Bucharest accuses Moscow of subversion
Six people have been arrested in Romania on suspicion of treason and collusion with Russia. The move comes after the Russian military attaché and his deputy were expelled. According to an Italian intelligence service report, Russia orchestrated numerous hybrid attacks aimed at bolstering the far-right former presidential candidate Călin Georgescu. Moscow's foreign intelligence service SVR has now accused the EU leadership of pressuring Romania into bringing charges against Georgescu.
Intelligence services infiltrated or just inefficient?
For the Romanian service of Deutsche Welle many questions remain unanswered:
“How was it possible for so many people to be involved in manipulating the 24 November presidential election without the Romanian intelligence service SRI noticing? How was Russia able to orchestrate this without the Foreign Intelligence Service getting wind of it? Were there also betrayals within these structures, or are the services supposedly responsible for Romania's security simply inefficient? Parliament should launch a serious investigation of these services and find the loopholes.”
Europe's liberal democracies besieged on two fronts
Romania has become the focus of attempts to manipulate public opinion from abroad, states RFI's Romanian Service:
“The Italian report, and also a recent French report, offer sufficient counter-arguments for all those who believe that the annulment of the presidential election in November/December was unfounded. But the message from these reports should be heeded far beyond Romania's borders. Not only Romania but the entire EU is currently under attack from two directions: Moscow and Washington. The real targets of these attacks are liberal democracies and European values.”
"Operation Georgescu" could be over
The Russian statement means that the disruptive manoeuvre has been called off, Spotmedia surmises:
“Judging by the signal from the Kremlin, the 'Georgescu' operation is over and he will disappear from the scene as quickly as he appeared. ... In all likelihood he will leave the country very soon - the typical ending for an agent of influence who wants to evade a trial in which new revelations that carry the risk of a prison sentence could come to light.”