Romanian MEP Șoșoacă broadcasts from Moscow, praises Russian 'freedom' on Facebook, a platform blocked in Russia

The Facebook Live from Red Square

Diana Șoșoacă, a Romanian MEP and leader of the SOS Romania party, broadcast a nearly 90-minute Facebook Live from central Moscow on Saturday. She appeared alongside party deputy Mihai Adrian Țiu and several guides, showing viewers the Kremlin and the area around Red Square. During the stream she repeatedly praised the city as a model of efficiency, order and development.

Good afternoon from Moscow, I embrace you with love. Let me show you how beautiful Moscow is. Look, here's the Kremlin, look how cool Moscow is.

She described Red Square as "something out of a dream" and claimed that very many Europeans are applying for Russian citizenship because "you don't find woke politics here." The broadcast drew thousands of reactions and divided comments, with some followers calling her a traitor and others hailing her as "the iron lady."

Praising Moscow, attacking Emil Boc

Șoșoacă spent much of the stream comparing Russia favourably with Romania. She marvelled at the city's cleanliness, saying she struggled for five minutes to find a single piece of litter on the pavement, and praised the punctuality and air-conditioned buses. She also zeroed in on the mayor of Cluj-Napoca, Emil Boc, a former Romanian prime minister.

See, Boc, you idiot, when are you going to make Cluj like this and when will you have so much culture? Not Sorosist culture. How dare you talk about Russia?

She went on to accuse him of dismantling hospitals in 2009 and impoverishing Romania's population, ending with the phrase "you'd better abort yourself."

A delegation with a pro-Russian record

The visit is part of a trip by an SOS Romania delegation that has already included a stop at the State Duma. Other delegation members named by Romanian media are Sorin George Oltenașu, Elena Laura Toader and Nicolae Mirel Ion. Șoșoacă is widely known as Romania's most prominent pro-Russian politician. She has frequently visited the Russian ambassador in Bucharest and previously appeared at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum to praise Vladimir Putin.

Look how beautiful it is. Look how many people there are. And there is no litter on the ground. These people are extremely civilised.

The blocked-platform irony

The central paradox of the live stream is that Șoșoacă used Facebook to extol freedom in Russia. The platform, along with Instagram, has been blocked in Russia since 2022, and Meta itself was declared an "extremist organisation" by a Moscow court. Russian law carries prison sentences for involvement with extremist organisations. During the stream, Șoșoacă initially celebrated that her "live" was working, then blamed unnamed others when it cut out, without mentioning the ban.

She also spoke of investments and a free market. In reality, the Russian economy operates under Western sanctions, heavy military spending and growing state control, with capital controls introduced after the invasion of Ukraine and forced takeovers of assets from "unfriendly" countries.