“Maia Sandu represents the interests of the transnational oligarchy”, “during the Sandu Government the fruits and vegetables became more expensive”, “the authorities have started to tax remittances”, “Moldova is exporting less and less to the community space”. These are the main manipulations and misinformation distributed by some news portals in November.
Komsomolskaya Pravda and the website kp.md, affiliated with the people close to the Socialist Party, regularly publishes materials that openly favor PSRM members and party actions. It came to the fact that at the end of November on the website of the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda, kp.md, there appeared a “comment” signed by “Bogdan Țîrdea”, deputy from the Socialists in the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova.
Between September 10 and December 14, the “columnist” Țîrdea manages to publish 27 kp.md material, obviously pro-socialist. An impressive number of articles based on the intention to misinform and manipulate society.
More briefly
“Maia Sandu together with Plahotniuc laid the foundation of the captured state in 2010,” writes the Socialist in an editorial on November 28.
“We have always written that the leaders ACUM and Vlad Plahotniuc have a common master-” Gosdepul “(US State Department), an ideology – liberalism and globalism, a vector – NATO and EU, a citizenship – Romanian, a purpose – the weakening of Russia, the liquidation of the independence of the Republic of Moldova, the Moldovans as a nation, the history, the language and all the forces on the left of Moldova “, writes Țirdea without coming with any evidence.
Disproof or why Țîrdea spreads fake?
These are false narratives about the fact that the US controls the Republic of Moldova and that there is an oligarchy of the US or the EU, which will influence the authorities of the sovereign states of Eastern Europe. In the false narratives of the pro-Kremlin press, the emphasis is also placed on the fact that governments in many post-Soviet countries are under US control, receive and execute orders from US institutions. Earlier H1.md also debated a narrative from the pro-Kremlin press in the Republic of Moldova, stating that “the US controls everything in Moldova”.
FAKE: Authorities have started to tax remittances
Earlier last month, the omg.md portal issued a news report announcing that the State Fiscal Service (SFS) started taxing the money transmitted by citizens abroad through money transfer companies. The editorial team omg.md referred to a warning received by a citizen of SFS who was planning to pay the income tax for the years 2017-2018.
The news was taken over by several other portals: Point.md, Alfanews.md, Enews.md. However, this information does not correspond to the truth. The State Fiscal Service has stated that the transfers abroad are not taxed, with certain exceptions, being in this case about 380 individuals from the Republic of Moldova who obtain significant incomes from the services provided by non-resident IT companies in our country.
Biased news from the pro-Kremlin Sputnik
Also in November, the pro-Kremlin portal Sputnik.md published a biased news report stating that exports from our country to the EU are in a continuous decline. Statistical data show that, starting with April, the exports of the Republic of Moldova to the Community market are decreasing compared to 2018, but a similar trend is also observed in the case of goods delivery to CIS, where the decrease is even greater.
On the day the censorship motion against the Sandu Government was filed, the Socialist deputy Bogdan Țîrdea drew a series of “sins” of the former government, namely that the Ministry of Agriculture is guilty that much agricultural production remained in the fields this year, that in July – August the prices of vegetables and fruits increased by 20-30%, etc.
The journalists of the Mold-street.com portal analyzed Țîrdea’s speech from the Parliament rostrum and showed with statistical data that the arguments of the socialist deputy are largely supported by the manipulation of irrelevant figures or presented in a time frame when the Government simply does not could influence the indicators targeted. Moreover, Tîrdea attributes “sins” to the Sandu Government on measures that were voted in the Parliament including by the socialist faction.
They also involved the European ambassador
Also in November, an initiative group announced publicly that it intends to organize a concert on the eve of winter holidays, entitled “First International Festival – The Danube Countries”, an event sponsored by the head of the European Union Delegation in Chisinau, Peter Michalko. The information on EU “patronage” was a fake. By means of a press release, the EU Delegation to Chisinau denies any connection with this event.
Another fake, spread in November, targeted the “Novateca” Library Modernization Program. The Independent.md portal has published a news report stating that the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) will sue the mayors of several localities in the south of the country from where “the money offered to equip libraries with computers” has disappeared. The text was taken over by several sites, including: 1News.md, Bloknot-moldova.md, Omg.md, Glas.md, but none of the editors attempted to get the USAID comment.