Polina Nikolskaya

Holy war: How Russia recruited Orthodox priests to sway Moldova's voters Russia paid for Moldovan Orthodox priests to make Moscow pilgrimages and gave them debit cards loaded with hundreds of dollars on their return home. In exchange, priests created Telegram channels to influence Moldova's elections, promoting traditional values over ‘gay Europe.’

Despite Moscow recruiting and paying dozens of priests in the deeply religious country to urge congregations to vote against the pro-European PAS party, Moldovans flipped the bird at Russian fascism in yesterday's elections, voting for democracy over Russian terror.
www.reuters.com/investigatio...

To get a sense of Moldova, look at this: a woman riding her bike along the highway, leading her cow on a rope. Watermelons in Moldova are truly beyond all expectations 🍉🍉🍉

Holy war: How Russia recruited Orthodox priests to sway Moldova's voters Russia paid for Moldovan Orthodox priests to make Moscow pilgrimages and gave them debit cards loaded with hundreds of dollars on their return home. In exchange, priests created Telegram channels to influence Moldova's elections, promoting traditional values over ‘gay Europe.’

Russia paid for Orthodox priests from #Moldova to make pilgrimages to Moscow. In exchange, they had to set up social media accounts warning about the dangers of closer European integration. @reuters.com investigation about how Kremlin is trying to influence Sunday’s key #election in Moldova 🇲🇩

YouTube video by Reuters How Russia recruited Orthodox priests to sway Moldova's voters | REUTERS

I also encourage you to watch the short film about Russia's influence on the upcoming elections in Moldova through the Church, featuring some amazing shots by Janis Laizans for our story

youtu.be/83kfW9yZZ8Q?...

I’ve just launched a new Instagram account dedicated to journalism, where I share photos from my trips, behind-the-scenes moments, and everyday life as a reporter. Feel free to subscribe! I’ve already posted some background content from my recent trip to Moldova

instagram.com/polina_reports

Created parish channels are ramping up activity before Sunday’s election, fueled by the TG-channel Sare și Lumină.

Sare şi Lumiña printed papers are also shared in churches with QR-codes to TG and TikTok

The same RU operatives are under Sare şi Lumiña, we found 8/8

in exchange for the money they were expected to create social media channels for their parishes in Moldova to warn their flocks about the dangers of the pro-Western government's pursuit of closer European integration, said Bicu 7/8

Some priests received debit cards issued by a RU sanctioned state bank Promsvyazbank which were handed to them in a monastery by non-church people. And received several hundred dollars on them, more than double the country’s average monthly income (my photo from Balti hospital church) 6/8

They pushed Moldovan priests during the trips to Russia to open the TG-channels of their parishes. The Russians are involved in operating and supplying content for the social media campaign at these channels during the year before the parliamentary elections, like this 5/8

But ahead of these trips were several political operatives and social media specialists affiliated with the ruling United Russia party and Putin-backed People's Front. We found their names. 4/8

Hundreds of Moldovan priests accepted the all-expenses-paid trips to Moscow between June and October 2024, 15 clerics, including four who attended the pilgrimages, told us. And an analysis of photos and videos of the visits posted online confirmed 3/8

The Church is the most trusted country's institution, authorities claimed. The Orthodox church, followed by the bulk of Moldova’s 2.4 million population, is subordinate to the Moscow Patriarchate 2/8

Holy war: How Russia recruited Orthodox priests to sway Moldova's voters Russia paid for Moldovan Orthodox priests to make Moscow pilgrimages and gave them debit cards loaded with hundreds of dollars on their return home. In exchange, priests created Telegram channels to influence Moldova's elections, promoting traditional values over ‘gay Europe.’

My team and I spent 2 weeks in Moldova reporting ahead of Sunday’s parliamentary elections. We found how Russia has persistently tried to influence voters through the Orthodox Church 1/8

w/@christianlowe.bsky.social @zverevlive.bsky.social Janis Laizans Marton Monus

www.reuters.com/investigatio...

Russia asks UN aviation agency ICAO to ease sanctions over safety concerns Russia is urging the U.N. civil aviation agency to ease sanctions on spare parts and overflights, dismissing its response to the war in Ukraine as "unlawful coercive measures," according to working papers and a source familiar with the matter.

Russian authorities are now trying to negotiate relief from sanctions, particularly on spare parts, which they say are critical for flight safety, a source in Russia's aviation sector told Reuters.
www.reuters.com/business/aer...

Russian Occupation Update, September 9, 2025 Key Takeaways Deportation and Forcible Transfer of Ukrainian Citizens, Including Children  Nothing significant to report. Sociocultural Control Russia is continuing its efforts to Russify and militari...

our investigation into occupied Enerhodar was cited in @thestudyofwar.bsky.social note on Russian control of Ukrainian territories: how the Russian occupation of the town and the ZNPP has turned the area into a “Russified ghost town.”

understandingwar.org/research/rus...

Peace Negotiations and Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant As expectations continue to swirl for peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, the future of the largest nuclear power plant in Europe hangs in the balance.

RUSI has quoted our investigation into Russia’s efforts to control Enerhodar. Below, @ddolzikova.bsky.social shares her thoughts on how to handle the difficult situation at the nuclear power plant 👇

www.rusi.org/explore-our-...

