real time Russia’s interference in the current electoral process across the Prut, but also in unmasking the methods employed by the Putin regime in the 2024-2025 electoral process in Romania.
After November 2024, the Bucharest authorities, partner states, the Romanian press and the international press published numerous elements to explain how the “Georgescu moment” (Eds: Calin Georgescu, the radical candidate who improbably won the first round of elections) was possible, what the Russian branch involved in the skewing the Romanian presidential elections looked like, how this channel tried to adapt and later resumed operations in the run-up to new presidential elections in May.
By successfully infiltrating the heart of the Russian operation that is now playing out in Moldova Ziarul de Garda, manages to add a new layer of decryption regarding the operation in Romania and completes the overall picture, showing how the film played out in Romania, which Romania failed to fully capture and present to the public in real time, to open people’s eyes to the proportions of the operation.
Following ZDG’s thrilling investigation into Russian meddling in the Republic of Moldova, we can now understand what level of militarization has also characterized the Russian propaganda and disinformation offensive carried out in Romania; how disciplined the army of human trolls were in Romania; how sophisticated and extensive they must have been when we were hunting down what channels they got their orders from; and just how “scientific” their approach to the target audience was, from a psychological and sociological point of view.
From the Moldovan case, we can finally deduce and understand better the mechanisms for activating and synchronizing local influencers in Romania – whether their audience is more niche like and, therefore, has a lightly smaller public footprint, or whether they target the ‘VIP’ level (at a journalistic, NGO environment, or political levels).
In fact, from now on, at least thanks to ZDG’s investigation, the real nature of the systematic “coincidences” in the alignment of their public positions with the flow of the Russian narrative should be less and less of a mystery for more and more Romanians.
“Coincidences” of alignment, which can be easily observed in some of those who speak publicly in our country – including opinion makers, including individuals who, it is said, have spectacularly exposed themselves, emotionally confessing at the time that they “climbed a mountain to the top, with a backpack of stones on their backs”, but, lo and behold, they took it down.
Of course, not all of them are colonels, but it would not be necessary to leave the impression that they play for the same (foreign) team, somehow having the same coach (also foreign), shooting at the same and always the same (national) goal until they broke his net.
By exposing the mess made by the Russians in the Republic of Moldova, Ziarul de Garda generously helped us to see, and to understand beyond a shadow of a doubt the mess the Russians have recently caused in Romania. And more than this, Ziarul de Garda has underscored perhaps better than anyone else, the fact that Russia does not stop after one failure.
Just as, in the Republic of Moldova, Russia continues its subversive operations in 2025 after its 2024 failure just as it continued in 2024 after its 2020 failure, it did not stop in Romania after the November 2024 presidential election, and it did not stop after May 2025 either.
It continues, in fact, day by day and we feel it, we see it, we hear it – either in a part of the press, or in a part of civil society, or in a certain area of the political spectrum.
Russia’s interference in the life of other states never stops, just as Russia’s wars – classic or hybrid – never end.
And those wars cannot have an end, but only continue. .
Why?
Putin himself revealed it to a child, after kissing his head at a ceremony of the Russian Geographical Society: “Russia’s borders do not end”. (VIDEO – HERE).
Macron, Merz, Tusk to visit Moldova in sign of European support amid Russian disinformation
