Sputnik Moldova allegedly used Claude to spread false and defamatory claims about Maia Sandu, an Anthropic report shows

The Anthropic report on the abusive use of artificial intelligence, published on September 10, 2026, claims that a Sputnik representative allegedly used Claude to turn news from Romania and the Republic of Moldova into propaganda materials in Russian.

According to the document, the materials were allegedly later distributed on Sputnik Moldova’s Telegram channel and on RIA Novosti, then amplified through a network of Russian and Moldovan publications. The purported aim was to create “false verification loops,” making the same information appear to be confirmed by independent sources.

Anthropic states that the Sputnik representative also allegedly promoted fabricated or defamatory information about President Maia Sandu before the parliamentary elections of September 28, 2025. One of the posts generated with Claude’s help allegedly received approximately 2,000 views. However, the company specifies that it cannot establish which part of the materials produced by the institutions involved was created with the help of artificial intelligence and says that it closed the accounts used.

The report does not provide concrete examples of the materials in question.