Russia has mastered the use of new technologies to influence elections worldwide, stated Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s top diplomatic envoy, at the P28 event organized by Politico.
“I see the examples from Romania, but also other parts, that [the] Russians have really cracked the code on how to influence elections,” Kallas said, expressing her deep concern.
She emphasized that current methods for determining whether elections are free and fair are outdated, failing to account for modern technologies used to influence voting outcomes.
“Democracy is based on trust, and if you can’t trust elections anymore then how can you trust the outcome?” she rhetorically asked.
Meanwhile, Russia continues to expand its efforts to undermine democratic values globally, according to Pavlo Sadokha, UWC Vice-President and President of the Union of Ukrainians in Portugal.
“In the 2025 budget draft, the Russian government has allocated a historic 137.2 billion rubles (1.25 billion euros) for state-owned television channels, media, and online propaganda projects,” Sadokha reported.
On Dec. 2, the Constitutional Court of Romania upheld the outcome of the first round of presidential elections, in which a populist, anti-Western candidate Călin Georgescu emerged victorious.
However, just days later, on Dec. 6, the same court annulled the results, citing new evidence of foreign election manipulation, which was corroborated by declassified documents from the Supreme Council of National Defense.
Cover: Kaja Kallas (Shutterstock).
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