Russia's agents of influence: how it was done in Romania

In May of this year, Romania held repeat presidential elections, which attracted considerable attention. The mayor of Bucharest, independent candidate Nicuşor Dan, and the leader of the right-wing radical party Alliance for the Unification of Romanians (AUR), Gheorghe Simion, made it to the second round.

In the context of the "right-wing" turn in Europe, Simion's victory seemed quite real. Moreover, according to the results of the next presidential elections held in November 2024, the right-wing radical politician Kelin Gheorgheescu, who was supported by Simion, entered the second round. The victory in the first round of a Eurosceptic and pro-Russian politician was a real shock. After all, Romania has long been considered an island of political stability, with a consensus on the EU and NATO. Moreover, Romanian society has traditionally been characterized by anti-Russian sentiment.

As it turned out later, there were many people with ties to Russia among his supporters, and even more so in Georghescu's own entourage. Moscow was also actively working for the victory of Georgescu through social media. On the eve of the second round, information was released about foreign interference that provided support to the far-right candidate. Thus, a network of TikTok accounts that had been virtually inactive since its launch in 2016 was activated two weeks before the election. Romanian intelligence reported that about 1 million euros were spent on the campaign to support the candidacy of Georgescu, with reposts costing up to 950 euros.

George Simion. Photo: Hepta

The results of the first round were canceled and a second presidential election was called, which was eventually won by Nicusar Dăn. But how did it happen that in Romania, where anti-Russian views traditionally prevail, there were a lot of politicians, journalists, and even militants who advocated friendship with Moscow?

Some of the mechanisms of Russian infiltration in Romania will be discussed in this investigation.

Mason, political consultant and KGB agent

On May 16, 2025, the Romanian edition of G4Media published an investigation into the leader of the Democrația Acasă ("Democracy at Home") party, Vasile Costiuc, who was suspected of having ties to Russian security forces. According to the newspaper, the Moldovan politician, who supports Romanian presidential candidate Gheorghe Simion, took part in an event organized in Moscow in 2013 by former political consultant to Russian President Vladimir Putin Alexander Kondyakov.

The information about Kostiuk's meeting with Kondyakov in 2013 is not new. It was first made public in September 2021 by the chairman of the Party of Change, Stefan Gligor (now part of the Impreuna bloc). At the time, Gligor said that Alexander Kondyakov is a KGB-FSB general, former head of the London residence, president of the political consulting company Novak, president of the International Orthodox Christian Alliance, Putin's adviser, and head of the Masonic Lodge of the Russian Federation.

Kostyuk and Kondyakov. Photo: G4Media

According to the data published in open sources, Alexander Vladimirovich Kondyakov was born on October 15, 1948 in Moscow, graduated from the Moscow Polygraphic Institute. He worked for TASS, the USSR Academy of Sciences, and the Committee of Youth Organizations of the USSR. Those who lived in Soviet times remember that all sorts of organizations and institutions such as the Committee of Youth Organizations, the Novosti Press Agency, and the Soviet Peace Foundation actually served as a cover for the USSR State Security Committee and its subversive activities.

In 1992, he became the general director of the Novokom Information and Analytical Production Center (IAPC), which participated in election campaigns in Russia. He was a member of the election headquarters of Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin and, according to some sources, was his adviser.

He is a Freemason and a member of the Grand Lodge of Russia. In 2002, Alexander Kondyakov was re-elected to the post of Grand Secretary of the Grand Lodge of Russia. In 2003, he visited Romania to support the election of Eugen Ovidiu Kirovic as Grand Master of the Grand National Lodge of Romania.

Kondyakov died on October 24, 2020. His obituary mentioned his contribution to Russia's "state security".

Kondyakov came into the spotlight of the Romanian press in May 2007, when Romanian President Traian Basescu said in an interview with Romania Libera that the vote to impeach him on April 19, 2007, was facilitated by external forces and advised journalists to pay attention to "the visit of the very important Mr. Kondyakov 2-3 days before the parliamentary vote on his resignation."

Kondyakov did indeed visit Romania on April 11-12, 2007, on the eve of the impeachment vote, but in an interview he denied any involvement in the vote for the impeachment of the President in the Romanian parliament, emphasizing that his trip was related solely to economic interests.

Later, it became known that Kondyakov met with Prime Minister Kelin Popescu-Tericeanu, National Liberal Party senator Radu Stroie, and Kozmin Ghushe, leader of the National Initiative Party and advisor to the leader (at the time) of the Democratic Party of Moldova, oligarch Vlad Plahotniuc. Radu Stroie said that Kondyakov was looking for a job in connection with the upcoming election campaign in Romania, but these plans were not realized.

