A Russian influence network operating in France and Germany during the coronavirus pandemic was also deployed in the run-up to Romania’s recently canceled elections, according to documents obtained by the Financial Times. That’s what it means.
AdNow, an online advertising company founded by Russians in 2014 with headquarters in Moscow and an affiliate in London, was used in a campaign to spread misinformation about Western coronavirus vaccines. The company is currently based in Bulgaria and has been active in advertising campaigns in Romania and Bulgaria in recent years, documents show. These were first revealed by Bulgarian cybersecurity expert group BG Elves and Romanian investigative portal Snoop.
“They are toying with social engineering and trying to evoke emotions in an attempt to get you to click on misleading ads,” said Petko Petkov of BG Elves, who reviewed the AdNow software and said it could be exploited. We concluded that enhanced profiling operations were used to collect user information. For political purposes. “You are easily misunderstood. The ultimate goal is to ask for your personal data.”
Earlier this month, Romanian authorities called off the country’s presidential election over allegations of Russian interference to benefit pro-Putin candidate Karin Georgescu, who won the first round. Social media influencers who promoted Georgescu were taken in for questioning, and one of his sponsors is being investigated on suspicion of money laundering and illegal campaign contributions.
The European Commission has also opened an investigation into TikTok’s role in Georgescu’s mysterious jump to ninth place on the platform just days before the election. TikTok denies any wrongdoing. Georgescu denies any ties to Russia or anyone associated with a social media campaign favoring him.
Despite changing ownership several times, the documents show that AdNow has ties to Romania’s far-right, pro-Russian factions and that Georgescu’s anti-vaxxer, mystic and ultra-nationalist messages played an important role in preparing the soil.
According to Snoop’s Victor Ilie, AdNow operates as an online advertising agency through which customers can advertise to Georgeszk supporters, generating an estimated 2 million euros in revenue over the past few years. It is said that there is. One such product promoted through AdNow was Toxic Off, a pill that claims to remove parasites and toxins from the human body with a 100% rate of “improving general health.”
“AdNow has been serving the public with ads, health misinformation, and financial fraud for years, preparing the public for surprise campaigns like TikTok,” Illy said. said.
“When you have 440 million ads a month in a country like Romania, with a population of 19 million people, all of which are about fraud and fake drugs, rationally you lose faith in science. It has the potential to educate people.”
The founder and general director of AdNow LLC from 2014 to 2018 was a Novosibirsk State University graduate who worked on the presidential campaigns of Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev, and later served as communications director for the ruling United Russia Party. Yulia Serebryanskaya, who served as The company was then transferred to another Russian.
Our London affiliate, AdNow LLP, was founded in 2014 and changed addresses multiple times before dissolving in 2023. The company was owned by Russian entrepreneur Stanislav Fesenko. For several months in 2018 and 2019, it shared the same address as a company then named Bunelu Ltd. (We have no connection to a company of the same name which is currently registered at a different address in Scotland). The first Bunel company later moved its operations to Bucharest under the ownership of Mihai Lotariu, a businessman with ties to Romanian ultranationalists and a frequent visitor to the Russian embassy in Romania.
Lotariu is under the brand United Thrace, a historical reference to the ancient Balkan kingdom, which aims to “transform sacred energies and express the creativity within humanity,” according to its website. He runs several companies. After Snoop revealed his relationship with Lotariu earlier this month, he was removed from the United Thrace website. He did not respond to requests for comment.
“Russian influencers in the region participate in many layers that are not necessarily interconnected, but they amplify each other,” Irie said.
AdNow’s operations in Russia come after Russia announced its own Sputnik jab, following the large-scale attacks carried out in France and Germany aimed at undermining the effectiveness of the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines during the coronavirus pandemic. It was also involved in a large-scale disinformation campaign.
AdNow’s main operations in Russia were sold last year and are now owned and operated by a Georgian man named Giorgi Abradze. He, along with over 50 other companies he owns, is headquartered in the Bulgarian city of Plovdiv.
According to a review of data collected by BG Elves, many AdNow employees are Russian, with dozens living in Novosibirsk, Serebryansky’s hometown, and other cities across Russia. Some left after the company was inherited, but many stayed.
Company records reviewed by the FT show that Abradze briefly founded the company earlier this year and employed hundreds of Russians.
Abradze denied charges of promoting Russian propaganda. He admitted buying AdNow from Russians, but denied participating in Russia’s disinformation campaign.
“We were contacted by the Bulgarian equivalent of the local FBI and provided all the technical data,” he told the FT. “It’s all bullshit and not true. We will issue a more detailed statement once the Bulgarian authorities have concluded.”
Fesenko, who moved to Budapest in 2016, told the FT that Russia was already under Western sanctions after its annexation of Crimea in 2014, and so were its international partners, so his previous business set up in London was He said they no longer have any relationship. Reluctant to do business with Moscow.
But he said AdNow’s founder, principal owner and executive was Mikhail Serebryansky, Yulia’s younger brother. Mr. Fesenko maintained that during his time with the company, there was no political agenda in the business.
The anti-vaccination campaign was organized by a company called Fazze, which encouraged influencers in France and Germany to spread fake news about the US and UK-made jabs. Fazze used AdNow’s email server and its London address because the owner was a “friend of Mike’s” who “couldn’t be bothered to set up the business properly,” Fesenko said, adding It added that AdNow has nothing to do with the campaign.
Fatze disbanded in 2021 following scandals exposed by British and American media. Fesenko, who left AdNow after the scandal, said he had no contact with Fatze. He said AdNow was sold after Serebryansky’s death in 2023.
Fesenko said financial fraud and counterfeit drugs are widespread on advertising platforms because “it’s much more profitable than selling books.” He said AdNow and other similar agencies have been thriving in the region for nearly a decade.
“Romania was a pretty big market for these advertisers,” he says. “It’s a big country, but it’s not very poor and its people are not very educated.”
Paul-Olivier Dehay, a Belgian mathematician who runs an artificial intelligence company called Hestia.ai, described online advertising as “the future of disinformation.”
“These tools allow us to target very precise information, down to individuals and individual devices,” Dehaye said. He said these tools “can be used to seed strategic content, including micro-influencers.”
Additional reporting by Polina Ivanova
