Russia denied on Thursday that it interfered in the presidential elections in Romania, three days after the second round of elections in the EU and NATO member, where a far-right pro-Russian candidate opposed to European aid to Ukraine could win.
"We firmly reject all hostile attacks, which we consider to be completely unfounded," said Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova in a statement and condemned "all the more absurd accusations" directed at Moscow.
Romanian authorities today declassified documents describing alleged destabilization measures, which resemble techniques used by Russia.
During the election period in Romania, there were "aggressive hybrid Russian attacks", and the victory of the right-wing candidate Kalin Djordescu was the result of a coordinated campaign on social media, probably behind a "state actor", according to declassified documents of Romanian intelligence agencies.
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After the publication of this information, the European Commission intensified its monitoring of TikTok and ordered the platform to keep all data and evidence related to the Romanian elections, but also to the upcoming elections in EU countries, in the event of a further investigation into the platform's compliance with the obligations under the Digital Services Act.
Đorđesku, who was first in the first round of the election, said that there is no evidence that a coordinated campaign was organized on the TikTok platform.
Zakharova condemned the climate of "unprecedented anti-Russian hysteria" and called on the Romanian authorities to stop "inflating the Russian threat" in order to manipulate public opinion.
The second round of the presidential election in Romania takes place on Sunday, and observers see it as crucial for the future of the country of 20 million inhabitants, which borders Ukraine and faces an attack from Russia starting in 2022.
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