Securing Democracy Dispatch

Moldova’s 2025 presidential election faces persistent Russian-led hybrid threats—including information warfare, illicit financing, and cyberattacks—aimed at undermining the Moldovan government’s pro-EU agenda and boosting pro-Russian actors, according to a report by the FIMI Defenders For Election Integrity (FDEI) consortium, of which ASD is a part.  

Russian diplomats and state media focused on two main narratives this week:

• Drones in Poland: Russian officials and state media vehemently denied that drones breaching Poland’s airspace arrived from Russia and blamed Ukraine for staging a provocation. Russia’s chargé d’affaires in Poland, Andrei Ordash, declared that Warsaw did not provide evidence to prove the drones were Russian and speculated that they had arrived from Ukraine. Russia’s Ministry of Defense elaborated that Russian drones’ maximum flight range supposedly does not exceed 700 kilometers and suggested Poland was blaming Russia for the incident to “further escalate [the] Ukrainian crisis”. RT mocked Poland’s Deputy Prime Minister Radosław Sikorski saying he was “panicking”. Echoing Moscow’s official line, they also claimed that the drones were “a Ukrainian provocation”. RT quoted Polish far-right lawmaker Grzegorz Braun, who called those who “hastily succumb to an obvious provocation, a provocateur themselves”.  
• ​Charlie Kirk’s Assassination: Russian propaganda outlets used US conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s assassination to amplify his pro-Russian and anti-Ukrainian statements, as well as insinuate possible Ukrainian involvement. Gazeta.ru reminded its audience that Kirk believed that the Ukrainian conflict was profitable for its ruling elites, that he criticized US Senator Lindsey Graham for his attempts to undermine ceasefire negotiations, and that he recognized Crimea as ethnically Russian. Sputnik Arabic recalled that Kirk called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy an “ungrateful, moody child”, while Russian television presenter Vladimir Solovyev added that Kirk also called Zelenskyy “the CIA’s puppet”. Inosmi.ru highlighted Kirk’s opinion that the United States should resume diplomatic relations with Russia and stop perceiving it as an enemy. Russia’s special economic envoy, Kirill Dmitriev, stated that Kirk’s assassination shows “the depth of division within the United States” and emphasized that Kirk appealed to dialogue with Russia. RT also cited Russian political philosopher Aleksandr Dugin who claimed that Kirk was assassinated by “the same hand” that assassinated his daughter, Darya Dugina, explicitly suggesting that “Zelenskyy’s intel agents” were behind both murders.

The PRC’s diplomats and state media focused on two main narratives this week:

• ​​Israeli Strike in Qatar: On September 10, the spokesperson for the PRC Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) condemned the previous day’s Israeli airstrikes against Hamas leadership in Doha, Qatar. In a barely veiled swipe at the United States, the MFA also called on a “certain major country” to do more to de-escalate tensions in the Middle East. Xinhua, CGTN, and China Daily all relayed Qatar’s anger and intent to respond to the strikes. Xinhua highlighted the “international condemnation” that accompanied Israel’s actions, while the Global Times quoted UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres denouncing a “flagrant violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Qatar”. More hawkish pro-PRC commentators called on the US media to more forcefully condemn the attacks and suggested that Qatar expel all US military personnel from its territory.
• Parade in Beijing: Last week, PRC diplomats in countries including Bolivia, Brazil, Iraq, Kenya, and the United States, along with state media outlets in several different languages, continued to promote the large parade that took place in Beijing on September 3rd to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II. In the aftermath of the parade, the MFA called EU High Representative Kaja Kallas “full of ideological bias” in response to her denouncements of the PRC-Russia-North Korea alignment. State media relayed that anger while pro-PRC commentators called Kallas a “stupid women [sic]” and suggested she was “brainwashed by those Nazi bastards”. State-controlled Phoenix TV broadcast US President Donald Trump’s displeasure at the lack of acknowledgment of the US contribution to China’s victory in World War II and another pro-PRC influencer poked fun at US accusations that PRC military technology was stolen from other countries.

Iranian diplomats and state media focused on one main narrative this week:

• Israeli Strike in Qatar: Iranian state-linked messengers firmly condemned Israel’s strikes against Hamas leadership in Doha, Qatar. Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs denounced the attack and expressed its solidarity with Qatar, calling it a “​terrorist assault” that “crossed every red line of international law”. Iran’s Foreign Minister Sayed Abbas Araghchi called on the “Muslim world to act in unison” in response to Israel’s “illegal” attack on “innocent Qatari citizens”. Iran’s Embassy in India accused Israel of using diplomacy as a “trap to assassinate opponents” due to the timing of the strike.Iranian state media amplified coverage showcasing the destruction and panic caused by the strike, highlighted international condemnation, and repeated claims rejecting White House reports that Doha was informed in advance about the strikes. Press TV scorned the United States for not defending Qatar despite its military base in the country and implied that the United Kingdom was complicit because FlightRadar data showed a UK fuel tanker in Qatar departing before and returning after the attack.

Texas law creates unit to counter foreign political influence: A Texas law that came into effect last week establishes a “hostile foreign adversaries unit” designed to counter covert foreign influence—particularly by China—on US soil, which will direct the creation of a new cybersecurity training program that aims to help government employees identify efforts by foreign actors seeking to influence policy. Managing Director David Salov tells the Dispatch, “Texas’ law is, perhaps, a model for the direction of the United States’ counter-foreign interference efforts. In the absence of meaningful federal government activity to address these nation-state threats or to prosecute proxies who facilitate foreign operations on American soil, states may have to enact their own laws. Hopefully these laws are used to levy consequences regardless of the nation-state behind them—in other words, not just the PRC (which is indeed responsible for many campaigns targeting state and local officials), but Russia, too.”

In Case You Missed It

• French police suspect a crime that involved leaving pig heads near the entrances of at least nine mosques in Paris earlier this week was likely orchestrated by Russian intelligence.
• The State Department has terminated an agreement with European countries that was signed during the Biden administration, which aimed at fighting information campaigns by Russia, China, and Iran. 
• The PRC-linked hacker group APT41 sent emails posing as Republican Representative John Moolenaar, chair of the House’s select committee on strategic competition with China, to several trade groups, law firms, and US government agencies asking for input on proposed sanctions against Beijing.
• A network of pro-Kremlin X accounts have amplified a fabricated report falsely attributed to the open-investigative website Bellingcat, claiming that Ukraine has been sending vulnerable people—including orphaned children, people with disabilities, and the elderly—to clear Russian landmines. 
• A NewsGuard audit found that the top ten leading AI tools repeated false information on topics in the news 35% of the time, up from 18% last year. The models also repeated false claims about France, Germany, and Moldova laundered by Russia’s Pravda network.

Trump’s call to Lukashenko – A chance for Belarus. Open-Source Intelligence Analyst Larissa Doroshenko interviewed on DW (in Russian)

What is the Information Laundromat? Senior Investigative Research Officer Peter Benzoni and Senior Fellow Bret Schafer explain ASD’s tool for the UK OSINT Community

The views expressed in GMF publications and commentary are the views of the author alone.