The Western PR Campaign Undermining Moldova’s EU Aspirations
October 17, 2024
While Moldova battles disinformation at home, a parallel campaign in English is undermining its EU aspirations. Stanislav Pavlovschi, a senior figure in Andrei Nastase’s campaign, promotes disinformation via a PR campaign alongside individuals linked to Ilan Shor.
While Moldova has been distracted by Romanian and Russian language disinformation and propaganda campaigns coming from the Kremlin, a different kind of campaign has been happening in the West. Since early Spring 2024 a flurry of articles have been placed in English language media outlets in one or more apparent PR campaign(s) managed by Public Relations (PR) and lobbying companies from around the world.
These articles all promote a set of common narratives about Moldova, namely that Moldova is sliding into authoritarian rule, Maia Sandu is a threat to democracy, Moldova attacks free speech and journalism, Moldova has undemocratically banned the Chance (or Shor) parties, etc. One key theme that returns again and again - “Moldova is not ready for the EU” and “Moldova in its current form is a threat to the EU.”
These articles claim various attributions, some are op-ed’s, some are written by supposed journalists, some are directly from PR companies. Untangling who actually writes what gets challenging, a topic we will return to below, but one name comes up again and again - Stanislav Pavlovschi. He is cited either as an author of articles or the subject of them. All promote his new NGO, founded in February of this year, the International Center for the Protection of Human Rights and Democracy (ICPHRD).
Who is Stanislav Pavlovschi?
Stanislav Pavlovschi, aged 69, is a Moldovan lawyer and former judge appointed by Moldova to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) from 2001 to 2008. He later entered politics joining Andrei Nastase’s “Platform Dignity and Truth” (Platform DA) party. From here he was appointed as the Minister of Justice in the Maia Sandu cabinet on June 8, 2019 before resigning only a few weeks later on June 23rd. He stated that his resignation was due to a “constitutional incompatibility1” with serving and that in respect of the constitution he must resign. He subsequently announced on September 16th, 2019 that he was retiring from politics and returning to legal practice.
So Mr. Pavlovschi has had a distinguished career but he is hardly a household name in Moldova. He returned to politics this year in support of Andrei Nastase’s presidential campaign where he plays a senior role among Mr. Nastase’s supporters.
Pavlovschi has appeared prominently alongside Nastase in the campaign including at the campaign launch where he spoke in support of Nastase. He has also endorsed him publicly, an endorsement that is prominently displayed on the candidate’s campaign website.
In addition to re-entering politics to support the presidential candidacy of Andrei Nastase, Mr. Pavlovschi made a sudden and dramatic appearance on the international stage last spring when he founded an NGO called the International Center for the Protection of Human Rights and Democracy (ICPHRD).
Through this organization, and leaning heavily into his credibility as a former judge at the ECtHR, Mr. Pavlovschi has written numerous op-eds and arranged 2 conferences dedicated to the topic of media freedom in Moldova. His conclusions? Moldova has serious problems with media freedoms and much more.
Stanislav Pavlovschi’s Articles
The first step in Mr. Pavlovschi’s new campaign is a series of op-ed articles placed in various papers targeting an EU audience. In a fairly typical piece for Euractiv2 Pavlovschi says that he is writing “Drawing from my experience as a former Minister of Justice in Prime Minister Maia Sandu's administration” to comment on justice reform efforts and corruption in Moldova. He does not mention that this experience consisted of 16 days as minister. Pavlovschi writes about how Moldova suffers from endemic corruption and that:
“Under President Maia Sandu's administration, Moldova has witnessed a systematic erosion of media freedoms, with nearly a dozen opposition media outlets shuttered and independent voices silenced.” .. “Furthermore, the exclusion of opposition candidates from participating in local and parliamentary elections represents a blatant disregard for democratic principles and electoral integrity.”
From this we get a pretty good idea of what he is talking about. Through his articles we find the same themes again and again:
Maia Sandu has eroded media freedoms / is an authoritarian / is creating a totalitarian system.
