Călin Georgescu – a Kremlin agent, not a Romanian nationalist

H&D assistant editor and webmaster Peter Rushton gives an alternative view of Romania’s presidential election

The surprise first-round leader in Romania’s presidential election, Călin Georgescu, has been hailed by some nationalist observers (including our American correspondent Ken Schmidt) as a step forward for Romanian nationalism.

Conversely, I would tend to agree with those who see Georgescu as a puppet of the Kremlin – part of a long and ignoble history of sinister conspiratorial forces in Romanian politics.

Before even beginning to assess Georgescu, we should recognise that Romania’s constitution involves one of those presidencies that do not have full executive powers. As Ken noted, Georgescu does not have a political party, and in many policy areas power will remain with whichever party leader becomes prime minister after forthcoming elections.

Nevertheless, if Georgescu were to win the second round (after taking 22.9% in the first round) it would represent a significant victory for Russia’s intelligence services.

Again, as Ken noted, Georgescu has spent most of his life engaged in the opposite end of politics from nationalism.

But the clue to his transformation is his close business and political link to Romania’s former foreign minister Sergiu Celac, who had lifelong ties to the KGB and its successors.

**The KGB’s star Romanian asset, Mihai Caraman, who died in July this year aged 95 but who influenced several generations, including Calin Georgescu’s main political mentor and business partner.**

Through Celac, Georgescu was also allied to the most famous spy in Romanian history, Mihai Caraman, who built extensive intelligence networks for the KGB during the Cold War. Even after the fall of communism, Caraman advanced in the post-Ceaucescu Romanian bureaucracy and helped build new pro-Moscow networks for Putin and his regime.

Were Calin Georgescu to become president – after a campaign funded by vast and mysterious overseas donations that would be illegal in the UK, USA and many other countries, and might still turn out to have broken Romanian law – it would be a triumph for Putin and a setback both for Europe and for real Romanian nationalists.

Romanian history has been scarred by the repeated interventions of corrupt globalist networks – communists, Freemasons, and international businessmen of dubious repute. Georgescu fits squarely into this tragic history.