According to an article published Monday in a Bucharest newspaper, Russian propagandists are now turning their attention to the Romanian elections, scheduled for the end of November. The Kremlin is trying to influence Romanian voters, Digi24 said, as Ukrainska Pravda points out: “through intermediaries, such as organizations and institutions linked to or financed by Russia, possibly including candidates” .

Romanian journalists claimed that every Russian in Romania is “under constant surveillance” by Moscow, worried about the country’s membership in the European Union and NATO, the same national aspirations shared by a large part of the Ukrainian population which led to the fall of Russia. invasion of the country in February 2022.

According to the report, there is “a network of bots and social media trolls” in cyberspace “that try to obtain illegitimate content to promote certain candidates, which the Romanian police have also opened an investigation into.”

US President-elect Donald Trump’s team reported, according to the Wall Street Journal, that Trump plans to present an initiative to freeze Ukraine’s exports. NATO membership for 20 years as part of any potential deal with Moscow when he assumes the Oval Office in January 2025.

As Ukrainska Pravda explains, the first round of the Romanian presidential election will take place on November 24 and the second on December 8. Klaus Iohannis, the outgoing president, cannot serve a third term.

Other topics of interest

Russian court upholds 12-year prison sentence for Russian-American woman for pro-Ukraine donation of more than $50

Ballet dancer Ksenia Karelina, 32, arrested in Yekaterinburg in January 2024, faces 12 years in prison. Initially accused of hooliganism, it was later labeled treason.

“Now is the transition phase that Putin has been waiting for,” says German Foreign Minister

Germany’s foreign minister warned Monday that Russian autocrat Vladimir Putin could use “the US post-election transition period to take advantage” of the balance of power in the Ukraine war, AFP reported.

Diplomat Annalena Barbock urged Berlin to immediately increase aid to kyiv, calling on European leaders to follow suit.

“We don’t have time to wait for spring,” Baerbock said at a news conference Monday. “This is now the transition phase that Putin was waiting for and aiming for. »

During his victorious presidential campaign, Donald Trump made clear that, under his administration, the United States would no longer send the amount of military aid to kyiv that the Joe Biden administration and the Democratic-controlled Senate had. provided so far. Now that his party holds the presidency and both houses of Congress, Trump appears likely to make good on his promise to “end the war in a day,” meaning the new U.S. president will offer Moscow and kyiv a deal that Trump considers it opportune. and fair.

Adding to the urgency of Baerbock’s appeal to European Union member states and German voters, German elections are expected to be called soon, following the collapse of Social Democratic Chancellor Olaf’s center-left coalition Scholz last week.

“France has not forgotten and will never forget Boutcha”, declares the French Minister of Foreign Affairs

A day after warning the very influential American billionaire Elon Musk not to “break democracy”, the new French Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jean-Noël Barrot (who succeeded Stéphane Séjourné in September) declared on Monday that “ France is ready to work with the new administration in an ambitious manner, because we believe that Ukraine must be given the means to resist Russia.”

Born in South Africa Muskwho is one of five American billionaires to have contributed more than $100 million each to Republican campaigns this year, has reportedly had direct conversations with Putin over his massive financial support for Trump, conversations that the Tesla founder and the social networks media platform X (formerly Twitter) denies.

In 2004, just ten American families, including the Musk family, were responsible for nearly $1 billion in campaign contributions. according to the group Americans for Tax Fairness.

Barrot was quoted Monday by state media Ukrinform, in his speech at the 7th Paris Peace Forum, as saying: “Faced with speculation about what the position of a new American administration will be, I believe above all that we should not decide immediately. advance.”

“Let’s hope Musk doesn’t do to American democracy what he did to Twitter. Democracy is a delicate treasure,” Barrot declared in an interview with The Parisian when asked about the role Musk could play in the new Trump administration.

According to the American press review Politico:

“Barrot knows Musk, since he was French Minister of Technology when the Tesla owner finalized the acquisition of the social network now known as X. (formerly Twitter) in 2022. The same year, Barrot said he was “dismayed” by the way Musk managed the platform.”

“I have no doubt that a solid relationship will be built between the two administrations and that we will be able to preserve transatlantic unity in the face of all the challenges of the war in Ukraine,” Mr. Barrot said during the meeting in Paris . “Working for the future of Ukraine also means imagining what lasting peace could be in the long term. France will also fight against impunity. France has not forgotten and will never forget Butha and all the other crimes committed on Ukrainian territory over the last three years – in Irpin, Izyum, Mariupol and Olenivka. No violation of international humanitarian law, no war crime or crime against humanity will be forgotten. There will be no peace without justice,” he said.

In early 2022, Russian invaders massacred more than 450 Ukrainian civilians in the town of Bucha, about 20 miles northeast of Kyiv. According to local authorities, 458 bodies were found in the city, including nine children under the age of 18.