Influencer BobbyD is spreading fakes fabricated by an influence and information manipulation network founded by Evgeny Prigozhin. Called Storm-1516, the operation targeting the Republic of Moldova elections used a complex network of websites and social media platforms. Context.ro discovered that the network was also active in Romania.
The Counter Disinformation Network (CDN), coordinated by Alliance4Europe, has uncovered a massive information operation that attacked the elections in the Republic of Moldova. The main goal of the Russian operation was to discredit the current Moldovan government.
- Operation Storm-1516 is connected to the Foundation for Combating Injustice, founded by former boss Wagner
- Eight websites pulled from the public domain publish attacks in Romanian against Maia Sandu and the PAS regime
- The most recent fake promoted is that of ballots excluding opposition parties, which was promptly picked up by BobbyD
A group founded by Yevgeny Prigozhin, the IRA, known for its involvement in the effort to influence the 2016 US presidential election, has been reborn under a different name: the Foundation for Combating Injustice (FCI), according to the Still Marching on (online) report published by Alliance4Europe, a pan-European collaborative initiative designed to prevent, detect and combat information manipulation.
The Counter Disinformation Network (CDN), coordinated by Alliance4Europe, functions as a collaboration and crisis response platform, bringing together over 60 organizations and over 330 practitioners in the fields of OSINT, journalism, fact-checking, academia, policy and strategic communication from 20 countries.
The network has been used to coordinate projects across five elections, providing researchers with an incident alert (IA) model, access to social media monitoring tools, collaboration and coordination platforms, a common methodology, and a distribution list of actors who can address influence operations (e.g. regulators, ministries, media, and policymakers).
The network produced over 80 incident alerts, highlighting detected cases of information manipulation to authorities, decision-makers, media and advocacy organizations.
To date, CDN has been able to disrupt hundreds of Russian influence operations, address platform vulnerabilities, and highlight systemic risks, all thanks to contributions from a wide range of organizations. You can view CDN reports and analysis here.
The name of the operation, like others chosen by the Russian propaganda apparatus, such as Special Operation instead of the invasion of Ukraine, camouflages the malign intentions of the Russian Federation. The FCI’s actions, a report by Clemson University shows , are actually different: they disseminate Russian propaganda on a regular basis, with two favorite topics: the West and Ukraine. The Russian propaganda colossus works methodically, with narratives that target the entire ideological spectrum: they have fakes about topics that conservative audiences are sensitive to, but also about topics that are important to liberal audiences. In the end, the goal is a classic one: to exploit the emotional and psychological vulnerabilities of citizens in democratic regimes and destroy their trust in state processes and institutions.
One of the operations connected to the Foundation for Combating Injustice is Storm-1516, whose main goal is to discredit Ukraine and erode popular support for the state attacked by the Russian Federation in Western countries. The operation is based on the dissemination of false information, initially published by “disposable” accounts, and is gaining momentum especially during election campaigns, for example in the 2024 US elections or this year’s German elections, when analysis of the disinformation spreading patterns used by Storm and Prigozhin’s Foundation demonstrated the connection between the two. The smear campaign in Germany included over a hundred fake news portals, videos created with artificial intelligence, and influencers.
The Counter Disinformation Network (CDN), coordinated by Alliance4Europe, has uncovered a massive information operation that attacked the elections in the Republic of Moldova. The main goal of the Russian operation was to discredit the current Moldovan government.
- Operation Storm-1516 is connected to the Foundation for Combating Injustice, founded by former boss Wagner
- Eight websites pulled from the public domain publish attacks in Romanian against Maia Sandu and the PAS regime
- The most recent fake promoted is that of ballots excluding opposition parties, which was promptly picked up by BobbyD
A group founded by Yevgeny Prigozhin, the IRA, known for its involvement in the effort to influence the 2016 US presidential election, has been reborn under a different name: the Foundation for Combating Injustice (FCI), according to the Still Marching on (online) report published by Alliance4Europe, a pan-European collaborative initiative designed to prevent, detect and combat information manipulation.
The Counter Disinformation Network (CDN), coordinated by Alliance4Europe, functions as a collaboration and crisis response platform, bringing together over 60 organizations and over 330 practitioners in the fields of OSINT, journalism, fact-checking, academia, policy and strategic communication from 20 countries.
The network has been used to coordinate projects across five elections, providing researchers with an incident alert (IA) model, access to social media monitoring tools, collaboration and coordination platforms, a common methodology, and a distribution list of actors who can address influence operations (e.g. regulators, ministries, media, and policymakers).
The network produced over 80 incident alerts, highlighting detected cases of information manipulation to authorities, decision-makers, media and advocacy organizations.
To date, CDN has been able to disrupt hundreds of Russian influence operations, address platform vulnerabilities, and highlight systemic risks, all thanks to contributions from a wide range of organizations. You can view CDN reports and analysis here.
The name of the operation, like others chosen by the Russian propaganda apparatus, such as Special Operation instead of the invasion of Ukraine, camouflages the malign intentions of the Russian Federation. The FCI’s actions, a report by Clemson University shows , are actually different: they disseminate Russian propaganda on a regular basis, with two favorite topics: the West and Ukraine. The Russian propaganda colossus works methodically, with narratives that target the entire ideological spectrum: they have fakes about topics that conservative audiences are sensitive to, but also about topics that are important to liberal audiences. In the end, the goal is a classic one: to exploit the emotional and psychological vulnerabilities of citizens in democratic regimes and destroy their trust in state processes and institutions.
