A discreet building in central London not far from the British Museum has been identified as the legal address of several Russian intelligence operations in Europe, Intelligence Online reported on Friday.
It is also home to a network of Romanian influencers close to the Russian embassy in Bucharest.
At the same address is another marketing company Bunelu ltd – which Romanian and British journalists say is a company “with strong Russian ties that leads to Calin Georgescu’s supporters”.
Mr Georgescu, a radical independent and sympathizer of President Vladimir Putin defied the polls to improbably win the first round of Romanian presidential elections. He was the frontrunner for the Dec. 8 runoff when a top court annulled the ballot over Russian interference.
Bunelu was founded in 2019 by a Moldovan citizen, Ion Bulgacov, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison, for fraud in Romania. The trial is still ongoing, journalists say. The company Bunelu ltd has opened a subsidiary in Romania in which members of the United Thrace organization – Mihai Rotariu, Sacha Stone and Bruno Mihailescu – are involved.
United Thrace was founded by Rotariu, a businessman who has 20 companies linked to the political sphere in Romania and who was associated with the brother of the former head of the SIE, Ion Talpeș, , between 1992 and 1997, the report said.
A former member of the Romanian-Belarusian and Romanian-Russian Chamber of Commerce, Rotariu founded United Thrace, which promotes conspiracy theories and pro-Russian views, the investigation showed.
Members of United Thrace were seen at the Russian Embassy, promoted Georgescu and ran for the pro-Russia SOS party in Dec. 1 parliamentary elections, Snoop and Intelligence Online reported. Bruno Mihailescu threatened investigative journalist Victor Ilie, from Snoop over his reporting, and police opened an investigation into the case. „
“We have everything about you, everything. And where you go, and what you do, and what you eat. We know everything. And where does your money come from, and where do you go,” Mihailescu threatened, when Ilie approached him for a response to the investigation.
Mihăilescu is the director of companies founded by Romanița Ileana Popescu, the manager of the non-governmental organization Casa Nato, founded by Adrian Năstase. The business ties of Romania Ileana Popescu extend to the Russian Embassy, the report said.
British influencer Sacha Stone, who has had millions of followers on social media and who promotes conspiracy theories is associated with United Thrace. The same company also includes a Romanian journalist Mugurel Calistrat Atudorei (author of America’s Plans for World Hegemony. A Study) who interviewed former Russian ambassador to Bucharest Valery Kuzmin and allegedly promoted the Kremlin’s anti-Western ideology.
“I think it’s normal to listen to the other side,” the journalist told Snoop, who recalled that he was promoting ideas such as “the COVID-19 pandemic was created in laboratories in Ukraine.”
AdNow Network Journalists discovered the company Bunelu ltd and its links with Romania while documenting another extensive disinformation operation, also linked to the Russian Federation. It is a mechanism financed with money from Moscow that has pushed conspiracy news in the last 8 years, which was also found in Calin Georgescu’s speech, in the online environment in Romania.
“At least two million euros were directed between 2016 and 2024 by AdNow, a digital advertising company with links to the Kremlin, to the websites of television stations (…), conspiracy influencers and publications with far-right content,” Snoop said in early December. Everything was planned by the company AdNow, which is based in the same building in London as Bunelu ltd but also with a company of a cousin of Vladimir Putin, a company of hackers from the GRU, one of the Kremlin’s intelligence services, but also other companies with links to Moscow.
