Moldovan President Maia Sandu said she would vote to reunify with Romania if the issue ever goes to a referendum, saying it was becoming harder for her country to “survive” on its own.  With a population of about 2.4 million people sandwiched between Romania and Ukraine, Moldova has become a target for Russian hybrid warfare, including disinformation and election manipulation.   “If we have a referendum, I would vote for the unification with Romania,” Sandu, who leads the pro-European government in Chișinău, told British podcast The Rest is Politics. “Look at what’s happening around Moldova today. Look at what’s happening in the world,” she explained. “It is getting more and more difficult for a small country like Moldova to survive as a democracy, as a sovereign country, and of course to resist Russia.”  Moldova was part of Romania from 1918 until 1940, when it was annexed by the USSR, before declaring independence in 1991 after the fall of the Iron Curtain. At a referendum in 2024, a narrow majority of Moldovans — 50.4 percent — voted in favor of EU membership in a vote marred by Russian interference. Sandu won reelection as president in a parallel vote with around 55 percent of the vote, defeating her pro-Russian opponent.  Despite voicing her personal support, Sandu added that she accepted the idea of reunification with Romania was not supported by a majority in Moldova — unlike joining the EU, which the country applied to do in 2022, and which she called a “more realistic objective.”  Polls show around two-thirds of Moldovans oppose reunification, while support is traditionally higher in Romania. 

Center-right politician Ciprian Ciucu will be Bucharest’s new mayor after defeating a far-right candidate in Sunday elections. Ciucu, the candidate of the center-right National Liberal Party and a close ally of Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan, won roughly 36 percent of the vote. Ciucu defeated Anca Alexandrescu, a TV presenter backed by Romania’s largest far-right party (AUR), who finished second with about 22 percent. The Social Democratic Party’s candidate Daniel Băluță came third, despite being projected to win in many opinion polls. Ciucu’s victory could help ease the pressure on Bolojan, who has been trying to pass unpopular austerity measures — including higher taxes and cutting public sector jobs — to reduce a budget deficit that has reached 9 percent of GDP. Opposition parties have filed a no-confidence motion in Bolojan over plans to reform the pension system, which will take place on Dec. 15. “Beyond this victory, it’s probably a good thing that this coalition will continue. The government has promised reforms, and it’s time to implement them,” Ciucu said on Sunday. “From my political position, I will help ensure these reforms are carried out,” he added. Bucharest was previously led by independent liberal Nicușor Dan, who left the role to become Romanian president in May. Romania’s politics was thrown into chaos after an ultranationalist TikTok candidate came out of obscurity to win the first round of the presidential race in November 2024. The election was ultimately cancelled on suspicion of Russian interference, with a court ordering a do-over.

Romania’s Defense Minister Ionuț Moșteanu resigned Friday over false claims on his resume, marking the second time in recent weeks that a NATO country close to Russia has had to change its defense leadership. “Romania and Europe are under attack from Russia. Our national security must be defended at all costs. I do not want discussions about my education and the mistakes I made many years ago to distract those who are now leading the country from their difficult mission,” he said. According to local media, Moșteanu wrote in his official resume that he graduated from Athenaeum University in Bucharest even though he never attended the school. He also added the Faculty of Automation at the Polytechnic University of Bucharest to his CV despite dropping out. Moșteanu’s resignation just months into the job follows the ousting of Dovilė Šakalienė as Lithuania’s defense minister over a dispute about the Baltic country’s defense budget — and as Europe mulls how to respond to intensifying Russian hybrid attacks. Romania’s Economy Minister Radu Miruță is expected to take over the defense portfolio on an interim basis, the government said. Moșteanu’s departure comes with Romania facing regular Russian drone incursions. Bucharest is also 48 hours away from a deadline for EU countries to submit a plan to the European Commission for how they will spend money from the EU’s loans-for-weapons SAFE program. Romania is set to be the second-largest beneficiary of the scheme, in line for a €16.6 billion pot of cash.

