European officials say disinformation campaigns and vote-buying schemes risk undermining the integrity of the 20 October ballot.
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00:00Is Russia hijacking Moldova's EU referendum?
00:09On the 20th of October, Moldovans will vote in a presidential election and a referendum
00:14on EU membership. A yes for accession to the European Union would affirm the country's
00:20pro-European path. But Moldovan authorities are warning that Kremlin-backed actors are
00:26using hybrid warfare to subvert the ballot, including by depositing money directly into
00:33Moldovans' bank accounts to buy their anti-EU vote.
00:40Checkpoint Research has uncovered how malicious actors are using email campaigns to try to
00:46sway Moldovans' vote and prepare the ground for malware attacks. This counterfeit document
00:53claiming to come from the European Commission was circulated to Moldovan civil servants
00:58in August. It alleges that joining the European Union would oblige them to take a mandatory
01:04English proficiency exam to keep their jobs and that an LGBTQ plus flag would be raised
01:11at ministry buildings 12 days per year. Another document purporting to come from the European
01:17Prosecutor asks Moldovan officials to share their personal data on a form hosted on an
01:23attacker-controlled domain purporting to be an official EU site. The linguistic errors
01:30made in the communications and the metadata of the PDF documents strongly suggest Russian
01:36authorship. But despite these hybrid attacks, the chair of the European Parliament's Moldovan
01:42delegation says that the Kremlin will not derail the Eastern European country's democracy.
01:49It is clear that Russia cannot interfere more than we can support the Republic of Moldova.