The presidential election in Moldova triggered a disinformation campaign aimed at discrediting the current president of Moldova, Maia Sandu, who is going to a second term. After the first tour of the Presidential election, news about Sandu being supposedly diagnosed with schizophrenia and panic attacks by a psychiatrist in the Vienna clinic in 2021 was shared online. Our fact-checking department figured out if it’s true.
What happened?
On September 17, on a web resource called Curentmd, which hadn’t been active since 2022, an article headlined “Crazy Maia. Sandu follows in Biden’s steps” (“Maia nebună. Sandu calcă pe urmele lui Biden” in Romanian) was published.
The article cites an anonymous source saying that, while he was going through treatment in an Austrian elite clinic, he was told that a current President of Moldova, Maia Sandu, was also undergoing treatment there for schizophrenia and panic attacks.
As evidence for this, the article offers a photo of a document that seems to be a medical conclusion/diagnosis dated October 21, 2021. It seems to be an I-type schizophrenia and panic attacks diagnosis for Maia Sandu.
“A trusted person, who understandably wished to remain anonymous, provided us with the details,” the authors write. “He, living in one European country, told [us] that in autumn 2021, he was treated in an elite clinic in Austria, where a doctor, Dr. Kats from Odesa, revealed to him confidential information. Doctor Kats [told him] that Moldova’s president secretly got treatment for serious mental problems. In a careless moment, he seems to have shown our source a photo of a medical card confirming this information, signifying that Maia has schizophrenia and panic attacks.”
During the next few days, the news was widely spread via pro-Russian media such as Eadaily, Reporter (“Репортёр“), Pravda Moldavia (“Pravda Молдавия“), Pravda ru.
Pro-Russian telegram channels (Gagauznews — Новости для Гагаузии) and Russian web portals (Pikabu, NarodEdin, LiveJournal) also spread the news. Social media users on X (1, 2), Instagram, and Youtube also shared it.
Analysis
We’ve checked the information about Maia Sandu being in Vienna in a defined timeframe and found out that on October 21-22, 2021, Maia Sandu really was in the Austrian capital following an official invitation from Austrian president Alexander Van der Bellen.
For the next step, we have analyzed the information from the document, the image of which was used in the news. It contains the logo and information that correspond with the official website of the private clinic Doebling in Vienna (under the holding company PremiQaMed Holding) and information about the clinic’s doctor, Prim. Dr. Thomas Rothmund.
There are typos in the information on the document, particularly in the address and registration number of the holding(capitalization and the lack of it, incorrect punctuation). Also, inconsistencies are present in the contact data (in the lower left corner of the document, there is information for two departments of the clinic at once: ambulatory department and ordination center; they actually have different addresses, but the general contact is absent.)
In the upper right corner of the document, relevant data for the clinic’s ordination center is shown. Diagnosis is authored by Tomas Rothmund, who works in the fields of neurology and psychiatry.
But the defined inconsistencies only indirectly point to the document being a fake, so we wrote to Tomas Rothmund and send them the photo of the document via email.
The doctor told us he didn’t write the diagnosis. He noted that, in the document and on the picture, he had already found a non-native German expression in the writing and incorrect medical information. Moreover, Dr. Rothmund said that the document doesn’t have a stamp, and the signature there doesn’t correspond to his.
Additionally, Rothmund pointed out:
“I don’t know where this fake came from and who could have created it. In any case, this [document] isn’t congruent with my medical diagnostic and therapeutic standards. The medications with lithium and SSRI are antidepressants, which are also not an accepted therapy for “schizophrenia.”
As such, we’re dealing with one of the attempts to promote disinformation about Maia Sandu’s mental conditions to discredit her as a presidential candidate. According to the first tour vote, Sandu got 42.52% of the votes, and her opponent, Stoianoglo, representing the Socialist Party, got 25.98% in the first tour that was held on October 20. The second tour of Moldova’s Presidential election will happen on November 3.
Conclusion: Fake
Author: Anna Ormanzhi
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