Romanian prosecutors on Tuesday charged Călin Georgescu — who rose from obscurity to win the first round of a presidential election before being barred from running — with planning a violent coup. The charges stem from a dramatic police operation in December 2024, when officers intercepted 21 people, some armed with knives and guns, heading to Bucharest. Romanian prosecutors said in a press release that the armed group was planning to instigate clashes and carry out “violent actions of a subversive nature”, and endanger national security and the “constitutional order.” Georgescu was not named in the press release but has been identified by Romanian media as one of the plotters of the coup along with Horaţiu Potra, the leader of a paramilitary group. The press release refers to him as a “former presidential candidate.” Prosecutors said Georgescu and Potra met on Dec. 7 to mastermind the coup after the Constitutional Court on Dec. 6 annulled the first round of November’s presidential election, which Georgescu won, due to an alleged Russian influence operation. Georgescu, a far-right firebrand and NATO skeptic, was later disqualified from running in the do-over May election. The court decisions threw Romania into political chaos, with thousands taking to the streets across the country. According to the prosecutors, Georgescu aimed to exploit the ensuing “maximum social tension” to generate further unrest and “change the constitutional order or to make it more difficult or prevent the exercise of state power.” All 21 participants in the alleged coup attempt, who are members of Potra’s paramilitary group, will face trial. Potra’s whereabouts are unknown but Romanian authorities believe he is seeking asylum in Russia, Romania’s Prosecutor General Alex Florenta said at a press conference on Tuesday. Florenta added Romania was “was the favorite target of extensive, hybrid campaigns” by Moscow, including cyberattacks and disinformation, to disrupt the 2024 election.

Former Romanian presidential candidate Călin Georgescu was indicted on Wednesday for endorsing fascist propaganda, according to a press release from a prosecution office attached to the High Court of Cassation and Justice. Prosecutors allege that between June 16, 2020 and May 16, 2025, Georgescu repeatedly endorsed fascist ideas through a series of interviews, online posts and public speeches. He is also accused of glorifying extremist historical figures such as Marshal Ion Antonescu — the leader of Romania’s World War II fascist government and a convicted war criminal — and Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, the founder of Romania’s interwar Iron Guard, a fascist paramilitary group. If convicted, Georgescu faces between three months and three years in prison, or possibly longer due to the continuous nature of the alleged offenses. The case, filed with the Sector 1 Court in Bucharest, addresses only the charge of “legionary propaganda” related to Romania’s National Legionary State, which ruled the country for five months from 1940 to 1941. But Georgescu remains under investigation for other serious offenses including allegedly attempting to overthrow the constitutional order. A hard-line ultranationalist and a vocal opponent of the EU and NATO, Georgescu surged to prominence during Romania’s November 2024 presidential election in which he won 22.9 percent of the vote in the first round. The country’s Constitutional Court later annulled the results, citing credible evidence of foreign interference — including alleged Russian-backed influence operations and a coordinated disinformation campaign on TikTok. The election was subsequently rescheduled for May but Georgescu was barred from running again and announced he was stepping away from politics.

