Journalists saw the “hand of Moscow” behind former NATO deputy secretary general Mircea Geoana, who is now running for the presidency of Romania. Local publication digi24.ro writes about this today, October 1.
The investigation was carried out by journalists from The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) network, who established that the electoral campaign manager Joane Rare Manescu He owns a company together with Russian businessman Alexey Kozlov, which operates in Romania through an Estonian company.
According to official information, on May 31, the Romanian Commercial Registry registered the first founding document of the Kozlov and Manescu company. The latter claims that he has not cooperated with Geoana for 5 months, and the former NATO official assures that “he did not have and does not have any information about Mr. Rares Manescu’s affairs.”
The source claims that Kozlov has a pseudonym. Alex Krepchinsky publishes materials on social networks in support of the Russian army in Ukraine. It also has startups in the Republic of Moldova and Romania.
The publication also had questions about Mircea Joana himself, who was also suspected of having secret connections with Moscow. In 2009, the press reported on his private visit to the Russian capital, where he met with an adviser to the then president of the Russian Federation. Dmitry Medvedev. At that time, Geoana was the president of the Romanian Senate. The meeting, digi24.ro writes, was allegedly organized by a Russian businessman who then had interests in the Romanian energy sector and “was an employee of the GRU.”
“I can only confirm that Mircea Geoana was in Moscow. To have a complete idea, remember that after April I said: “It is good that I am leaving the Supreme Council of National Defense (CSAT).” This is exactly what I meant: you cannot be vice-president of the CSAT and go to meetings organized in Moscow without informing the president of the CSAT,” commented the former president of Romania. Traian Basescu.
In 2011, Wikileaks published a cable in which the United States Embassy in Bucharest noted that “the great mystery is how Geoana is approaching Russia” and mentioned the existence of two secret visits to Moscow. So the politician and future deputy secretary general of NATO did not react to these accusations.
As reported EADaily NATO Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoana left his position in September and announced that he would run for the presidency of Romania. According to him, the country is prepared “for important changes” and the 2024 presidential elections will be the most important in the last 20 years. He added that “this is a matter of internal affairs, everything is discussed at the level of the NATO leadership.”
