News
The pro-Kremlin bot network known as “Matryoshka” has launched a new disinformation campaign aimed at inciting conflict between Moldovan President Maia Sandu and European Commission Vice President Kaja Kallas. The campaign, which has published social media posts on multiple platforms, claims Sandu is allegedly seeking to replace Kallas. These details were shared with The Insider by a researcher from the Twitter/X-based watchdog project Bot Blocker (@antibotfornavalny), which investigates Russian “troll farms.”
The first pair of videos focused on Sandu and Kallas had appeared by May 28, but it was not until June 19 that the bots began spreading the content en masse. All of the videos are disguised as content from prominent European media outlets such as Deutsche Welle (DW), Der Spiegel, Euronews, and Business Insider. In them, Sandu is falsely portrayed as scheming to unseat Kallas from her position within the European Commission. One such video, posing as a DW production, claims that the information was sourced from figures close to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who is presented as the initiator of the supposed leadership shake-up.
Viewers are told that von der Leyen sees Sandu as “the better candidate because of her passivity and inability to engage in political battles” — unlike Kallas, who is said to pose a threat to von der Leyen’s authority. Sandu is described in the video as “a puppet bureaucrat for Ursula von der Leyen.”
Another video features a fabricated “interview” with former EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell, purportedly broadcast on Euronews. In it, the fake Borrell comments on the alleged possibility of replacing Kallas with Sandu.
The video claims Kallas “can’t handle the pressure” of her position and should resign. The fake Borrell says:
“But when I am told that Maia Sandu is running for the position of Vice-President of the European Commission, I begin to doubt the mental abilities of the journalist who asks this. Maia Sandu cannot solve the problems of a tiny state in Eastern Europe. How can she be the Vice-President of the European Commission?”
Two additional videos allege that both Sandu and Kallas are paying the media to publish smear pieces about one another.
This attack on Sandu marks a continuation of a broader disinformation effort by the “Matryoshka” network that began in April. At that time, the network targeted the Moldovan president with accusations of corruption, repression, and incompetence.
The current effort to sow discord between Kallas and Sandu comes ahead of the upcoming EU–Moldova summit scheduled for July 4 in Chișinău. As Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty previously reported, European officials view the meeting as a form of “political recognition” of Sandu’s reformist agenda and a show of support ahead of Moldova’s parliamentary elections on September 28.
As reported earlier, Sandu’s Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) has seen its domestic approval rating decline, even if it still enjoys majority support. However, that may not be enough to secure a parliamentary majority in the upcoming vote.
The Insider has obtained links to the original tweets and supporting documentation from the Bot Blocker project proving that the accounts sharing the videos are part of the “Matryoshka” network. To prevent the further dissemination of disinformation, The Insider is not publishing direct links to the misleading content.