During the past years and increasingly in the last months, Romania was subject to a sustained campaign of manipulation and informational interference of foreign origin aimed at influencing the country’s public opinion and, more recently, its elections, according to a Romanian Foreign Ministry note.
This campaign is still ongoing and has all the hallmarks of Russian disinformation and covert anti-NATO and anti-EU propaganda campaigns, the ministry added.
The statement came after a doctored Euronews story was circulated in social media, falsely showing that Romania had warned French authorities about interference in the second round of the Romanian presidential election last Sunday. The clip circulated on social media after the vote.
The fake “Euronews” article is in itself a standard of the Russian hybrid toolkit, the Romanian Foreign Ministry explained.
“It belongs to a known set of tactics, techniques, and procedures associated with Kremlin orchestrated campaigns like the Doppelgänger network,” the ministry’s note reads.
In related news, president-elect Nicușor Dan declared that Romania had been a victim of Russia’s hybrid war for “at least 10 years”, which is why “we must act systematically.”
“In my opinion, we have been the victim of this hybrid warfare aggression for at least 10 years. Again, as in many other areas, we need to act systematically,” the president-elect said, quoted by Euronews Romania in the context of the fake story.
iulian@romania-insider.com
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