Bogus Euronews Telegram spreads fakes targeting Romania and Moldova
A Telegram channel activated last Friday and fraudulently branded as Euronews Romania is planting disinformation and false claims targeting the Romanian and Moldovan presidents.
Its creators – which have no affiliation or link to Euronews – claim that Romania's recently elected President Nicușor Dan discussed 'methods of combating the opposition press' with his Moldovan counterpart Maia Sandu during his visit to Chișinău on Tuesday.
Euroverify analysed both presidents' statements to the press during that visit and found no evidence to back these allegations.
Sandu instead accused Russia of waging a 'war of manipulation and misinformation', while Dan vowed closer cooperation on tackling Moscow's 'hybrid warfare'.
The unfounded claims made in the bogus channel have been directly quoted in Russian state-sponsored newspaper Pravda.
In a pinned post, the creators also purport that the Telegram channel is an 'official' source of Euronews Romania reporting created by the management team to counter the recent use of doctored Euronews reports on the messaging app.
However, neither the channel nor its content is the work of Euronews journalists.
Euronews Romania does not have an official channel on Telegram, and said in a statement that the action is part of a "sustained' disinformation campaign that 'illegally' uses Euronews' branding.
The fake account was created amid an uptick in recent weeks in false videos attributed to Euronews on pro-Russian Telegram channels, which aim to discredit or undermine the pro-European governments in Bucharest and Chișinău.
These initially appeared to sow confusion and distrust in the context of last month's tense presidential run-off in Romania, which saw pro-EU centrist Dan edge to victory after a campaign marred by disinformation and alleged Russian interference.
The actors behind these doctored videos have now shifted their focus to neighbouring Moldova, where recent elections and referendums have been overshadowed by Russia's hybrid war techniques.
Amongst the false claims made in these videos are that the Republic of Moldova ranks first in terms of the number of carriers of sexually transmitted diseases in Europe, or that Moldova is a driver of irregular migration into the European Union.
Crunch parliamentary elections are set to be held in Moldova on 28 September, with President Sandu's pro-European PAS party facing a growing challenge from opposition forces.
A poor showing for PAS could reshape the country's political landscape and hinder progress on the path to EU integration, which Sandu has accelerated during her five years in power.
Last October, a referendum in Moldova on whether to enshrine the country's wish to join the European Union into the constitution was plagued by interference, including reports that €14 million in Russian funds had been funnelled directly into the accounts of 130,000 Moldovans in a bid to buy their anti-EU votes.
That referendum saw Moldovans vote 'yes' to EU membership by a razor-thin majority of 50.4%.
In recent weeks, a Kremlin-backed bot network known as Operation Matryoshka has launched a coordinated disinformation campaign targeting Sandu, circulating fake images depicting her execution.
Posts published in the fake Euronews Telegram on Tuesday claim Dan 'shared his experience in limiting the opposition press' with Sandu during his Chișinău visit, adding that Sandu's PAS party sees this as the 'main tool for gaining and retaining power' in September's parliamentary elections.
A closer look at the post shows that Dan has been misspelt as 'Nikușor', which could mirror Russian pronunciation of the president's name, according to our analysis.
These allegations match the broader playbook of disinformation narratives that Euroverify has detected concerning Romania's presidential ballot.
Disinformation targeting the Romanian ballot often claimed that the pro-Western, pro-European governing forces were suffocating free speech and hindering Conservative, Eurosceptic forces
Telegram's founder, Russian-born Pavel Durov, has fed this playbook with uncorroborated claims that France's intelligence chief asked him to "silence" Romanian conservative voices by banning them from his messaging app in the run-up to last month's presidential ballot.
Euroverify previously assessed that this claim was unfounded.
Telegram was founded by Durov and his eldest brother Nikolai in 2013, and has been championed by journalists and activists for its strong encryption and security.
But the app has recently come under scrutiny for the spread of illegal content and disinformation.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić is visiting Ukraine on Wednesday, in what marks his first ever trip to the country.
During a one-day trip, Vučić is scheduled to take part in the Ukraine-Southeast Europe Summit in Odesa, Serbia's Presidential Office announced.
According to Euronews' European political sources, the Serbian president's participation in the summit signals Serbia's realignment with the EU regarding Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Serbia has positioned itself as neutral when it comes to Russia's war against Ukraine, but Vučić's recent visit to Moscow for Russian President Vladimir Putin's Victory Day parade drew sharp criticism from Brussels regarding Serbia's EU membership bid.
Brussels issued a stark warning, indicating that Vučić's visit to Moscow would violate EU membership criteria and potentially hurt Serbia's accession process to the 27-member bloc.
According to Euronews' European political sources, Vučić's participation in the summit in Odesa and its symbolism should lead to Brussels reopening and expediting Serbia's EU enlargement chapters.
In this context, as a gesture towards Serbia, Ukraine did not invite Kosovo to the summit, the same sources told Euronews.
Just recently, Russia accused Serbia of exporting arms to Ukraine, calling it a "stab in the back" from one of Moscow's longest-standing European allies.
The Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) issued a statement claiming that "Serbian defence enterprises, contrary to the 'neutrality' declared by official Belgrade, continue to supply ammunition to Kyiv.'
The statement alleged that the export of the Serbian arms to Ukraine was going through NATO intermediaries, "primarily the Czech Republic, Poland and Bulgaria."
"Recently, exotic options involving African states have also been used for this purpose," SVR said.
Vučić denied the accusations, saying that although a contract with the Czech Republic exists, it does not permit exporting Serbian-made materiel to another country.
He also stated Moscow and Belgrade would create a "working group" to establish how Serbian-made weapons reached Ukraine.
The Ukraine-Southeast Europe Summit in Odesa will gather representatives from 12 southeastern European countries.
Among them is Romanian President Nicusor Dan, who is making his first trip to Ukraine since winning the May election.
Russia has regularly targeted the port city of Odesa in missile and drone attacks.**
On Tuesday, two people were killed after drone attacks hit residential buildings and medical facilities, including a maternity ward, officials said. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy later said 13 people had also been injured there.
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