On 6 December 2024 Romania’s Constitutional Court (CCR) cancelled the country’s presidential election while runoff voting was already underway in the diaspora. Domestically and internationally, this was justified on the basis of “Russian interference” in the first round, held on 24 November, when little-known independent candidate Calin Georgescu had shockingly topped the poll.
The Trump-aligned Georgescu, widely accused by the mainstream media of pro-Russia views, was running on a very effective nationalist, pro-peace platform. He was set to win the second round on 8 December and become president – before the entire process was brought to a halt by the politically-appointed CCR justices, ostensibly because the 24 November result had somehow been vitiated by a Russian “influence operation”.
The official claim of Russian meddling rested directly and exclusively on a specific set of intelligence documents on the matter, first submitted in a closed National Security Council meeting on 28 November and then hastily declassified on 4 December by the sitting President in order to “inform” the Constitutional Court’s decision. But the reports contained no actual evidence of the sort.
It is therefore important to look closely at what these documents actually say (and don’t say), and to put it on the record for future reference and for comparison with the misleading media narrative that was spun up around them. Below is a detailed, full analysis of the declassified intelligence on the supposed “Russian electoral interference” that lies at the heart of the Romanian election scandal.
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