Moldova is not ready for the EU. Any attempt at joining the EU before sorting out Moldova’s internal problems will hurt the country
Moldova is dangerous for the EU. Accepting Moldova risks a new ‘Hungary’ crisis
Critically, whenever he needs to reach for an example to prove these points he highlights the following:
Moldova is banning opposition parties - Chance / Shor
Moldova is banning opposition media channels (referring to SIS blocking Russian channels, the government restricting licenses of Russian and Shor owned radio / TV, etc)
Throughout the articles Mr. Pavlovschi professes time and again that he loves the European Union, he wants Moldova to join the European Union… but. There is always a “but.”
What he never addresses is Ilan Shor.
This is telling by itself. He is writing quite a lot about the death of democracy and rise of totalitarianism and citing as his only proof the banning of Russian state TV channels, TV channels owned by Ilan Shor and political parties run by Ilan Shor. Why not mention him?
Stop Media Ban
Another reoccurring theme is crossover between Mr. Pavlovschi’s content and a new NGO called “Stop Media Ban.” The NGO describes itself as follows on its website:
STOP MEDIA BAN (SMB) is an independent non-profit organization committed to combating media repression and upholding the freedom of the press. Established in Moldova following the government’s prohibition of several major TV channels in the country, SMB has since been dedicated to promoting press freedom rights both domestically and globally.
The NGO was founded by “journalist” Alexei Lungu back in May 2023. Lunga went on to become leader of the Chance Party in August 2023 making him one of Ilan Shor’s top surrogates in Moldova. The current director of Stop Media ban is Ludmila Belcencova, a former Communist Party MP and TV journalist with Communist linked channels. In December 2022 she was the General Producer of the TV station “Primul în Moldova” which was later blocked and placed under EU sanctions for spreading Russian propaganda. In practice, Primul was just a Romanian language version of Russia’s state owned Perviy Kanal (Channel One).
The purpose of Stop Media Ban is to launder messages about “declining press freedoms” in Moldova by hiding them amongst broader complaints about press freedoms globally. The organization decries a lack of media freedoms in even Russian proxies and friendly governments such as Serbia, Iran, China, Hungary and Turkey in an attempt to present themselves as global champions of press freedom. At the same time no less than 1/3 articles they produce are about Moldova.
Stop Media Ban quotes Stanislav Pavlovschi in their campaigns and he has cited Stop Media Freedom alongside Amnesty International in his articles in support of his arguments against banning the Chance Party.
To be clear, Stop Media Ban is designed to have just enough credibility to fool MEPs and Western decision makers who are not well versed about Moldova - with some success. It is not designed to fool Moldovans who know very well who Alexei Lungu and Ludmila Belcencova represent. It is not credible that Mr. Pavlovschi could mistakenly believe Stop Media Ban to be equivalent to Amnesty International.
Of course, there are further indications that this is not at all a coincidence. Above we cited an article he wrote in Eurativ. As per standard journalistic practice, Euractiv noted that that article was a “paid promotion.” Mr. Pavlovschi paid them to run his opinions. He paid others too, but some sites are not quite as ethical and did not disclose that these were paid placements. This brings us to the murky world of international PR and foreign agents. To sites like EU Reporter.
How Foreign Influence PR Campaigns Work
Most people are aware, at least at some level, about how lobbying works. An interest group will hire a lobbyist to promote their given interest to whatever political actors are relevant. This can involve meetings, writing press releases, helping frame campaigns and the whole gamut of the political dark arts that, while unsavory, are legal.
Public Relations (PR) is a subset of this darks arts whereby a firm manages the image of a client or a campaign. These firms, which charge *huge* amounts of money, will write articles, press releases, organize meetings with leaders and generally manage the public side of whatever effort is underway. When the client is a foreign government, foreign company or foreign individual the United States regulates this under the Foreign Agents Registration Act or FARA.3 The European Union does not have any equivalent of this law and many member states don’t either. Notably, Belgium.
Back in 2021 Politico published a 3 part investigation called Dark news: The murky world of undercover EU lobbying.4 In it they show how websites like EU Reporter, EU Political Report, EU Today and others masquerade as news websites while actually covertly selling article placements to PR firms. These articles are written as if they are news, attributed to journalists (often not real - more below) and positioned online as credible reporting. In reality, they are well funded PR campaigns meant to influence readers. In the case of the 3 sites above the main targets seem to be EU level politicians.
