Russia is suspected of conducting an aggressive TikTok propaganda campaign in Romania that helped a pro-Kremlin candidate come from nowhere to win the first round of voting in last month’s presidential election.

Declassified intelligence documents released on Wednesday showed Calin Georgescu’s surge in popularity was due to a “highly organised” and “guerrilla” messaging strategy coordinated by a “state actor”.

The papers included an assessment that Russia was carrying out “hybrid attacks” on Romania.

Mr Georgescu, a staunch critic of Nato, scored a shock win in the first round of the election last month with 22.9 per cent of the vote. He will face a centre-Right reformist in the final round of the election on Dec 8.

On Thursday, he told the BBC he would end all aid to Ukraine if he was elected and brushed off the allegations against his campaign as fearmongering.

It came as the EU ordered TikTok to freeze data linked to the Romanian election, using powers under the bloc’s wide-sweeping Digital Services Act.