As foreign information manipulation grows faster, cheaper, and more sophisticated, Moldova finds itself on the front line of a new kind of democratic battlefield—one where algorithms shape opinions, hidden money fuels narratives, and influence operations move seamlessly across borders and platforms.

Elections, by their nature, create a window of heightened exposure. Citizens are forming judgments on political contestants and their policies, institutions are under scrutiny, and the information environment is unusually volatile.

The project "Combatting Electoral Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (FIMI)” is advancing in supporting civil society actors to increase their capacity to counter foreign interference during elections.

Election-related foreign information manipulation and interference (FIMI) is often understood primarily as an external threat to democracies, although this framing only captures part of the picture. After all, the first word in FIMI is “foreign” and the term itself was formalized by the European External Action Service (EEAS), the EU’s diplomatic service. This is for good reason, as the coordinated information manipulation operations that most threaten the integrity of elections usually originate in adversarial states and their affiliates, primarily Russia and China.

On 19 March 2026, International IDEA, together with the Central Election Commission of Ukraine (CEC), convened a hybrid event focused on strengthening coordinated responses to foreign information manipulation and interference (FIMI).

The event brought together more than 100 participants, both in person in Kyiv and online, including representatives of Ukrainian public authorities, international organisations, civil society, and expert communities.