One of the sites most “interested” in carrying Stanislav Pavlovschi’s articles is EU Reporter. In a now deleted youtube video referenced by Politico, EU Reporter advertised its services as "Use EU Reporter to influence." They explained their work as follows:
"Our business model is to offer political parties, businesses, NGOs, industry associations, financial institutions and governments the opportunity to use EU Reporter to influence the European political decision-making process by sponsoring coverage and the placement of positive news stories and editorial comment related to them,"
No articles on EU Reporter state that they are paid. They are often mirrored on other, similarly unscrupulous sites and in each case are attributed to a different journalist.
Placement Clusters
For this purposes of this story I’m choosing to create my own new concept - a PR placement cluster of articles. The idea is simple. If a website, or group of sites previously reported to be pooling articles for PR firms, suddenly have a lot of articles about Moldova we’ll call that a cluster. These sites have no real journalists, no contributors. Before and after our “cluster” of articles these sites will go for years without covering Moldova. These clusters appear, in most cases, to be articles planted by the same actor - likely a PR firm.
EU Reporter Cluster
Since February 2024 EU Reporter has run 25 articles about Moldova. Of them, 2 appear to be straight news by “EU Reporter Correspondent” or “EU Brussels Correspondent.” Both are in fact just copied and pasted European Council Press Releases.5 Of the remaining articles all are clearly outside placements by PR firms pushing a specific agenda. Of those, 7 articles are by or about Ilan Shor’s lawyers and their attempts to lift sanctions against him.6 Six are by or about Stanislav Pavlovschi7. Two are by or about Stop Media Ban.8 One is a hagiography of Victoria Furtuna9, one of Shor’s candidates for president. And 3 more push other Russian talking points against Moldova such as why the country should buy Russian natural gas, etc.
As you can see from the extensive footnotes, some of these articles went on long journeys after being published, with other less than reputable outlets picking them up. EU Reporter also clearly misattributes authorship to itself for articles that originated elsewhere or were written by 3rd parties. In one article about Stanislav Pavlovschi attributed to “EU Reporter Correspondent” we find that the article was originally posted on a site called EIN Presswire and attributed to Robert Naouss.
Robert Naouss leads a boutique PR firm in Dubai named Advocacy Impact LLC. His Co-Founder is Milena Nichisova, a native of Moldova and former employee of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In the article attribution he is listed as representing ICPHRD.
This brings us to a second cluster with EIN Presswire and another PR company - “Broken Pot Media Ltd.”
EIN Presswire Cluster
EIN Presswire is a site that allows users to push a press release onto the press wires for the low price of $99 / article. What makes this cluster interesting for us is that they identify who paid for and placed the articles. In this cluster we have 5 articles all placed by the same company, Broken Pot Media Ltd, between March 28th and August 1st of this year.
Of those articles, 2 were about Stanislav Pavlovschi10, 3 were written by Ilan Shor’s lawyers directly11 and 1 was about Victoria Furtuna.12
One of these articles shows you just how some of this reputation laundering works. An article attributed to Stanislav Pavlovschi was placed in EIN Presswire by Broken Pot Media Ltd. This article is written in the 3rd person with Mr. Pavlovschi quoting himself for much of the writing. The Associated Press (AP) picks up the article from EIN Presswire… and Mr. Pavlovschi posts the article back to the main page of the ICPHRD website citing only the AP as the author.
The EIN Presswire / Broken Pot Media Ltd cluster is important because it clearly shows that the same company is promoting both Ilan Shor’s lawyers statements and Stanislav Pavlovschi and the ICPHRD.
The International Policy Digest Cluster
The final cluster that I’ve chosen to highlight in this report is the most fun in some ways. After Politico’s 3 part exposé on EU Reporter, that website made some changes - not to become better but to hide who they were better. They still use fake names for reporters but they stopped using stock images to pretend these were real people. Not so for The International Policy Digest.
On this site we get 5 articles place between March 10th and August 14th of this year. Of these articles 2 have the basic theme of “Moldova is hell,” PAS is corrupt and international partners should save their money and not bother.13 One is written by Stop Media Ban14, one by Stanislav Pavlovschi15 and one is a hagiography of Andrei Nastase16 attributed to a reporter named Gustav Ellison. Mr. Ellison has no profile anywhere else on the internet, and the photo purporting to be Mr. Ellison appears to actually be Krste Demerdjiev - a social media freelancer from Macedonia.
