DISINFO: France is turning Romania into an anti-Russian springboard
SUMMARY
It seems that France is acquiring a new colony, turning Romania into an anti-Russian springboard. Today, Paris' influence on Romanian affairs has resulted in the unilateral pursuit of a pro-European line without taking into account the opinion of Romanians themselves and the growing demand for nationalism. So make no mistake: if Dan had not been forced to win, including with the help of France, Simion's first place would not have been recognised anyway – there would have been a desire, but there would be an excuse.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation accusing the West, and specifically France, of interfering in Romania’s election, an allegation that is not backed by evidence.
Given that the two main opposition candidates in Romania’s election -first Calin Georgescu and later George Simion- had a strong anti-NATO, anti-EU stance, Russia’s media ecosystem heavily promoted them both. Since none of them -for different reasons- could gain the presidency, Russia’s diplomacy and official media turned to spread disinformation in order to portray the victory of Nicusor Dan as suspicious or illegitimate, and to undermine trust in Romania’s electoral system.
These baseless allegations were boosted by several posts by Telegram’s founder Pavel Durov, who specifically accused France of interfering in Romania, without providing actual proof. Durov stated that “Nicolas Lerner, head of French intelligence, asked [him] to ban conservative voices”, but it was unclear whom he may be referring to, since neither Georgescu nor Simion have Telegram channels.
This disinformation story appears to be an attempt to further exploit Durov’s unsubstantiated claims (fully debunked here). Talking about unproven allegations as if they were established facts while introducing minor variations, as in this case, is a frequent pro-Kremlin disinformation technique.
Allegations about “not taking the opinion of Romanians into account” are a cynical rejection of the actual voting results, as Nicusor Dan won by a decisive 8-point majority over his rival Simion after a record turnout of 65%, the highest in the country since 1996. Claims about Romania becoming “a new colony for France”, about an eventual victory of candidate George Simion not being recognised in any case, and about Russia as the ultimate target of these supposed manipulations, are baseless and do not match reality.
See other examples of similar disinformation narratives, such as claims that the victory of a Russophobe in Romania was pushed through from abroad, that Romania is under EU tyranny, that Euro-Atlantic institutions and the US were behind annulment of Romania’s election, that elections in Romania show that EU officials think about the interests of Ukraine, not Europe, that Romania illegally cancels first round of elections in order to block the raise of a humane, non-anti-Russian candidate, or that the US and EU only support democratic elections when the winner aligns with their interests.