“I told them to fuck off and left.” AWOL and desertion in the Russian army are beating one record after another Get Lost, an anti-war project that helps Russians flee from the army, declared this past February 29 Desertion Day. “We were being told that deserters are traitors and wimps. We do...

Sverdlin founded Get Lost soon after the start of Russia's full-scale invasion in Ukraine, the project helped hundreds and hundreds of people escape the army since. They also declared February 29 Desertion Day. More here:

en.zona.media/article/2024...

Grigory Sverdlin, anti-war activist, former director of homeless charity Nochlezhka and founder of the Get Lost project, which helps Russians desert from the army, was sentenced to 6 years in absentia by a Moscow court today—for a post from April 2022 about the Bucha massacre

Russia turns a Ukrainian nuclear city into a stronghold of fear Once a thriving city of 50,000, Enerhodar, home of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, is a ghost town. The Russian occupation is using intimidation and seemingly arbitrary detentions to scrub the region of its Ukrainian identity.

Reuters investigation exposes how Russia turned Europe’s largest nuclear city into a fortress of terror—families vanish, kids erased, workers coerced at gunpoint.

www.reuters.com/investigatio...

🟠 "They force people to love them." https://www.reuters.com/investigations/russia-turns-ukrainian-nuclear-city-into-stronghold-fear-2025-08-29/

Russia turns a Ukrainian nuclear city into a stronghold of fear Once a thriving city of 50,000, Enerhodar, home of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, is a ghost town. The Russian occupation is using intimidation and seemingly arbitrary detentions to scrub the region of its Ukrainian identity.

Reuters spoke with Volodymyr Sukhanov, a chess tutor who taught in the Ukrainian city of Enerhodar for 30 years, and asked why Russian authorities prioritize education. His answer pointed to Soviet times. Read the full special report ➡️

Russia turns a Ukrainian nuclear city into a stronghold of fear Once a thriving city of 50,000, Enerhodar, home of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, is a ghost town. The Russian occupation is using intimidation and seemingly arbitrary detentions to scrub the region of its Ukrainian identity.

Here is our new investigation into Enerhodar, an occupied Ukrainian city that hosts Europe's largest nuclear plant. Based on interviews with over 50 people, we detail how Moscow's security apparatus and Rosatom are ruling over the city with violence and fear. www.reuters.com/investigatio...

Russia turns a Ukrainian nuclear city into a stronghold of fear Once a thriving city of 50,000, Enerhodar, home of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, is a ghost town. The Russian occupation is using intimidation and seemingly arbitrary detentions to scrub the region of its Ukrainian identity.

🇷🇺 🇺🇦 Once a thriving city of 50,000, Enerhodar, home of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, is a ghost town. The Russian occupation is using intimidation and seemingly arbitrary detentions to scrub the region of its Ukrainian identity.

www.reuters.com/investigatio...

#Russia #Ukraine

Russia turns a Ukrainian nuclear city into a stronghold of fear Once a thriving city of 50,000, Enerhodar, home of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, is a ghost town. The Russian occupation is using intimidation and seemingly arbitrary detentions to scrub the region of its Ukrainian identity.

while the world debates a territorial deal between RU and UA, we found that RU is reshaping Enerhodar -the site of Europe’s largest nuclear plant - through fear, propaganda, and newcomers

w/
@saitomri.bsky.social
@zverevlive.bsky.social
M. Prysiazhniuk
L. Hinnant

www.reuters.com/investigatio...

www.reuters.com/business/med...

'We threw hand grenades!' Russian kids as young as 8 get taste of military training Schoolchildren enjoyed a riverside adventure this week, but it was no ordinary holiday camp.

anyone who claims that nothing has changed in Russia is simply choosing not to notice

www.reuters.com/world/we-thr...

I believe there wasn't a single Russian journalist in the 2000s-2010s who didn’t have some connection with Derk. He helped shape the Russian independent press. I’m deeply grateful to him for my happy professional year at RBC. My deepest condolences to his family.

finally read a good story about London’s parakeets, seeing them here is more than surprising for immigrants like me

www.thetimes.com/article/b8d4...

Broken by American detention. Russian authorities arrest Leonid Melekhin after failed asylum attempt and “self‑deportation” from the US A court in the Russian city of Perm has arrested Leonid Melekhin, a businessman and activist who returned to Russia after his U.S. asylum bid was denied. Melekhin had traveled thro...

He sought asylum in the U.S. after hanging an anti-Putin poster from a bridge in Russia.

After 10 months in detention and a failed asylum claim, Leonid Melekhin returned to his hometown and was immediately arrested on “terrorism” charges.

His story: en.zona.media/article/2025...

Russia recruited a teenage spy. His arrest led to a crypto money trail Russia is using untrained spies after operatives were expelled from Europe in 2022. The case against a Canadian teen shows how Moscow conducts the operations.

I'm currently reading @shaunwalker7.bsky.social's account of the scrupulous recruitment, years of training and diligent handling of the USSR's 'illegals'. The contrast with the crude FSB op detailed here couldn't be more striking. www.reuters.com/investigates...