Overloading the Moldovan Elections

Overloading the Moldovan Elections

Executive Summary

In September 2025, a delegation of American, British, and Canadian media figures led by Charles Bausman conducted a coordinated visit to Moldova (September 14-16) and Moscow (September 16-23), coinciding weeks before Moldova's parliamentary elections. The Russian Orthodox Church facilitated the trip, while the delegation produced content alleging religious persecution by Moldova's pro-European government. Whilst the anti-establishment messaging was harmful in itself, the trip was subsequently taken up by Russian Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (FIMI) assets; with the visit and resulting statements amplified through the Salt and Light newspaper and associated online accounts linked to Operation Matushka. The delegation's content reached Moldovan households and voters through coordinated distribution channels, including the Ilan Shor-linked MD24 television network. The delegation members do not appear to be marginal figures and are instead integrated into established right-wing political networks within their respective countries. Notable examples include participants whose public activity includes engagement with MAGA aligned media platforms, including appearances on a podcast hosted by Steve Bannon, attendance at events associated with Donald Trump, and appearances at the Pentagon press corps in October 2025.

This report does not claim that the delegation members acted with intent or awareness in relation to any foreign influence activity. Instead, it highlights how Western religious ultra-conservatives, acting in good faith, may have been instrumentalised, wittingly or unwittingly, to legitimise Russian narratives that undermine Moldova's democratic institutions. However, the evidence reviewed in this report suggests that the delegation’s trip was subsequently used within an operation that may constitute Russian-linked foreign electoral interference. The coordinated influence operations promoted false claims of Orthodox persecution under pro-EU leadership. The evidence of narrative overlap between Kremlin-aligned messaging and the themes promoted by the delegation suggests the exploitation of the trip by a Russian influence operation. The messaging sought to influence voter behaviour in favour of pro-Russian candidates. These narratives presented Russia as a Christian sanctuary contrasted with a secular and declining West, and were accompanied by messaging that explicitly encouraged Moldovan Orthodox voters, on the final day of the campaign, to support the anti-EU political blocs. Further concerns, potentially warranting additional investigation, arise from the apparent undisclosed Russian state sponsorship behind religious advocacy activities, as well as from documented links between certain delegation members and Russian oligarchs subject to international sanctions. The present research is an investigative report, which relies on open-source material and does not assert that any individual has committed a criminal offence.