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BUCHAREST — Romanian authorities launched a series of raids Saturday as part of an investigation into the alleged Russian interference in presidential elections that has plunged the country into crisis.
Romania’s Constitutional Court canceled voting for the presidency on Friday after the release of secret intelligence showing the country had been targeted by a massive hybrid attack, apparently designed in Moscow.
One of the properties searched on Saturday was the home of Bogdan Peșchir, who was named in the declassified intelligence documents as a key financial backer of Călin Georgescu, the far-right presidential front-runner alleged to have benefited from Russia’s influence campaign.
Georgescu is an ultranationalist who has no party and was a little-known political figure until he shot into the lead in the first round of voting after what authorities said was a coordinated foreign hybrid attack attempting to sway the election.
Prosecutors raided three properties in the city of Brașov, in the mountainous Transylvania region, in connection with an investigation into potential voter corruption, money laundering and computer forgery. They are also investigating whether there has been a breach of a ban on organizations and symbols of a fascist, racist or xenophobic nature, they said in a press statement on Saturday.
“The searches concern the possible involvement of a natural person in the illegal financing of the electoral campaign of a candidate for the presidency of Romania, through the use of sums of money that there are indications that they might be derived from the commission of crimes, being subsequently introduced in a money laundering process,” according to the statement.
According to the declassified intelligence files, Peșchir provided €1 million for Georgescu’s campaign, of which TikTok said it received €360,000. A person familiar with the matter, granted anonymity because they are not authorized to speak publicly, confirmed local media reports that Peșchir was the individual at the center of the raids.
The election crisis is a major blow for Romania and threatens to destabilize a crucial member of the European Union and NATO, which shares a long border with Ukraine. Georgescu received more than 2 million votes in the first round of the contest, winning with around 23 percent in a field of candidates, despite being almost unknown a few weeks earlier.
He has been highly critical of both NATO and the EU, and has pledged to end all Romanian support for Ukraine, putting what he says are Romanians’ interests first. The Constitutional Court’s decision to cancel the presidential election has left the country in political limbo and provoked criticism from both Georgescu and his main rival, the liberal pro-EU mayor Elena Lasconi, who received around 19 percent in the first-round vote.
On Friday, the United States State Department said it supported Romania’s efforts to uphold the integrity of its elections, free from “foreign malign influence.”
“The integrity of Romania’s elections is paramount for Romanians’ hard-earned democracy,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said. “We call on all parties to uphold Romania’s constitutional order and engage in a peaceful democratic process free from threats of violence and intimidation and which reflects the Romanian people’s democratic will.”