Kozmin Gushe noted in an interview that Kondyakov "has good connections in Russia due to his position as Grand Secretary of the Grand Masonic Lodge and, accordingly, ties with Romania and Romanian Masons." The Grand Master of the Grand National Lodge of Romania, Eugen-Ovidiu Kirovic, said that Kondyakov's visit was not official, he did not come at the invitation of the Grand Lodge of Romania, but Kirovic and Kondyakov met and lasted half an hour, during which they "talked about issues of concern to us."

Romanian journalists pointed out that Kondyakov's first visit took place on the eve of the parliamentary vote to impeach Basescu. His second visit took place on the eve of the referendum on Basescu's impeachment, which was to be held on July 29, 2012.

In 2012, Calea Europeana, citing the website of KremlinLeaks, an official partner of WikiLeaks, reported that Prime Minister Victor Ponta met with Alexander Kondyakov and Viktor Komardin, Deputy Director General of Rosoboronexport, on June 14 at a reception organized by the Russian Embassy in Bucharest.

Calea Europeana cited a letter from Evgeny Egorov, a counselor at the Russian Embassy in Bucharest, stating that Ponta's meeting with Kondyakov and Komardin "was very productive." According to the letter, Ponta "assured us that the process of 'cleansing' will start in July, as it was established, and he is still counting on our help. And that our local investments will be capitalized from the moment the total "clean-up" begins".

The ties between IAPC Novocom and Russian Freemasonry, and through it, Romanian Freemasonry, are not limited to the personality of O. Kondyakov. For example, Andriy Bogdanov, who served as vice president of Novocom in 1997-2002, was elected Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Russia in 2007. Twice, in 2010 and 2015, he was re-elected for a 5-year term. In 2017, he met with Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Romania Belenescu during the celebration of the 300th anniversary of the United Grand Lodge of England in London.

Photo: Masoneria in Romania, Facebook

"I declare myself pro-Russian in the national interest..."

These words belong to the political observer Cosmin Ghushe. And he said them shortly after the presidential election in Romania. The Russian propaganda agency TASS was happy to quote Gushe's words. "I will advocate a strategic partnership between Romania and Russia based on civilizational and Orthodox criteria," he said, "I think this is the only option to avoid going to war. We will be able to regain prosperity and save our natural resources from the programmed Western plunder."

Goucher has already been called an agent of Moscow's influence. Interestingly, he held high positions in the Social Democratic Party of Romania (PSD) and now belongs to the "sovereignist" political camp, along with the leader of the Alliance for the Unification of Romanians (AUR) party, Gheorghe Simion, and the leader of the SOS-Romania party, Diana Ivanovic-Soshoake.

In 2000-2001, during his tenure as Secretary General of the Social Democratic Party, Mircea Popa was Kozmin Guscea's advisor.

Kozmin Hushe. Photo: G4Media

Popa is a strongly pro-Russian politician, founder of the Rusia la Zi press agency and CEO of the Russian-Romanian Foundation. Until 1989, he sought political asylum in the USSR. In the early 1990s, together with Miron Mitra, he created the Fratia trade union, which later transformed into the National Confederation of Free Trade Unions Fratia. In the early 2000s, he published the magazine Noua Rusia (New Russia). He met several times with Russian ideologue Alexander Dugin.

Mircea Popa claimed that he, along with Cosmin Gusche and Victor Bostinaru, later a Social Democrat MEP, met in Moscow in 2001 with people close to the Kremlin's secret services. The invitation to visit Moscow came from the Novocom Information Center. During the meeting in the restaurant of the Metropol Hotel (Moscow), an agreement was reached on the visit of Romanian Prime Minister Adrian Năstase and Romanian President Ion Iliescu. Among those present at the meeting at the Metropol Hotel was Oleksandr Kondyakov, who is already familiar to us. According to Popa, the negotiations on organizing Adrian Năstase's visit to Moscow were conducted bypassing the then Romanian Foreign Minister Mircea Ioane.

Năstase's visit took place in February 2002, and Iliescu's visit took place on July 3-5, 2003.

Gushe is now a co-owner of the Realitatea Plus TV channel, which supported Kelin Gheorghezcu and spread anti-Ukrainian narratives. He advocated the idea of uniting all "sovereigntist forces" with the participation of the AUR party and the Shoshoake SOS party. He intended to run for mayor of Bucharest in the June 2024 local elections as a candidate of the AUR party, but did not receive support from the party leadership.

The most interesting thing is that all of these facts about Kondyakov, Gushe, and Popa were once published in open Romanian sources, and were on the surface. But they were usually ignored in Ukraine. Who was interested in the nuances of Romanian-Russian relations when Ukraine itself had politicians in power who did not hide their sympathies for Russia.

It is useful to dig into the past, if only to realize how Russia has worked and continues to work to win the sympathy of politicians, businessmen, and influential people.

In the near future, we will tell you how this works in modern Moldova.

Don't switch the channel. To be continued.

Іван Кара