Russia’s “hybrid attack” on the Romanian elections could trigger a NATO response

Russia is being accused of having conducted a “massive influence operation” to boost its in-person campaign by Calin Georgescu, in Romania. Such a “hybrid attack” on a NATO member country could be a pretext for a response from the Atlantic Alliance.

Any proof that Russia tried to influence an election in a NATO state would reveal a form of hybrid attackdesigned to weaken the alliance from within.

The calls “political influence operations“, which can use social media to amplify a particular candidate and increase their chances of success, are deliberately difficult to attribute — with ambiguity being an integral part of the weapons system that makes it so difficult to defend.

But the allies are try to better identify attempts, in particular by Russia, to target member states with information campaigns aimed at interfering in elections to help politicians and political parties skeptical of NATO and more favorable to Vladimir Putin.

This is why, says , that the events in Romania, where a high court has just suspended the presidential elections, due to concerns about an interference operation conducted from abroad, alarms are sounding in the capitals of NATO countries.

The first round of the presidential elections in Romania was, a relatively unknown far-right candidate which has been accused by critics of being anti-NATO and admirer of the President of Russia.

Speaking to Sky News, Georgescu considers himself “a patriot and a leader, but not a fan of Mr. Putin“.

His unexpected success in the election was fueled by a combination of rhetoric Populist is anti-establishment and for a hugely successful campaign in social networks, particularly on TikTok.

But Romanian authorities claim that Russia launched a “hybrid attack” in the country to reinforce Georgescu’s chances, amplifying his campaign slogans on social media.

Documents from the Romanian secret services, which were declassified on Wednesday by the president Klaus Iohannissuggest that Georgescu had benefited from a mass influence operation conducted from abroad to interfere with the outcome of the vote.

When questioned by Sky News on the matter, Calin Georgescu accused the government of be desperate. Meanwhile, the decision by Romania’s Constitutional Court to intervene and cancel the election results adds a new level of severity (and risk) to the crisis.

The annulment of votes will undoubtedly trigger accusations that the Romanian authorities themselves are undermining the country’s democratic processes.

At the same time, if Russian interference is proventhis would mean that the Kremlin tried to attack NATO in a significant way, below the threshold of conventional warfare — an attack that would certainly lead to some kind of allied responseequally unconventional.

O Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty requires Member States to assist any member who is subject to an armed attack, a commitment that was called for the first and only time after the September 11 attacks 2001 against the United States.

At the time, were deployed to Afghanistan troops from several Alliance countries, within the scope of the International Security Assistance Force mission, under NATO command.