They started timidly after the shock of Brexit, followed by the first election of Donald Trump, and then the grinding and relentless invasion of Ukraine. Since then, numerous pieces of academic research, official and unofficial reports, and media analyses have revealed the latest mechanisms that Russia systematically uses to divide the nations it targets.
Moscow doesn’t necessarily need to operate through a certain individual, some kind of “man of Russia” who is paid, either directly or indirectly, or given instructions, specific directions to take, either directly or indirectly. Of course it uses these methods, but it does not limit itself to these.
In fact, it is often enough for the Kremlin to create extreme polarization and division in the ‘targeted society’, and as we know, there are plenty of cataclysmic topics.
This type of modus operandi can be much more effective than using specifically targeted individual arrows, manufactured in the brothel of the imperialist geopolitics of the modern tsar.
The reason is easy to guess: by stimulating polarization, you end up with a mass of citizens creating chaos and division. People who, without realizing that their commitment in the name of a cause is down to foreign interests, divide themselves into irreconcilable camps. And as the camps are irreconcilable, they often end up in an aggressive discourse, producing a background noise that no longer allows the essential sound to be filtered out. The culminating point is when at the polls, many embrace extremist parties, which were born and fed on this polarization.
In Romania, where there are two weeks until the second round of the presidential elections, we have the ideal conditions for a perfect storm.
You could hardly find two more polar opposite characters in “cultural” war waged by Russia, than Călin Georgescu and Elena Lasconi: conservative vs progressive, rural vs urban, blue collar vs white collar, educated vs “unqualified”, religious zealot vs ecumenical, “neutral” towards Russia vs pro-European and open pro-American.
“Iliescu 2” (Ion Iliescu, three times president of Romania) is, I think, the perfect nickname for Călin Georgescu, something even the people over 40 may remember –the time of the ‘gentle’ Ion Iliescu (Compared to “Iliescu 1”, the original). Under Iliescu 1 , we had the confrontation with the crowbar, on the streets of the Romanian capital, on June 13-15, 1990: miners vs. pimps, Romanians vs. the tools of the West, intellectuals vs. “we think, we don’t work”, etc.
I noticed that in his first reaction after his victory in the first round, Călin Georgescu explains, speaking in the reverential tones of a monk, that he is neither an extremist, nor a Putinist, nor a Russia fan.
Of course, this remains to be investigated, not merely believed.
- Beyond his past statements, which indicate exactly the opposite of his post-election comments, in the Digi24 studios, Călin Georgescu avoided answering, with a YES or NO, to a simple question: Do you admire Vladimir Putin? for four whole minutes.
- And beyond even this absolutely memorable episode in the circumstances in which Putin kills innocent people (both adults and children) just a few kilometers from Romania’s borders, we come to the mysterious question of figures: Călin Georgescu did not declare any expenses, yet he beat parties that spent millions.
- Expert Forum has asked the Permanent Electoral Authority to carry out a check: “One of the main conclusions is that no income and expenses were declared by the independent candidate Calin Georgescu, which is implausible for a candidate who obtained over 20% of the votes.”
- In his first reaction, I noticed two more things that place him in the Kremlin’s orbit:
- “There is no East or West.”
- “Our economic and social stability comes from neutrality.”
This is a very interesting position for a candidate who swears that he is neither a Putinist nor a Russian plant.
The East and West have always existed in the geopolitical and cultural configuration of Europe. It’s obvious even to a child that the East-West distinction emerged during the Cold War (and remained valid even after the collapse of the Soviet Union).
The cancellation of this East-West distinction by Calin Georgescu is all the more bizarre because Calin Georgescu was kind of mentored by a former communist minister, Mircea Malița. And that minister, as a good communist, had that particular distinction encoded into his DNA as a party apparatchik.
And the failure to recognize this East-West distinction, is at stark odds with today’s reality, when it is being resurrected by Russia, in a way it hasn’t been since World War II, adapting the Cold War model, through the hot war in Ukraine.
Finally, the “neutrality” that Călin Georgescu says he desires.
The life experience of any contemporary Romanian easily dismantles the words of the (so far) victorious candidate: “Our economic and social stability comes from” joining the European Union and NATO. Until it was welcomed into these two vital clubs from an economic and security point of view, our country was an oasis of e.g. Russian exploitation, state violence, abject poverty, the present without a future, the omnipresent gangrenous past.
The “neutrality” that Calin Georgescu preaches is, for a country of Romania’s size and geographical closeness to Russia, nothing more than a lever of pressure for the Kremlin.
Just as, the “neutrality” imposed by Moscow on the Republic of Moldova was the key of the robber at the door of the one who had already been robbed.
Let’s say that (absurdly) Călin Georgescu has absolutely nothing to do, absolutely nothing to do with Russia. Even so, if Calin Georgescu is elected president, Russia will have more than achieved its goal.
In the words of a French right-wing extremist, with good connections to Moscow, as quoted by the Russian agency TASS on Monday: Calin Georgescu’s victory is “an impressive slap in the face for the EU and NATO.”