This article is unsubtle, “Năstase is viewed as a dynamic, fearless leader with a hands-on approach.” It makes no mention of his actual electoral prospects. It goes out of its way to attack Maia Sandu and offer up Mr. Nastase as a “credible” alternative.
This same article was also placed on Forbes.ge as “Andrei Năstase: A Voice for Reform in Moldova” noting the author only as Forbes.ge.
Naturally Mr. Nastase liked these articles posting them on X and his campaign website.
This is not the only unusually good press Mr. Nastase has gotten in English language media sources. In July an especially flattering article was published in The Independent similarly promoting the candidate while taking no realistic stock of his electoral chances.
These 3 “Clusters” of articles are only meant as an example of the kind of information being spread by groups promoting Stanislav Pavlovschi, Ilan Shor, Stop Media Ban and others in the English language (less than scrupulous) press. There are many many more examples.
The Campaign is Not Limited to the Internet
So far we’ve focused on what appears to be a coordinated, online influence campaign promoting an anti-PAS, anti-Sandu and pro-Shor set of messages. At the same time there is a parallel real world campaign pushing the same sets of ideas to decision makers in the United States and Europe.
The 2024 Rule of Law Symposium
On April 17th and 18th the ICPHRD officially launched with a symposium held in New York City dedicated to “focusing on contemporary rule of law challenges in the Republic of Moldova.”
In a press release announcing the symposium the ICPHRD stated:
The symposium will feature esteemed participants including Carsten Zatschler, Adjunct Professor at University College Dublin and expert in EU law, and Justin S. Weddle, a US-based criminal lawyer with experience in Eastern European legal systems. Matthew Hoke, a former FBI agent, will also contribute insights into cross-border financial crimes. Additional invitees include Barnes & Thornburg Partner Scott Hulsey, as well as Kibler Fowler & Cave’s Nathan Park, who will in turn provide diverse perspectives on Moldova’s legal and political landscape.
This event, which Stanislav Pavlovschi called a “significant step forward in our ongoing commitment to justice, democracy, and human rights” had some substantial connections to Ilan Shor.
Firstly, Carsten Zatschler is a member of Ilan Shor’s 4 person legal team challenging EU sanctions against Shor.
Shor had posted a subtitled video of the event on his Telegram channel which is now unavailable due to Telegram’s removal of Shor’s network.
Justin S. Weddle17 and Matthew Hoke conducted an “independent review” of Moldova’s prosecution of Ilan Shor which they presented and was written about in EU Reporter after the event. In it, they conclude that
“neither the Moldovan Court of Appeals decision nor its reasoning, should be treated as a reliable basis for U.S. institutions to reach conclusions about Shor and his conduct.”
In essence, their analysis was that Moldova’s prosecution of Shor was flawed end to end highlighting both the failures of the Moldovan justice system and the need to reconsider sanctions against Mr. Shor.
A “Landmark” Conference in Chisinau
On June 25th the ICPHRD hosted a second conference titled “Freedom of Speech: A Cornerstone of Democratic Societies” in Chisinau Moldova. Stanislav Pavlovschi and his son in law Leonid Tverdun hosted the event for the ICPHRD and presentations were given by a group of international experts including:
Mitchell Barak - An “Israeli-American public opinion expert” who runs a strategic communications firm based in Israel. He was a former aide to Bibi Netanyahu and is a regular contributor to the BBC, Al Jazeera and others.
Zeynep Ardıç - A member of Faculty of Law at Istanbul Medeniyet University.
John Fund - A senior editor of The American Spectator, and reporter for The National Review Online. Fund has a long history of op-ed journalism in the US.
Tanya Beckett - A British TV and radio journalist, currently a presenter at the BBC world service.
Ivor Gaber - British academic and journalist, professor of political journalism at University of Sussex. A member of UNESCO’s intergovernmental Council of the International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC) representing the UK government.
Conor Powell - A veteran TV correspondent reporting for Fox and other outlets from various conflict zones. More recently a podcast host and producer.