One of the operations connected to the Foundation for Combating Injustice is Storm-1516, whose main goal is to discredit Ukraine and erode popular support for the state attacked by the Russian Federation in Western countries. The operation is based on the dissemination of false information, initially published by “disposable” accounts, and is gaining momentum especially during election campaigns, for example in the 2024 US elections or this year’s German elections, when analysis of the disinformation spreading patterns used by Storm and Prigozhin’s Foundation demonstrated the connection between the two. The smear campaign in Germany included over a hundred fake news portals, videos created with artificial intelligence, and influencers.
Captures from two X accounts that have collected almost two million views, amplifiers identified by Alliance4Europe that propagated as Maia Sandu the same fake regarding Maia Sandu
In July, the Foundation for Combating Injustice was included in the European Union’s sanctions list for its involvement in numerous operations to undermine democracy, the rule of law and stability in the EU and, locally, in several member states. Therefore, the Foundation’s activities, including Storm-1516, should be banned, including from social media.
In the case of the Moldovan elections, the goal of Storm-1516 is to systematically discredit the ruling Action and Solidarity Party (PAS) and, specifically, President Maia Sandu. This effort is not limited to shaping perceptions within Moldova, but is also directed outward, seeking to undermine Moldova’s international reputation at a time when the country is enjoying the strongest political and financial support in modern history, currently enjoying unprecedented support from the EU, the US, and regional partners.
The Romanian network: 8 lying ghost sites and the propagator BobbyD
A technical analysis of the websites and amplifiers used in the Storm-1516 operation conducted by Alliance4Europe experts has identified how blatant falsehoods about Moldova, Maia Sandu and the PAS regime are being spread. In addition to the English-language portals from which the Storm-1516 disinformation originates, Context.ro has identified a constellation of clone websites with identical content, all targeting the Romanian-speaking public.
Photo captures of clone sites in Romanian, part of Storm-1516
List of websites that became non-functional after the publication of the Alliance4Europe report:
The articles published by these mass-produced websites have bombastic titles: “Serious scandal of exploitation of minors in the youth structures of a Moldovan party (PAS nr)” or alarmist “Authorities are preparing for social tensions during the electoral period”, but are devoid of evidence. The operation is based on a set of social media accounts that systematically amplify fake articles published by the ghost websites part of Storm-1516.
Case study: Fabricated news about corruption
Several fake news stories focus on alleged corruption of President Maia Sandu, PAS party officials, or the entire government. A notable example includes a fabricated story published on the website eufiles[.]com, which describes a leaked file revealing a high-level corruption scheme involving PAS and a (non-existent) Romanian mining company. The leaks appear to reveal how political elites sold Moldovan electricity in exchange for a €15 million donation . This personal enrichment of leading PAS figures contrasts with the frequent power outages suffered by ordinary Moldovans. The article was first published on August 4 and subsequently amplified by at least 30 accounts on X within a few hours. All posts followed the same pattern: publishing an English-language video, likely generated by AI, that presented the story and quoted an apparent expert, followed by a second post with a link to the EU Files website. Part of the network. As in other cases, the number of views of the posts was disproportionately high compared to the actual number of interactions.
Ballots that exclude opposition parties
The most recent hoax is the one presented in the articles with the identical title “Moldovan Diaspora in the US, Confronted with Ballots that Exclude Legally Recognized Parties”. All nine websites part of the chain targeting Romania and Moldova reproduced the same content claiming that Moldovan voters in the diaspora voting by mail received ballots that were missing two opposition parties. The thesis of incomplete ballots is spread in the X network by several amplifiers identified by the Counter Disinformation Network study .
Among the influencers who are taking over the fakes propagated by the Storm network is BobbyD from Constanța. On his X account, he took over a video clip systematically propagated by influencers identified as being part of Storm-1516. A known conspiracist, BobbyD was employed by the state and collected money from several public institutions, as Context.ro showed.
“The Sandu regime’s falsification: opposition parties removed from the ballots.
According to reports from September 23, 2025, Moldovan voters in the United States voting by mail received ballots that were missing two opposition parties: the Patriotic Electoral Bloc (BEP) and the National Alternative Movement (probably a reference to the Alternative Bloc, BA, formed by opposition parties such as the PSRM and others).”
Account capture photo X BobbyD
BobbyD has previously published on his Telegram channel other fakes propagated by another portal part of the operation, www.vtforeignpolicies[.]com. For example, he took over an article falsely claiming that Maia Sandu had legalized “the killing of civilians by law enforcement” and that, for this reason, a bloodbath is imminent in the Republic of Moldova. The same article was taken over by other conspiratorial Telegram channels called Anti Parazitism Governamental.
Screenshot of Bobby D Telegram account
Another fake about Maia Sandu created in the Russian propaganda labs of the Foundation for Combating Injustice is the one according to which the Moldovan president exports Ukrainian orphans to the West. It reached the Romanian public through channels such as Freedom Tube or INFO Defense RO.Help us investigate and expose abuses. With your money, we can disrupt those who steal, corrupt, threaten, and manipulate.Donate by card payment
