Russian dissident Mihail Khodorkovski CRITICIZES Geoana’s connections with Russia: Romanian voters should take this into account when they vote

Mihail Khodorkovski, one of the most well-known opponents of the Putin regime, has launched harsh criticism of Mircea Geoana’s candidacy for the presidency of Romania, emphasizing his team’s ties to pro-Russian circles of influence. The statements of the Russian opponent come against the backdrop of an international journalistic investigation that brought to light alleged links between Mircea Geoana’s campaign, as candidate for the presidential elections in Romania and former NATO deputy secretary general, and a Russian businessman associated with pro-Kremlin propaganda.

After the investigation was published, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a former Russian oligarch and one of the most vocal critics of Vladimir Putin, reacted on the X platform, criticizing both NATO and Mircea Geoana’s campaign.

Khodorkovsky expressed his astonishment that „NATO overlooked things like this when appointing people to such senior role”, referring to the fact that Mircea Geoana, in his capacity as former number two in NATO, had an adviser with ties to pro-Russian circles of influence.

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The Romanian voters should bear this in mind when casting their ballots next month, wrote the Russian dissident.

Mihail Khodorkovski has reminded that Mircea Geoana was criticized in the past for his 2009 visit to Moscow.

In 2009, during a presidential campaign, Geoana was accused of paying secret visits to Moscow, and the US ambassador at the time stated that ”Geoana was always ready to talk to the Russians”, Khodorkovsky pointed out.

The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project investigation: The ties between Geoana’s team and Russian influence circles

An investigation carried out by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) network revealed that Rares Manescu, former mayor of Bucharest’s District 6 and Mircea Geoana’s campaign coordinator, is a business partner with Aleksei Kozlov, a Russian businessman involved in pro-Putin propaganda.

The investigation reveals that Manescu established a company in Ilfov along with Kozlov, which, under the pseudonym Alex Krepchinsky, promoted pro-Russian messages after the Crimea annexation in 2014.

Kozlov, known for his repeated visits to Crimea after Russia’s illegal annexation, posted pro-Putin messages on social media, including pictures of the Russian leader and comments supporting the Kremlin’s aggressive policy. He used the pseudonym Alex Krepchinsky, the OCCRP investigation shows.

Aleksei Kozlov is an aquaculture specialist who loves fishing.

Under the name Alex Krepchinsky, though, he appears to have been a firebrand propagandist who began stirring up pro-Russian sentiment after the 2014 invasion of Ukraine.

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Meanwhile, Krepchinsky has also been quoted several times by Newsfront, a Crimean propaganda website that the US has sanctioned for alleged links to the Federal Security Service (FSB), Russia’s intelligence agency.

Geoana, accused of having ties to Russia since 2009

Mircea Geoană was also accused of ties to Russia in the past. During the 2009 presidential campaign, former president Traian Basescu accused Geoana of paying a secret visit to Moscow.

In 2009, HotNews reported about a private visit that Mircea Geoana had paid to Moscow, when he was Senate speaker, where he met with an adviser of the former Russian president Dmitri Medvedev (a Russian propagandist known in recent years for the threats sent, including to Romania. He is currently vice-president of the Security Council of the Russian Federation).

The April 2009 meeting was allegedly arranged by a Russian businessman who then had interests in the energy field in Romania and who was reported to have been part of the GRU.

I can only confirm that Mircea Geoana was in Moscow. To get the full picture, remember that after April, I said „good thing he’s leaving CSAT”. I had exactly this in mind, you cannot be CSAT vice-president and go to meetings organized in Moscow without informing the CSAT president, was the reaction of former president Traian Băsescu, in 2009, on the B1 TV channel.

Subsequently, in 2011, the Wikileaks data leak revealed a telegram in which the US Embassy in Bucharest noted that „a great mystery is the way Geoana approaches Russia” and mentioned the existence of two secret visits to Moscow. Geoana did not offer a reaction to these accusations.

Although Geoana faced criticism after the revelation of two secret visits to Moscow in 2009, his campaign was not affected by the issue. The most recently revealed trip involved the fact that Geoana went to Moscow on the oligarch Sorin Ovidiu Vîntu’s plane, according to the telegram that appeared in Wikileaks.

Khodorkovsky recalled in his messages published on X that although Geoana’s current position is critical of Russia, his past is riddled with suspicion.

Mircea Geoana, number two of NATO, is running for the position of president of Romania and criticizes Putin. However, his advisor’s Russian business partner has direct ties to the Kremlin, Mikhail Khodorkovsky also wrote.

Mircea Geoană responds to the accusations: „A kompromat operation”

Following the investigation and the international reactions, Mircea Geoana published a video message on his Facebook page, in which he stated that a „compromise campaign orchestrated from outside” was being carried out against him, implying that Russia would be disturbed by his candidacy for the presidency of Romania.

A real kompromat operation is underway. I am accused of so-called associations with the Russian Federation, which is totally unbelievable considering that, for five years, I led, together with the general secretary, the North Atlantic Alliance, said Mircea Geoană.

He emphasized that he had warned from the beginning of the campaign that a candidacy by a former senior NATO official would disturb the interests of Russia and some groups in Romania.

PHOTO SOURCE: X / Mikhail Khodorkovsky

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