The Communist Midnight Bots

In the context of the parliamentary elections of 28 September 2025, just a few days before the vote, the Republic of Moldova is facing an intensification of disinformation campaigns and digital manipulation. This report presents a coordinated digital manipulation operation carried out on Facebook in support of the Communist Party of the Republic of Moldova, a member of the Patriotic Electoral Bloc of the Socialists, Communists, Heart and Future of Moldova.

We analyzed 203 fake comments generated by 160 fictitious accounts, created between 15–20 September 2025, with the purpose of artificially amplifying the party’s posts. Our investigation revealed that these accounts use stolen identities, including cropped photos showing only people’s faces from larger images to evade search-engine detection, and they largely belong to users from Russia and Transnistria.

The bots conducted a coordinated campaign of attacks against President Maia Sandu, pushing narratives of national betrayal and messages aimed at moral delegitimization. We observed that the operation follows a clear temporal pattern, with activity concentrated at night, replicating similar tactics we had previously identified in the Modern Democratic Party of Moldova.

The peak of the activity occurred on 19 September, when 99 new accounts were created in a single day.

The Mirage of Clones

We took a closer look at the Facebook pages commenting on the page of the Communist Party of the Republic of Moldova. Here, we found several patterns, including: profile pictures cropped in such a way that search engines cannot trace their origin, and accounts with profile photos lacking any clear identity.

For instance, Natalia Donici, who changed her profile picture for the first time on September 19 at 00:03, comments on the Communist Party’s posts: “Anatolie Florea Exactly! Beautiful words for the day, but reality is different for those who are not in the good graces of power.” She was responding to another bot, Anattolie Florea, who had written: “The candidate says he believes in his own strength… Well, what about those whose strength is crushed by measures imposed from the center? Should they fend for themselves, just like the old man from Avdarma?”

Natalia Donici is not really Natalia Donici and is in fact Ирина Чернелевская (Irina Chernelevskaya), who posted the same image in 2011. According to her Facebook page, she lives in Tiraspol and has not posted since 2018.

Maxim Ganea, who commented “Правильно сделали что отказались выступать! Только так и нужно с ней разговаривать - игнором и презрением” (You did well to refuse to speak! This is how you should talk to her – with indifference and contempt), is in fact Михаил Зимоздра (Mikhail Zimozdra), who according to his Facebook page lives in Russia.

The same goes for Marcel, who commented: “Интересно, эти 25 тысяч леев тоже считаются "честными деньгами" для кого-то? 🤔 Просто вопиющая несправедливость!” (Interesting, are these 25,000 lei also considered ‘honest money’ for someone? 🤔 Simply a flagrant injustice!) — he is in fact Александр Станиславович (Aleksandr Stanislavovich) from Russia, according to his profile on the website Okgo.ru.

Visit to Selement

On the Facebook page of the Communist Party of the Republic of Moldova, following the candidates’ visit to Cimișlia district, bots flooded the comments section. In addition to many of them sharing the same video accusing Maia Sandu of fining pensioners in Gagauzia for sums received through Shor’s schemes, which they frame as a form of social assistance rather than corruption, the message was used as propaganda to portray Sandu as cynical and lacking compassion.

They further promoted a coordinated smear campaign against the president, using insulting and sexist language (“monster in a skirt,” “impotent in power”), narratives of national betrayal (“she sold the country”), of repression against citizens (“fines for Gagauzians,” “tough only on unarmed women”), as well as emotionally charged formulas of moral delegitimization (“cruel, merciless stepmother,” “cold, heartless creature”).

Visit to Cimișlia District

In a post by the Communist Party of the Republic of Moldova about a meeting with local people, around 2:00 AM a wave of coordinated comments appeared overnight: direct attacks on Maia Sandu (“she must resign,” “she runs from responsibility”), exploitation of the fines applied to Gagauzians (“25,000 lei fines – a flagrant injustice”), messages about poverty and oppression (“the state takes from the elderly and peasants,” “it destroys people’s lives”), and the classic opposition vs. power contrasts (“some meet with the people, others trample on them and poison them”).

The central narrative aims to project the image of a corrupt, repressive government subservient to foreign interests, in contrast with the opposition portrayed as close to the people.

Account creation

We observe that this activity began in August, but very timidly, reaching its peak on September 19, when 99 Facebook accounts were created to comment on the Communist Party of the Republic of Moldova’s Facebook page.

The comments already follow a familiar pattern. A few weeks ago, we wrote that the Modern Democratic Party of the Republic of Moldova was using bots to amplify its Facebook posts in the middle of the night. We found the same thing with the Communist Party of the Republic of Moldova. At night, the bots activate and start commenting on the posts.

Impact on the Democratic Process

The use of bots during the pre-election period represents a serious threat to the integrity of the democratic process. These digital manipulation operations not only distort public perception of the candidates but also undermine citizens’ trust in the electoral system as a whole.

Automated campaigns of fake comments create the illusion of massive popular support for certain political positions, thereby influencing public opinion. When citizens see hundreds of comments supporting one candidate or attacking another, they may be inclined to believe this reflects the majority view, even though in reality it is a coordinated operation.

These digital manipulation tactics are all the more dangerous as they appear in the context of elections for the democratic future of the Republic of Moldova, when every vote counts and citizens need accurate, authentic information to make informed decisions.