00:00Well, the presidential polls, as we're hearing there, had plunged Romania into political turmoil after that first round of voting was cancelled due to suspected Russian interference in the main candidate banned from running in the rerun of that race.
00:12Well, to get a greater insight into that side of the story, we can speak now to political analyst and a senior researcher fellow at the Institute for US and Canadian Studies, Alexandra Filipenko.
00:22Thanks so much for your time. Can I simply ask you this question of Russian interference in the Romanian elections?
00:30You know, how widespread do you think it was? How big an influence was that?
00:36Oh, and thank you for having me, first of all. And I would like to cite the Romania's National Security Council.
00:42Back in December 2024, they declassified some information saying that there were cyber attacks, information leaks and sabotage from Russia.
00:53It was Russian coordinated campaign in favor of pro-Putin presidential candidate.
00:59The documents were declassified by the National Security Council.
01:03And so the document said that there were more than 85,000 cyber attacks detected.
01:10And we are talking about late 2024. Of course, it intensified in 2025.
01:16And millions of euro are being transferred to Romania or any forces that are ready to somehow, if not control, then put on the chaos, chaos in the elections.
01:28That's what Kremlin wanted to see. That's what Kremlin is working on.
01:32And that's what they've been working on for some time now.
01:35In Moldova also, we've seen the same situation in Moldova.
01:40And also there, everyone saw that Moldova was the target of aggressive Russian hyper actions.
01:46And not only hyper actions, I must say.
01:48So this, even only citing the National Security Councils of different countries, we see that this is a coordinated campaign by Russia in order to put on the chaos and induce chaos in European nations.
02:04And explain it to me a bit more, because you're talking about cyber attacks.
02:08Exactly what are they attacking?
02:09You know, as an average voter, we're aware of Russian influence maybe on social media.
02:13But how exactly are they creating this chaos or confusing the public?
02:19And of course, first of all, the social media.
02:23The cyber campaign is quite vast and using different methods.
02:27And the Security Council has suggested that Russia has significant resources at its disposal.
02:34And their statement back in December 2024 said that Russia directed their actions through computer systems in more than 33 countries and used advanced anonymization techniques and not to be traced back to Russia.
02:50So those declassified documents detailed how the campaign benefited, the pro-Putin campaign benefited from social media campaign by Russia that turned into linked, that was linked to different foreign actors.
03:04They always quoted different media.
03:07So they used social media.
03:09They used different sites.
03:10They created some fake media outlets that they quoted.
03:16They worked on TikTok.
03:17They worked on different social media platforms.
03:20And of course, they worked in person.
03:23They worked with the people.
03:24They worked as bots, as trolls, internet trolls.
03:29But also, they really commented on different conversations of the people.
03:34And they were quite knowledgeable of what has been going on in Romania.
03:38They've been following it for a long time.
03:40So these hybrid actions, they also included hybrid attacks on governmental offices, for governmental offices, for different media, not to work.
03:50But the main thing was the information campaign, but rather, I would say, the disinformation campaign through social media and through fake media outlets.
04:00So how can the average public protect themselves against that?
04:04Like, are there things they can look out for to judge whether or not it's a fake or a real media organization?
04:09It is extremely difficult because if we look at Germany, for example, the Kremlin has been spending up to 2 billion euro annually on large-scale disinformation operations in Germany.
04:24These are coming from analytical reports from German intelligence services.
04:28So those funds, Russia is allocating those funds to be used to create a network of hundreds of thousands of fake social media accounts, again, falsify news sites, publish false information aimed at disorienting the Germans, disorienting Europeans in general.
04:48So it is very difficult to really see what is actually going on.
04:52The only way is to listen to media outlets like France 24 or media outlets that you know are real and have been working for many years now.
05:03So this is a real problem if we see that, again, I'm citing German intelligence services, 2 billion euro.
05:11Russia annually allocates only to work in Germany.
05:15So we understand this is a large, large-scale campaign.
05:18And, of course, the first thing is to be very careful on who you communicate with on social media and be very careful where you get your news from and really look for the news from the reliable sources.
05:32And given all of that, the amount of mistrust people are going to have and where they get their information now, they really have to analyze any new website, if you like, or move away from traditional media.
05:43We've seen in these Romanian elections, you know, Romania did take the upper hand, they did have control.
05:51And, you know, we saw that massive turnout and we saw a result that was more towards the pro-EU line.
05:58You know, overall, how much success do you think Russia is having or could have in their campaigns?
06:05Well, I must, maybe that would be too pessimistic, but I must be some kind of a pessimist.
06:14But I think that what we've seen in Georgia, in Georgian elections, is what Russia has been aiming for for many years since 2008.
06:24Since the annexation of part of Georgia in August 2008 by Russia and since the period that Georgia became a state, a more democratic, a liberal state.
06:37And Russia has been aiming at turning things around and they got their success only this year.
06:45So it's actually time to respond to, in very uncertain terms, to attempt to meddle in European elections because Russia will not stop.
06:54They will not stop there.
06:56Even though they don't see great success right now, they will not stop like they didn't stop in Georgia.
07:02We've all already seen that.
07:04Yes, it took many years, but still now we see pro-Russian government in Georgia.
07:09Georgia that was ready to become a part of the European Union, become a part of NATO.
07:15And now they're turning everything around, those pro-Putin governments of Georgia right now.
07:20So it is very, very important to be aware of Moscow's actions, of Russia's actions, because even by the example of Georgia, we see that Putin will not stop, even if he's not successful right now.
07:33But we see how much success he got, quite a lot still.
07:38And he's not successful.
07:39He was not successful in Germany with the alternative for Germany, but still he will not stop.
07:46He will not stop moving into meddling, into European elections, because if they don't get control, they want chaos.
07:53They want chaos in the European Union and in each European country.
07:57Alexandra Filippenko, we're going to have to leave you there.
07:59Thanks so much for joining us here on France 24 and bringing us your insight.
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