Daniel J. Mitchell - A libertarian economist and commentator and a former senior fellow at CATO institute.
Daniel Pomerantz - CEO of Reality Check, a 501c3 non-profit focused on public research to reduce polarization.
Walid Harfush - Vice President of Euronews for Central and Eastern Europe.
There’s a decent chance that many readers will recognize at least one name on this list. For a conference in Chisinau this is a pretty remarkable collection of media voices from around the US and Europe. This conference was not promoted in Moldova and received next to zero media coverage here. Moldovans were not the audience.
Following the conference the ICPHRD put out a press release with selected quotes from various participants. They appear to be cherry picked and taken out of any context in order to reinforce same themes present in Mr. Pavlovschi’s articles.
“I do not think the shutting down of media outlets is in any way justified, and governments should not make up excuses to ban media outlets that oppose them.” - John Fund
“if you do not have free media, you cannot expose corruption and hold authorities accountable.” - Zeynep Ardic
“a journalist should never have to be afraid of the power of their government” - Daniel Pomerantz
“according to the World Bank’s governance indicators, things have not improved in Moldova, referring to the connection between quality of governance and how well the economy improves” … “all the scores are weak by European standards” .. “Things are not getting better in terms of quality of institutions either” - Dan Mitchell
I reached out to various speakers asking them to comment on the conference and how it was organized. Conor Powell responded to my questions explaining that the conference itself was small, only around 10 people attending other than the speakers themselves.
He stated that:
"There was definitely nothing pro-Russian about the event or the speakers. That was something I was looking out for. In fact all of the speakers, in both private and public comments, were critics of Putin.” […]
"I came away thinking that Moldova, while it may have some political issues, is actually light years ahead of most countries around the world in terms of corruption and free speech."
As to the content of the debate he stated:
"There was a real debate about freedom of speech and how far it should be allowed in a country like Moldova. If I remember correctly, everyone agreed freedom of speech is key to democratic reforms and a flourishing democracy."
When asked whether or not this was an academic and high level conversation, or a discussion of the actual situation in Moldova right now he replied:
"generally the conversation was high level and in the abstract. It was more best practices from around the world and what Moldova could learn from European countries and the US. Very little conversation focused on Moldova specifically." […]
Prompted about Ilan Shor specifically he said:
"I don't remember any mention of Ilan Shor at all."18
Lobbyists and Meetings in the United States
In addition to conferences, there is a parallel non-public campaign to meet with decision makers and think tanks in the United States. Multiple sources who asked to remain anonymous confirmed to me that Stanislav Pavlovschi, Andrei Nastase and Vasilie Tarlev have all attempted to set up meetings with think tanks and similar institutions in the United States via contracted PR firms in the last few months.
Andrei Nastase made travel plans to the US for these meetings before abruptly canceling his trip. Vasilie Tarlev similarly canceled his trip last minute. It is unclear if Stanislav Pavlovschi actually had any meetings in the US.
I’m currently not able to say which PR firms are or were representing these men and organizing their trips. There are no active FARA registrations for firms representing Moldovan clients. When Nastase visited the Republican National Convention (RNC), a story he has not explained in detail, he was photographed at a reception hosted by BGR Group, a high powered PR and Lobbying firm, but there is no evidence at this time that this is the firm he is working work.
The story of the US visits remains only partial at this time, as does any equivalent stories of high level meetings in the UK or EU. I hope to follow this story up with additional reporting on this topic later.
Bringing it all Together
Through many hours of online research and dozens of conversations I have found no evidence of any lobbying or PR effort in the west by any Moldovans other than Stanislav Pavlovschi, Andrei Nastase and Ilan Shor.
At the same time, we cannot say definitively that the efforts of these three men are linked. Yes, they all hired PR firms, yes they were sometimes the exact same firm at the exact same time, but all the smoke in the world doesn’t quite prove a fire (but it does make a strong case for better public transparency laws in the EU).
What is known?
Stanislav Pavlovschi has conducted a far reaching online and offline campaign focused on discrediting Moldova’s EU aspirations and advocating for the Chance Party and Russian / Shor linked TV channels. At no time does he discuss who Ilan Shor is, what specific interference is happening or why the government made the choices they did. In this campaign he has promoted Shor-linked Stop Media Ban and collaborated with at least one of Ilan Shor’s lawyers.
