"Hi! We have a powerful video about the future of our country, and it's important for it to be seen by as many people as possible. If you support us and you publish it (in Reels, a post or a story), we're willing to pay for this promotion."

This message, or others very similar to it, was received by many Romanian influencers at the end of November, either just before or just after the first electoral round of the country's presidential elections. Some of the influencers were influential public figures, like television presenter Andreea Marin (700,000 followers on Instagram) and singer Florin Ristei (400,000 followers); while others were far less well known, like a food blogger with 30,000 subscribers on YouTube.

The video in question was a subtle way of promoting Calin Georgescu, a pro-Russian conspiracy-theorist candidate who, until then, had been virtually unknown to the general public, but who, in just a few weeks, managed to become a TikTok star and come out on top in the first round of the presidential election. This popularity was partly the result of a secretive but well-funded social media campaign, which the Romanian intelligence services believe could only have been run by a "state actor" – a polite way of referring to Russia.

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