Think tank presents report on Russia’s hybrid operations against Ukraine in Romania

The Center for Defense Reforms and the Guildhall news agency, as part of a joint project investigating the subversive activity of Russian intelligence agencies, presented a report on special operations of Russia’s malign influence targeting Ukraine and run in Romania amid the Russo-Ukrainian war. 

That's according to Guildhall's report, seen by Ukrinform.

As analysts note, the main areas of Russian special influence operations in Romania include undermining military and technical assistance to Ukraine, worsening Romanian-Ukrainian relations by putting forward territorial claims regarding Bukovyna, and blocking the transit of Ukrainian grain through Romanian territory to the Global South.

The report reveals synchronized actions of a number of Romanian political and social actors, each with their own background of relations with either the USSR or modern Russia. The key actors are the far-right political party AUR (The Alliance for the Union of Romanians) and its leader George Simion.

The report states that, in addition to the AUR, a number of other players related to the Russian Federation — politicians, parties, and public organizations — are involved in the campaign to undermine arms supplies to Ukraine. In particular, these are lawmakers Diana Sosoaca, Mihai Lasca, and Francisc Toba, who after the large-scale invasion of Ukraine, in March 2022, met with the ambassador of the Russian Federation in Romania and presented “the neutrality position” of Romania in the war.

Another person involved is the leader of the PIN party, Cozmin Gusa, who, while still a member of the Romanian Social Democrats, signed a cooperation agreement with United Russia. Also, there is an international organization Humanity for Peace, which, as noted, bears the signs of a front organization for the Russian intelligence agencies. Earlier, they held a protest "for peace" in Bucharest with demanded that weapons supplies to Ukraine cease.

The report shows that as part of the campaign to undermine Romanian-Ukrainian relations over the alleged existence of Romania’s territorial claims to Ukraine, the AUR party, as well as ex-Minister of Foreign Affairs of Romania Andrei Marga and Romanian oligarch Dan Voiculescu, both recruited back in the day by the Securitate special service of communist Romania.

The report analyzes the activity of AUR in the campaign, which is presumed to be a malign influence operation run by Russia to block the transit of Ukrainian grain to the countries of the Global South and destabilize Moldova.