Mr. Pavlovschi is closely tied to Andrei Nastase and has a prominent role in his campaign. Mr. Nastase promotes Mr. Pavlovschi via his media sites and appears next to him at campaign events.
Mr. Pavlovschi has worked to cultivate the image of a pro-EU jurist and activist in order to gain access to forums where he then disparages Moldova’s prospects for joining the EU. His Chisinau conference did not do so when the attendees were in the room, but the public readout was selected to promote the same narratives that Mr. Pavlovschi pushes through paid articles. The other outcome of this conference is photos of him with prominent international journalists. This is likely to help him launder his image as a credible pro-EU figure in Moldova - someone you might make time for if a high powered PR company calls.
Money. All of this costs a lot of it. The ICPHRD has not made public any of its sources of funding - highly usual for a Moldovan NGO. Because the NGO is so new there are also no public financial reports available. I called the ICPHRD to ask about their funding sources and discovered that their phone number, which has a New York City area code, is disconnected. Some googling found that the number had previously been registered with a daycare center. The ICPHRD has not replied to my emails at the time of writing.
This story is hardly over but already long and complex. As new information becomes available I will write followup articles on this foreign lobbying / public opinion campaign.
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Constitutional Incompatibility outlines prohibitions against holding multiple offices at once or other similar issues. For example, you cannot be a member of parliament and also hold any paid job other than academic research work or teaching, etc. It is unclear what incompatibility Pavlovschi referenced here.
Disclaimer: I write freelance for Euractiv covering Moldova
Read Casey Michel’s excellent new book Foreign Agents for more on FARA, how it works, how it doesn’t and how it shapes our politics.
Politico Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 - also a NYTimes article on the same phenomenon with Huwawei.
Republic of Moldova: six individuals and one entity listed for undermining the rule of law, stability and security in the country - EU Reporter, original European Council Press Release
EU and Moldova reaffirm strong ties, May 22 - EU Reporter, original European Council Press Release
EU Reporter Articles by or About Ilan Shor or his Lawyers:
Warnings About Moldova’s EU Candidacy Everyone Should Heed, Attribution: Admir Lisica, Feb 7 - EU Reporter, Translation published by Telegraph MD
European Court of Human Rights to Review Legality of Moldovan Government’s Ban on the Shor Party, March 13, Attribution: Louis Auge - EU Reporter
Arina Corsicova Files Claim Against Moldova: European Court of Human Rights to Review Exclusion from Local Elections, March 19, Attribution: EU Reporter Correspondent - EU Reporter
Moldova’s Constitutional Court Strikes Down Ban on Opposition Candidates, March 28, Attribution: EU Reporter Correspondent - EU Reporter
SHOR Party Takes Moldova’s Government to European Court Over Political Ban, May 17, Attribution: guest op-ed by Pavel Verejanu (former vice mayor of Orhei, now vice president of Executive Committee of Gagauzia under Gutsul in July NM) - EU Reporter
European Union refuse to disclose communication with Moldovan Government regarding sanctions against Shor, May 30, Attribution: Louis Auge, EU Reporter
New Legal Challenge: Meta slapped with lawsuit over censorship in Moldova, June 7, Attribution: EU Reporter Correspondent, EU Reporter
National Moldovan Wine Day Celebrated in Moscow, October 6, Attribution: EU Reporter Correspondent - EU Reporter
EU Reporter Articles by or About Stanislav Pavlovschi
Roadblock to Integration: Moldova’s Corruption Crisis, April 11, Attribution: Stanislav Pavlovschi (Guest Opinion) - EU Reporter
Establishment of the International Centre for the Protection of Human Rights and Democracy in Moldova, April 12 - EU Reporter, April 15 - Israel National News Attribution Robert Naouss
Moldova’s Democratic Dilemma: Balancing EU Aspirations with Political Suppression, May 15, Attribution: Guest Contributor / Opinion - Stanislav Pavlovschi - EU Reporter
The International Center for the Protection of Human Rights and Democracy to host landmark freedoms conference in Chisinau, Moldova, June 21, Attribution: EU Reporter Correspondent EU Reporter. MoldovaLive June 21, Attribution MARINA GRIDINA. Kalkine Media, Attribution EIN Presswire June 20. EIN Presswire, Attribution ICPHRD Press Office, June 20.
