StratCom: False claim about drone factory coordinated and amplified on Telegram, feeding Russian narrative about “militarization of country”

The false claim about a drone factory was coordinated and amplified on Telegram, feeding the Russian narrative about the “militarization of the country.” The findings were presented by the Center for Strategic Communication and Countering Disinformation (StratCom), which emphasized that this disinformation seeks to create confusion between false information and real incidents involving violations of the national airspace by Russian drones.

The institution presented how the false claim about a supposedly secretly built drone factory circulated.


“On October 16 and 17, malicious actors claimed, without presenting any evidence, that the authorities were secretly building a drone factory. The narrative was launched in the form of a question, a format that allows its authors to avoid responsibility. Shortly afterward, 13 Telegram accounts, four of them belonging to Sputnik Moldova and others affiliated with it, published 21 posts on the subject. Three hours later, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova described the Republic of Moldova as a Western anti-Russian testing ground,” the cited source said.


StratCom emphasized that the false claim was spread at a time when incidents involving violations of the country’s airspace by Russian drones were intensifying—seven such incidents occurred between October 10 and 16.


“At a time when the subject was receiving extensive media coverage and being widely discussed publicly, malicious actors sought to introduce false narratives into our information space and promote the agenda of foreign actors. This case feeds the Russian narrative about the ‘militarization of the Republic of Moldova’ and attempts to create confusion between a false claim and the real incidents involving violations of the airspace by Russian drones,” the institution stated.


According to StratCom, labeling these real incidents as “hysteria” may contribute to undermining people’s trust in official warnings regarding airspace security.


“The short interval between the first comments launched by malicious actors and the massive amplification of the subject, the number of accounts involved, and the speed at which the false claim spread point more to coordinated amplification than to a spontaneous reaction,” the cited source concluded.


The authorities of the Republic of Moldova are monitoring and combating disinformation, including false narratives targeting national security and state institutions. In this context, citizens are urged to verify, through official sources, information shared in the public sphere and on social media.