MOSCOW, June 7. /TASS/. Mass media outlets in Moldova that profess the Russophobic ideology are under tight Western control, the press bureau of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) said in a news release on Wednesday.
The SVR drew attention to allegations by Moldova’s President Maia Sandu to the effect that "every day the Kremlin and criminal groups carry out hybrid attacks, using propaganda weapons to sow hatred in Moldova."
"This citizen of Romania, a NATO country unfriendly to Russia, tries to present excuses for the crude censorship imposed by the Moldovan authorities on its own information space," the SVR said.
In Moldova, "virtually any publication that does not comply with the ideological guidelines of the West and Kiev’s nationalist regime - Sandu's bosom buddy - is prohibited."
"In an outrageous move, six leading TV channels were closed down late last year on the hypocritical pretext of being responsible 'for war propaganda through silence,'" the SVR said.
"At the same time, Chisinau gave carte blanche to the Russophobic ideology. It is being spread through the servile Moldovan mass media, numerous Romanian TV channels, and Ukrainian media resources that are being artificially imposed on the Moldovans," the SVR said. "According to information available to the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, such media outlets in Moldova are under tight Western control. Special seminars are regularly held for their employees to explain how to cover certain events 'correctly’."
The SVR added that such media were financed with grants from the US Agency for International Development, the European Endowment for Democracy, German political parties’ foundations, as well as Western embassies and foreign ministries.
It would seem that for a complete triumph of Western democracy, Moldova lacks only an Orwellian Ministry of Truth. But this problem, too, will soon be solved: Sandu has already announced her intention to create a National Center for the Protection of Information and Combating Propaganda called ‘Patriot.’ It will have more than enough power to do such things," the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service concluded.