Citing a NATO report, Foreign Minister Oana Toiu on Friday confirmed that Russia had meddled in Romania’s presidential election, skewing the ballot and ultimately leading to it being canceled.
She made the remarks the day after a US State Department report was released in which Romania was criticized for cancelling the ballot after intelligence reports that the Kremlin had artificially boosted a far-right radical candidate on social media.
“The Trump administration report was written before the NATO statement, which recognized Russian interference in various countries including Romania,” she said.
“The report was a joint NATO statement, including the United State,” she said.
„Criticism about the the reasons which led to the annulment of the elections is nothing, it is old, many colleagues mentioned it.”
The elections were canceled two days before the runoff after a ruling from the Constitutional Court that mentioned interference and election irreuglarities.
Former President Klaus Iohannis confirmed Russia had been the malign foreign actor that meddled in the election on Dec. 18.
Ms. Toiu said the current president, Nicusor Dan, elected in the May rerun had “taken on the responsibility to bring greater clarity, and had rightly criticized the fact that our international partners and Romanian citizens didn’t have more information to enable them to decide whether the ruling was correct.”
“The joint NATO statement however recognizes the interference and hybrid war that the Russian Federation is conducting in some countries and Romania is explicitly mentioned.”
The US and Romania have a strategic partnership. The US State Department report was written several months ago.
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