„Mrs. Raisa” is a TikTok account that went viral on December 26, three days after the interim president of the PNL, Ilie Bolojan, announced that the coalition parties (PSD, PNL, UDMR supported by minorities) had agreed to have a common candidate in the spring presidential elections in the person of Crin Antonescu.
The account had reached over 1.3 million likes, more than 140,000 followers, and reactions to its page were growing exponentially by the hour before it was shut down. The closure sparked heated reactions on other social media networks, as shown by an analysis by Info Sud-Est and G4Media reporters over the past two weeks.
All the „Raisa” propaganda activity has moved to Facebook, X and a Telegram group where ISE reporters are members. The discussions on the Telegram account are taking place in the same rhetoric and style as those on the support account for Călin Georgescu.
- Note: A Telegram channel associated with her name and photo, „RAISA GRUP”, was created on January 16 with over 1700 active members. The same type of discussions are held in the group as on other social networks, with topics generally about President Iohannis and the cancellation of the second round of the presidential elections. This communication strategy on Telegram is similar to the one used by the supporters of the pro-Russian candidate with a legionary discourse, Călin Georgescu, who created groups and channels on Telegram with the aim of increasing his electoral popularity. One of the Telegram groups used by Călin Georgescu’s supporters for propaganda was also mentioned in the declassified intelligence reports. The Telegram channel associated with „Raisa” also promotes an X (formerly Twitter) page where the woman says she will continue to post in order to „stop being censored”. The person who set up the Telegram group urges group participants to use the hashtag „#RaisaTelegramX” when posting posts or mentioning her in comments on social networks (see photo at the end of the article).
The rapid rise of „Raisa Ekaterina Ivatenko Ekaterina”, her real name being Mihaela Simona Fica (according to a video posted by her on YouTube and according to the associations of the social media accounts between the two names), is exactly on the model of Călin Georgescu, with the same speed and as suddenly, following the same pattern of spreading conspiracy theories and annihilating the state powers, only that her posts are much more violent, vulgar and conspiratorial.
In fact, the first post made by „Raisa” was on December 26 and it was a laudatory one for Cristela Georgescu, the wife of the pro-Russian candidate with a legionary rhetoric in the presidential elections of November 24. Other posts in support of Călin Georgescu followed, and on Facebook, Raisa changed her cover photo to one of Georgescu.
Also on Facebook, where she migrated after her TikTok account was recently closed, the woman posted a video consisting of collages of photos in which she appears with guns in her hands, with bullets, pretending to shoot someone, on a shooting range, next to a military uniform, or at an event of the NGO called Professional Association of Security Employees.
In early January, „Raisa” published a conspiracy about the deaths of the 65 young people at Colectiv, saying that napalm, a chemical used in firebombs that the BBC reported in 2013 had been used in the Syrian war and had caused huge casualties, was used in the fire.
Also in early January, the woman published a Facebook post about how constitutional court judges can be arrested. In fact, many and some of her most popular posts on TikTok referred to Klaus Iohannis and the annulment of the first round of the November 24 presidential elections.
On TikTok, she also rolled out conspiracies about the former PRM leader Vadim Tudor who was allegedly assassinated, Klaus Iohannis who „has files at DIICOT for child trafficking”, Crin Antonescu, Victor Ponta and Nicușor Dan (candidates or possible candidates in the presidential elections on May 4) who are „informants of the Securitate”,
The woman also claims to have been an officer in the Directorate General of Defense Intelligence (DGIA), but the Ministry of Defense has vehemently denied this in a press release. „Raisa” also claims to have been a parliamentary advisor to Liliana Mincă (ex-PC, PP-DD, UNPR, PSD), the former head of the Romanian Lottery, from where she was fired after only 5 months because of conspiracies related to the Hexi Pharma scandal, including that the company was making drugs and that the owner Dan Condrea who died after crashing his car into a tree was, in fact, still alive. See here Liliana Mincă’s statement of May 27, 2016:
- „WARNING: Hexi produces drugs. Drugs I said! The network is international and the beneficiaries of the money in Cyprus are not the corrupt Romanians but exactly the Brussels colleagues of the wonderful technocrat government, and the information from the SRI (in fact the true defender of Romania’s interests, but in which you are all now throwing stones in an absolutely filthy way!) was on two directions regarding Hexi Pharma”, wrote „Raisa” quoted by Cotidianul. She also praised Gabriel Oprea and called him „Romania’s brand”.
