Romania’s Top Prosecutor Says Russia Influenced 2024 Election

Russ­ian inter­fer­ence in Roman­ian elec­tions is at the cen­ter of a major claim by Romania’s top pros­e­cu­tor. On 16 Sep­tem­ber 2025, Roma­nia Insid­er report­ed that Gen­er­al Pros­e­cu­tor Alex Flo­rența stat­ed the 2024 pres­i­den­tial elec­tion was influ­enced by Russ­ian hybrid war­fare before it was ulti­mate­ly can­celled. Flo­rența cit­ed cyber activ­i­ty, AI-gen­er­at­ed dis­in­for­ma­tion, and coor­di­nat­ed online manip­u­la­tion as fac­tors that com­pro­mised the vote. The arti­cle begins:

The pres­i­den­tial elec­tions held in Novem­ber 2024 in Roma­nia were influ­enced by a large-scale hybrid war orches­trat­ed by Rus­sia before they were can­celled, accord­ing to gen­er­al pros­e­cu­tor Alex Flo­rența. Romania’s pres­i­den­tial elec­tion was annulled last Decem­ber after declas­si­fied reports alleged Russ­ian involve­ment in cyber activ­i­ties aimed at under­min­ing the integri­ty of the elec­toral process. The annul­ment grave­ly impact­ed Roma­ni­ans’ trust in the demo­c­ra­t­ic process, but was nec­es­sary, accord­ing to the Con­sti­tu­tion­al Court, due to for­eign inter­fer­ence. The Russ­ian involve­ment came in the form of an aggres­sive online cam­paign, car­ried out through bots and trolls, meant to fuel social ten­sions and incite hate mes­sages. The same process is still unfold­ing, accord­ing to Alex Florența.

Read more: https://www.romania-insider.com/romania-cancelled-presidential-elections-russia-general-prosecutor-2025

Key Points

• Roma­nia annulled its 2024 pres­i­den­tial elec­tion due to con­firmed Russ­ian cyber and dis­in­for­ma­tion operations.
• Hybrid tac­tics includ­ed AI-gen­er­at­ed hate con­tent, bot net­works, and micro­tar­get­ed nar­ra­tives via troll farms.
• Far-right can­di­date Calin Georges­cu now faces tri­al for com­plic­i­ty in an attempt­ed coup linked to these events.
• Offi­cials iden­ti­fied four Rus­sia-linked firms and the­mat­ic pro­pa­gan­da span­ning iden­ti­ty, reli­gion, and conspiracy.

Russian Election Interference and Hybrid Tactics in Romania

Russ­ian inter­fer­ence in Romania’s elec­toral pol­i­tics has exposed both the per­sis­tence of Krem­lin oper­a­tions and the resilience of Roman­ian insti­tu­tions. Meta uncov­ered fake per­sonas push­ing coor­di­nat­ed dis­in­for­ma­tion into Roman­ian debates, and ana­lysts judged the 2025 con­test a seri­ous set­back for Moscow’s influ­ence strat­e­gy. Beyond these dis­rup­tions, Romania’s Con­sti­tu­tion­al Court annulled the 2024 pres­i­den­tial elec­tion after rul­ing that Russ­ian hybrid actions had taint­ed the out­come, an unprece­dent­ed deci­sion that high­light­ed judi­cial defens­es of demo­c­ra­t­ic integrity.

Sub­se­quent elec­tions saw far-right can­di­date Călin Georges­cu main­tain strong momen­tum, reflect­ing how dis­in­for­ma­tion cam­paigns ampli­fied out­sider fig­ures and shift­ed the polit­i­cal land­scape. Ana­lysts at Euro­pean think tanks stress that Russia’s approach fused dig­i­tal manip­u­la­tion with tra­di­tion­al pro­pa­gan­da, show­ing how hybrid war­fare through dis­in­for­ma­tion has become a cen­tral tac­tic for Moscow in front­line NATO states.

Exter­nal References:

• Roman­ian court annuls pres­i­den­tial vote after Russ­ian inter­fer­ence claims
• Hard-right can­di­date leads field as new Roma­nia elec­tion cam­paign begins
• The case of Romania’s pres­i­den­tial elec­tion: pro­pa­gan­da, dis­in­for­ma­tion & hybrid warfare 

Dis­claimer

The Glob­al Influ­ence Oper­a­tions Report (GIOR) employs AI through­out the post­ing process, includ­ing gen­er­at­ing sum­maries of news items, the intro­duc­tion, key points, and often the “con­text” sec­tion. We rec­om­mend ver­i­fy­ing all infor­ma­tion before use. Addi­tion­al­ly, images are AI-gen­er­at­ed and intend­ed sole­ly for illus­tra­tive pur­pos­es. While they rep­re­sent the events or indi­vid­u­als dis­cussed, they should not be inter­pret­ed as real-world photography.