Moldova's Security and Intelligence Service (SIS) has blocked access to 22 Russian propaganda media websites, according to a press release by the agency issued on October 24. As per the SIS, the reason for imposing the ban was that the “sources alter, in a state of emergency, the content of information disseminated in the public space.”
Websites of TV channels (Russia 1, Russia 24, Channel One, NTV, TVC, Zvezda, Tsargrad, etc.), radio stations and online-based publications have been affected by the restrictions.
Most of the blocked media outlets are directly controlled by the Russian authorities.
The Insider earlier reported that Moldovan authorities had deported the head of the Sputnik Moldova news agency, Vitaly Denisov. Denisov is likely a member of Russia’s 72nd Special Service Center (Military Unit No. 54777), which is involved in spreading “fake news” and handling disinformation campaigns targeting foreign audiences in the interests of the GRU (Russia’s military intelligence agency).
A source later told The Insider that Sputnik — a subsidiary of Rossiya Segodnya, which is owned and operated by the Russian government — had to close some of its offices or “seriously reformat” its work amid sanctions and restrictions.
Following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, thousands of restrictive measures were applied to Russia's propaganda and state media — including Sputnik and RT. Google users in Europe can't access these media outlets' websites, and their YouTube and Meta (Facebook and Instagram) channels have also been censored.