„Raisa” is being promoted by Realitatea Plus moderator Anca Alexandrescu, who announced that she will have her as a guest on her show on Monday, January 20, the day Donald Trump will be inaugurated. It should be noted that this day is an important date among extremists and followers of Călin Georgescu who are making threats on social media about „what will follow” Trump’s inauguration.
Also worth mentioning here is the involvement of Elon Musk, Trump’s close ally and part of the incoming administration, in elections in several European countries, where he supports far-right parties or candidates. See details here. What’s more, Elon Musk has redistributed on his social network, X, a fake news related to the annulment of the Romanian presidential elections, SpotMedia reports. In fact, X is the network where „Raisa” has relocated after her TikTok was shut down, where she urges her supporters, through her Telegram group, to follow her.
The woman is also supported by Cozmin Gusa, Marius Ghilezan and Gelu Visan, who are all rolling out the same type of conspiracy, anti-Western and pro-Russian messages. On her YouTube account, „Raisa”, who describes herself on her blog as a „journalist specializing in military investigations” on „Exploziv News” or „Exploziv Știri” (without a website for the name of the publication or any investigation by the author), publishes, among other things, Russian songs with photos of herself with weapons or „patriotic” songs illustrated with images of dictators Nicolae Ceausescu and Ion Antonescu, the author of the Holocaust in Romania.
As a „journalist”, the woman had Diana Șoșoacă, head of the extremist party S.O.S. Romania, and Dumitru Coarnă (ex-AUR) as her guests, and is also supported by Mihai Lasca (ex-AUR, now Patrioții Poporții Poporului Român – PPR): „Raisa Ekaterina Ivatenko (Raisa 8283) opens the files of the criminal traitors! The Hydra is cornered!”, Lasca says on TikTok.
„Raisa” is also supported by Aurelian Pavelescu, the head of PNȚC, who distributed on Facebook a post titled „RAISA 8283 RAISA – APOCALYPSE HAS BEGUN! „PATRIA A PRIORI!”
- „Former senior officer in the Defense Division of MApN, account Raisa 8283, gave the signal for the counter-state coup, from the Romanian secret services. The counter-state coup not only against the CCR coup to annul the presidential elections, but against the octopus of corruption, robbery and crime that has brought Romania to its knees for 35 years. The patriots in the secret services have come out on the attack,” reads the PNȚCD leader’s post. It should be noted that PNȚCD supports the pro-Russian candidate with a legionary discourse, Călin Georgescu.
„Raisa” is creating a true cult of personality for Vladimir Putin on social media with posts about how he „deplores Romania’s fate”, as well as with collages generated with AI and photo cutouts in which the woman appears on the arm of the Russian dictator who has been in power for 25 years.
She also writes the names of institutions or entities that do not exist, such as the „Special Investigation Brigade on Romanian Security”:
What we know from TikTok
The TikTok account where her virality has suddenly and rapidly gone viral in recent times had over 1.3 million likes, over 140,000 followers, and reactions to the page were growing exponentially by the hour. The account was recently closed.
The fact that her TikTok account was shut down for a few hours and then indefinitely has boosted her popularity immensely, turning her into a „victim of censorship”, as her fans on the Chinese network claim.
The main reason why „Raisa” suddenly became so popular in such a short period of time was the messianic position she set herself up in, as the holder of the „truth” about situations and events with major emotional impact (see Colectiv or the COVID-19 pandemic, the annulment of elections, the extension of Klaus Iohannis’ term as president, etc.), but also the airing of conspiracy theories.
Once accessed her page or any other contact with her TikTok page, the posts about and from „Raisa” come in waves, just as it happened with Călin Georgescu.
No concrete hashtag is used in the hundreds of videos about her monitored by G4Media and ISE reporters, but the simple „#raisa”, which does not necessarily refer to her but was used for other purposes, has been overused lately (about 125,000 uses).
„Raisa” was also popular on social networks during the coronavirus pandemic because of her numerous pro-Putin messages, and her posts reached the feeds of Romanian users via conspiracy bubbles.
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