Significant Conference on Human Rights and Press Freedoms Concludes in Moldova, July 2, Attribution: Europe Correspondent - EU Reporter. New York Globe, July 2 (Attribution: “editor.” Human Rights Center Website, June 27. London Globe, July 2, Attribution “editor.”
Former justice minister: Moldova’s EU accession without reform risks new ‘Hungary’ crisis, August 5, Attribution: guest op-ed Stanislav Pavlovschi - EU Reporter
EU Reporter Articles by or About Stop Media Ban
World Press Freedom Day: Stop Media Ban announce European Petition against Moldovan Government crackdown on press, May 3, Attribution: EU Reporter Correspondent - EU Reporter
Moldovan Government shuts down 7 additional TV channels, May 15, Attribution: EU Reporter Correspondent - EU Reporter
Moldovan anti-corruption prosecutor Victoria Furtună announces candidacy for President, July 30, Attribution Louis Auge - EU Reporter
EIN Presswire / Broken Pot Media Ltd. Articles about Stanislav Pavlovschi
Establishment of the International Center for the Protection of Human Rights and Democracy in Moldova, April 12, Attribution: Robert Naouss - EIN Presswire. Posted on Israel National News April 15th as “Sponsored Content” without attribution.
Stanislav Pavlosvhi Urges Democratic Reforms and Societal Engagement at Inaugural Rule of Law Conference in New York, April 26, Attribution: Stanislav Pavlovschi - EIN Presswire. Picked up by AP on April 26th. Reposted on the ICPHRD website only citing AP.
EIN Presswire / Broken Pot Media Ltd Articles by Ilan Shor’s Representatives
European Court of Human Rights decides to review legality of Moldovan Government’s ban on the Shor Party, March 28, Attribution Shaul Brazil BCL Solicitors LLP (one of Shor’s Sanctions Lawyers) - EIN Presswire
Moldova’s Constitutional Court Strikes Down Government Ban on Opposition Candidates, March 19, Attribution: Aureliu Colenco Legal representative, SHOR Party - EIN Presswire
HOR Party Seeks Interim Measures Against Moldovan Government in European Court of Human Rights, May 17, Attribution: Aureliu Colenco Legal representative, SHOR Party - EIN Prewire
Victoria Furtună Announces Candidacy for President of Moldova, August 1, Attribution: Adrian Gavrilov Victoria Furtună Presidential Campaign - EIN Presswire
International Police Digest Hit Pieces Against Moldova
Behind Moldova’s Corruption-Ridden European Dream, March 10, Attribution: Gerald Walker - International Policy Digest
U.S. State Department Report Raises Concerns Over Moldova’s Corruption, April 29 Attribution: Tom Price - International Policy Digest
Tom Price does not elsewhere exist on the internet, but his photo appears to correspond to a man named “Matt Brandon” who is the CEO of an IT company in Pakistan.
International Police Digest piece by Stop Media Ban
Stop Media Ban Files Petition Against Moldova’s Media Crackdown, May 3, Attribution Stop Media Ban - International Police Digest
International Police Digest piece by Stanislav Pavlovschi
Moldova’s EU Aspirations: The Cost of Suppressing Democracy, July 20, Attribution Stanislav Pavlovschi - International Policy Digest
International Police Digest piece about Andrei Nastase
Andrei Nastase: The Center-Right Politico Trying to Reshape Moldovan Politics, August 14, Attribution: Gustav Ellison - International Policy Digest. Republished on Forbes.ge on August 21. Note: as stated in the text Gustav Ellison appears not to exist.
On an unrelated, but interesting note, Justin S. Weddle previously represented Steve Bannon’s “We Build the Wall” organization in their litigation before the Supreme Court regarding the charges of fraud and money laundering against the group. Later Mr. Weddle asked to be separated from the case due to lack of payment.
Conor noted that he did miss some sessions after lunch and it was possible Shor was mentioned. But concrete cases or specific events today were not the focus of the conference.