Moldovan law enforcement agencies have raided a media company suspected of spreading Russian propaganda and being illegally financed by the outlawed political party of fugitive oligarch Ilan Șor.
The operation was carried out by officers from the National Investigation Inspectorate, the State Fiscal Service’s anti-fraud unit, and prosecutors from the PCCOCS, with tactical support from the "Fulger" special police brigade. The raids are part of a broader criminal case investigating tax evasion and money laundering linked to the criminal organization “Shor.”
Authorities say the media company in question was part of a wider disinformation network financed through a complex money-laundering scheme. Funds were funneled via a construction company with foreign employees, using fictitious transactions involving an oil company to cover illicit activities. Investigators discovered that accounting records were deliberately falsified, including fake fuel purchases and services that had no real basis.
The media trust played a key role in spreading pro-Kremlin narratives across Moldova, part of a long-standing effort backed by Ilan Șor, a pro-Russian oligarch sentenced in absentia to 15 years in prison for his role in the $1 billion bank fraud scandal. Șor fled the country in 2019 and has since continued to finance pro-Russian parties and propaganda from abroad.
During the raids, investigators seized accounting documents, electronic equipment, draft records, and materials relevant to the ongoing case. Authorities also confiscated various currencies totaling around 5 million Moldovan lei (approximately $275,000).
One man, described as an intermediary in the money laundering scheme and previously sentenced to 10 years for murder, was detained during the operation. He had been on the run and was listed as a wanted person.
In a separate case, Dominican authorities have arrested Dmitrii Novikov, a 25-year-old Russian linked to the Kremlin-backed “Lakhta” project, for leading a digital disinformation and cyber-influence network. Novikov allegedly used social media manipulation to spread political disinformation in the region, while concealing his identity as a Russian national. He reportedly received funding via cryptocurrencies and may be connected to money laundering and arms trafficking.
Recorded Future’s Insikt Group warned that a Russian covert influence network CopyCop (aka Storm-1516) is expanding its disinformation efforts. The network has created over 300 deceptive websites in 2025, including 200 new fictional media sites targeting the US, France, and Canada, along with sites impersonating legitimate media outlets and political movements in France, Canada, and Armenia. CopyCop also launched a regionalized fake fact-checking network publishing in Turkish, Ukrainian, and Swahili, languages it hadn’t used previously.