Romanian intelligence tells of Russian interference in presidential elections
Kyiv • UNN
Romanian intelligence services have uncovered a large-scale Russian campaign to support candidate Kelin Georgescu through TikTok. More than a million euros were spent on promotion through a network of paid accounts.
Romania's Supreme Council of National Defense has declassified documents of the Romanian special services related to the election campaign of far-right presidential candidate Kelin Georgescu. This was reported on Wednesday by Radio Liberty, UNN reports.
Details
According to the documents, Romania was the target of "aggressive Russian hybrid actions," in particular against the Central Electoral Bureau and the Permanent Electoral Authority, on the day and night of the November 24 presidential election.
Also, according to intelligence, TikTok informed the Romanian authorities about the discovery of a network of accounts linked to the Russian state media outlet Sputnik, with users in Romania and Moldova as the target audience.
The investigation shows that Georgescu was supported by tens of thousands of TikTok accounts in his campaign for the first round of the presidential election. According to Romanian intelligence, Georgescu's aggressive campaign was conducted using social media algorithms, which allowed him to dramatically increase his popularity. The active phase of the campaign to manipulate public opinion began about two weeks before the election.
Candidate Georgescu officially declared "zero" expenses, but it turned out that one of the TikTok accounts, bogpr, owned by Romanian citizen Bogdan Pesir, financed the campaign for more than a million euros, the publication said. TikTok has confirmed payments of $381,000 for the period from October 24 to November 24, sent to users who participated in the promotion of Georgescu.
Users received rewards through the FameUp platform, as well as through the South African company FA Agency, which offered a thousand euros for sharing videos.
The day after the first round of the Romanian presidential election, Radio Liberty's Romanian service drew attention to the thousands of followers of Georgescu on TikTok. A few weeks before the election, these platform users had not mentioned the candidate.
Recall
Independent candidate Kelin Gheorgescu, known for his criticism of the EU and support for Ukraine, leads after the first round of elections in Romania. In the second round, he will compete with Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu.
