Russia Targets Moldovan Election in Disinformation Play

A state-backed Russian threat actor is targeting the 2025 Moldovan elections with a far‑reaching disinformation campaign, researchers say. Threat hunting vendor Silent Push published research on Sept. 23 concerning a threat actor tracked as Storm-1679 (aka Matryoshka). According to Absatz, the disinformation effort began in 2022 and has involved numerous news sites pushing biased coverage against Moldova’s leadership and its EU ambitions, alongside false headlines about the government.

Silent Push researchers also found a technical fingerprint linking the latest campaign to Absatz, a Russian propaganda outfit that started in 2022, with two dedicated IP addresses used for disinformation campaigns since at least 2022 and 2025. The piece notes Absatz is run by an individual named Shakhnazarov M. S., reportedly based in Russia and previously sanctioned by Ukraine for supporting the invasion of the latter.

The campaign’s objective, as described, is to disrupt Moldova’s parliamentary elections on 28 September and hinder its EU accession efforts, with threat intelligence discussions building on a Recorded Future analysis published earlier this month.