Mark Gitenstein (ret, 2009-2012), Adrian Zuckerman (ret, 2019-2021) and Jim Rosapepe (ret, 1998-2001) are all former U.S. ambassadors to Romania. We all know Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine with tanks in 2022. But many don’t know that in 2024, he invaded Romania — with tweets. In both cases he failed — for now. But Putin’s aggression is focused on the U.S. and all its allies. He’s spending millions of dollars, bombarding European voters with manipulative social media and disinformation campaigns on a mass scale. It’s a new type of warfare on democracy that eliminates the need to roll tanks into capitals. Putin’s constantly evolving playbook is the result of his failed military campaign to capture Kyiv and strangle Ukrainian democracy. He ran into Ukraine’s indominable resilience, and as a result, he began deploying a long-standing Russian (and Soviet) strategy to destroy Western democracies from within by supporting and cultivating pro-Putin political candidates. And TikTok, Telegram and other social media channels are now weapons in this new kind of war. Never far from his KGB roots, the Russian president realizes public opinion can be manipulated and shaped by political proxies and propaganda beholden to Russia’s strongman. One only need examine Romania’s recent election to confirm this sinister truth. Back in 2024, Putin spent millions to elect a pro-Russian president in Romania. His method: infiltrate elections, support authoritarian-leaning candidates and manipulate digital platforms to bend public perception. So, the Russian leader boosted candidate Călin Georgescu from obscurity, and in just two weeks, Georgescu had captured 21 percent of the vote, leaving a divided field of 15 candidates stunned. Violating common sense, reality, as well as Romanian law, Georgescu claimed he neither raised campaign contributions nor incurred campaign expenses. Instead, he had a malevolent benefactor in Putin. The social media blitzkrieg consisted of “misinformation” and a multimillion dollar Leninist-style effort to destroy democracy in Romania. The effort’s design also included undermining U.S., NATO and EU security interests. And it was just in time that this stealth invasion of Romania’s electoral process was uncovered by Romanian and other Western intelligence services. Citing serious violations of electoral law and foreign interference, the country’s constitutional court annulled the first round of the election and ordered a do-over. When the second round was held, voter turnout surged past the average 51 percent to nearly 65 percent, as Romanians responded to the crisis with clarity and courage. They rejected Putin’s candidate and chose the democratic, pro-NATO path by a decisive 54 percent to 46 percent margin. Together with a bipartisan group of seven former U.S. ambassadors to Romania, we had publicly urged Romanians to reject Putin’s candidate. We couldn’t silently stand by and allow the patently false Russia-driven propaganda to go unchallenged. “We saw first-hand Romania’s successful climb from Russian imposed dictatorship to freedom, and integration with the rest of Europe in the EU and alliance with the U.S. through NATO,” we wrote in an open letter. While Putin’s efforts in Romania eventually miserably failed, but real damage could have been done. | Daniel Mihailescu/AFP via Getty Images We recognized the opportunity to accurately frame the historic choice Romanians were going to have to make at the polls, and we made the stakes clear: “Under Putin, Russia is again on the march. First invading Ukraine. Will Romania be its next target as it was Stalin’s? . . . Romanians face a clear historic choice: domination by Russia or your own future allied with America in NATO.” While Putin’s efforts in Romania eventually miserably failed, but real damage could have been done. Fortunately, the country’s democratic institutions and voices refused to be cowed by his latest tactics. And we now encourage others to raise their voices to counter Putin’s attempts to decapitate democracy at the ballot box. Romanians rightly took responsibility for their own future — and they chose freedom and prosperity over Putinism. After Nicusor Dan’s victory in the presidential race, U.S. President Donald Trump reassured Romanians that he would “strengthen our ties with Romania, support our military partnership, and promote and defend America’s economic and security interests abroad.” Unfortunately, too many people who should know better are still cozying up to Putin, backing his pro-Russian candidates and undermining the security of the U.S. and other democratic allies. Elon Musk protégé Mario Nawfal was in Moscow in May, while tech billionaire Elon Musk’s father and controversial American right-wing commentators Jackson Hinkle and Alex Jones attended the Future 2050 forum in Moscow in June. Speaking at the forum were numerous Putin allies: right-wing Russian philosopher Alexander Dugin, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov and former president Dmitry Medvedev. The Romanian battle was won, but Putin’s war on democracy continues. Who’s next on his list? This fall’s elections in Moldova, Estonia, Georgia, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic and other European nations are all ripe for interference. But before his propaganda can take hold, it’s imperative to crack down on his violations of election laws. The fight for democracy now extends to cyberspace, where Putin’s invasion tactics must be thwarted, just as they’ve been on the battlefield. The new battlefield is online, and the stakes are democratic sovereignty. The lesson from Romania is clear: The best defense against propaganda is truth — and the courage to speak it.

