USA Calls for Investigation into Russia’s “Malicious” Interference in Romania’s Elections

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RKS NEWS 4 Min Read
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The United States has called for a full investigation into Moscow’s efforts to influence the parliamentary and presidential elections in Romania, after documents released on Wednesday revealed that the country was targeted by a “hybrid aggression operation by Russia,” which contributed to the surprising victory of a pro-Russian candidate last month.

Romania’s Supreme Council for National Defense (CSAT) released classified documents, stating that they showed NATO and EU member Romania had been the focus of various coordinated actions ahead of the first round of the presidential elections on November 24, which was won by Calin Georgescu.

The Council said Georgescu won due to a coordinated social media campaign, which was most likely orchestrated by a “state actor.”

In the parliamentary elections held a week later, pro-Russian parties saw a significant rise, taking around one-third of the votes, although pro-European parties appear to have garnered enough support to form the governing coalition.

On December 8, voters will decide the winner of the presidential election in a runoff between Georgescu and pro-European candidate Elena Lasconi.

According to the declassified documents, Romania’s intelligence service believes Georgescu was massively promoted on TikTok with Russian backing through various methods, including coordinated accounts, algorithms to boost his presence on the platform, and paid promotion.

The documents explain how Georgescu’s popularity rose from 1% just before the race to 22%, through a large-scale manipulation operation that involved influencers and deceived Romanian institutions as well as regular voters.

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said that while the United States does not interfere in the choices of the Romanian people or the electoral process, Washington is “concerned by the CSAT report of Russia’s involvement in malicious cyber activities aimed at influencing the integrity of Romania’s electoral process.”

Miller stated that Romania is a strong NATO ally and the U.S. values its contributions to the security of the alliance. He emphasized that the country’s hard-earned position in the transatlantic community cannot be altered “by foreign actors seeking to divert Romania’s foreign policy from its western alliances.”

Such a shift in policy would have “serious negative consequences for U.S.-Romania cooperation on security,” Miller said.

The declassified documents reveal that influencers on TikTok were recruited to promote Georgescu, both directly by publicly supporting him and indirectly through neutral messages containing hashtags related to him.

Dozens of TikTok accounts were found using the logo of Romania’s intelligence service and the title “Counter-Terrorism Brigade” (BAT), each with thousands of followers and over 100,000 likes.

Romanian intelligence services hinted that significant sums of money were spent on this operation. Georgescu has declared to Romanian electoral authorities that he did not spend anything on his campaign.

The intelligence service linked the operation to Russia, noting that access data for Romania’s official election websites had been published on Russian cybercrime platforms. The access data were likely obtained by targeting legitimate users or exploiting legitimate training servers, said the intelligence service.

Russia has denied any interference in Romania’s elections.

The State Department’s statement noted that the U.S. had been “closely monitoring the elections in Romania” and that it “will continue to work together with Romanian authorities to safeguard the security of our nations and the well-being of our citizens.”

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