Romanian President Nicușor Dan nominated Ilie Bolojan, a center-right National Liberal Party politician who served as acting president until Romania elected Dan to the role a month ago, for the prime ministerial post. His nomination on Friday comes after more than a month of political deadlock. Bolojan now has to form a government and receive approval from the parliament. All four pro-European parties in the parliament are expected to join the government, with the prime ministerial post possibly rotating to the Social Democratic Party in 2027. The center-right Union Save Romania and the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania will also join the coalition.  Former Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu resigned May 5 and his Social Democratic Party withdrew from the government after a presidential candidate backed by the mainstream coalition failed to qualify for the second round of the presidential election. Dan, who ran as a centrist independent, subsequently beat hard-right nationalist George Simion in a nail-biter vote to keep Romania on its pro-Brussels, pro-NATO path. Right-wing parties had previously surged in last December’s parliamentary election, forcing pro-Western parties to look past their disagreements and form a fragile government. After winning the presidency on May 18, Dan pledged to help four pro-European parties form a new governing coalition. He later held several rounds of talks with party leaders and helped broker their agreement. Dan’s victory and the establishment of a pro-Western government now appear to offer a path to political stability for Romania. The new government will have to tackle Romania’s crippling budget deficit, running at over 9 percent of gross domestic product in 2024. The European Commission recently reprimanded the country for breaking EU limits on government spending. Addressing the deficit may prove difficult, however. The governing parties and the president are leery of taking unpopular steps, such as hiking taxes. “I hope we will reach to the tax side as little as possible,” Dan said recently. Prime Minister-designate Bolojan, who is “known for his technocratic efficiency and willingness to make difficult decisions,” will need to manage a politically diverse coalition while also implementing unpopular fiscal measures, wrote analysts at The Smartlink, a Romanian strategy consultancy, putting his leadership to the test. “Bolojan is the most suitable person” to address the budget deficit, Dan said when nominating the prime minister. “He is a person who, through the positions he has held, has proven that he knows how to reduce and streamline spending … and will have a partner in me.” Bolojan said he will continue negotiations with the four parties to finalize the governing program. Carmen Paun contributed to this report.

Romanian election disruptor Călin Georgescu announced late Monday that he was stepping away from politics. “The elections for the position of president of Romania in 2025 have ended. Along with them, I have chosen to end my active involvement in the political process, considering that this phase of the sovereignist movement has ended,” Georgescu said in a video. Georgescu, who won the first round of the Romanian presidential election in November 2024 before it was annulled, said he wanted to dedicate more time to his family. “It is not a resignation, but a responsible choice,” he added. In the first round of the 2024 election, Georgescu surged from obscurity to snatch 22.9 percent of the vote. However, Romania’s Constitutional Court canceled the election, citing credible evidence of foreign interference in his favor. Georgescu, an ultranationalist, anti-EU and anti-NATO candidate, was reportedly boosted by Russian interference and a hybrid influence campaign on TikTok. He was barred from running again in the rescheduled May 2025 election, and faces criminal charges related to the suspected promotion of fascist ideologies. The election annulment and Georgescu’s subsequent ban from taking part in the rescheduled election stirred up right-wing outrage around the world, including from senior figures in Washington such as billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk and Vice President JD Vance. Expressing gratitude to his supporters, Georgescu emphasized he does not plan to join any political party or movement. “However, if I see that the rights of those who have chosen differently are violated, I will get involved again with a clear voice to defend the principles of democracy and freedom,” he said. In the May 2025 do-over election, moderate candidate Nicuşor Dan defeated Georgescu’s hard-right ally George Simion, winning with over 53 percent of the vote.

Romania’s constitutional court threw out defeated far-right candidate George Simion’s challenge to the result of Sunday’s presidential election. Simion announced Tuesday he would contest the outcome, claiming foreign interference by France and Moldova and voter fraud had influenced the contest, without providing evidence. But his request to annul the result was unanimously rejected, the court said on Thursday, paving the way for the inauguration of winner, centrist Bucharest mayor Nicușor Dan. Simion denounced the ruling as a “coup” in a statement on social media and called on his supporters to “fight” in the coming days and weeks. Dan told local media “it was clear from the beginning to everyone” that Simion’s legal challenge was “completely artificial.” Romania’s presidential election last November was annulled by the constitutional court after concerns over Russian meddling and a TikTok campaign that the Romanian authorities said boosted far-right candidate Călin Georgescu. A do-over election was ordered, which saw Simion and Dan face off last Sunday and ultimately resulted in Dan’s victory.

Romanian far-right leader George Simion announced Tuesday he will contest his defeat in last Sunday’s presidential election. Centrist Bucharest Mayor Nicușor Dan won the second round of the vote, which was rerun after a first election last November was annulled over concerns about Russian interference. “We will contest the election at the Constitutional Court for the same reasons they annulled the elections in December,” Simion said. This story is being updated. Carmen Paun contributed reporting.