A researcher with the “Nicolae Iorga” History Institute of the Romanian Academy, specializing in the history of the Soviet Union and European communism. A graduate of Bucharest and Moscow universities, took his PhD at University of Bucharest. He authored over 80 expert articles in scientific periodicals. He sits on the scientific boards of a number of academic magazines. Cosmin Popa is also a member of the Romania-Russia Joint Committee of Historians and the Romania-Russia Joint Committee for the study of problems deriving from the history of bilateral relations, including Romania’s Treasure. He published the volumes Birth of an Empire (2002), Between the Quest for Empire and the Strategic Alliance, USSR and Central and Eastern Europe (2012), Ceaușescu’s Intellectual Elite, the Academy of Social and Political Sciences (2018), Elena Ceaușescu or the biography of a family dictatorship (2021).
The presidential “election” in Russia is the pinnacle of a long series of crimes, abuses and diversions designed to turn Putin's dictatorship into a totalitarian system in the truest sense of the word. Launched as an iron-fisted regime meant to speed up the country's structural modernization, Putin's dictatorship ultimately led to Russia's complete break with Europe and its firm anchoring in the Asian political model.
Russia's attempt to install a president in Bucharest is a small part of the scenario prepared for Romania. In the long term, Moscow aims to culturally "reprogram" Romanians - through disinformation - so that they abandon the West and choose the "Russian world".
A good relationship with Russia would help the US isolate China. But Putin's decision to continue the war in Ukraine could convince Washington that Europe remains its most important partner.
China is the main threat to the US, which would benefit from the weakening of the Beijing-Moscow axis. A Trump-Putin deal may entail, however, sacrificing Ukraine and problems for the EU.
Russia has also co-opted North Korea in the war against Ukraine and is stepping up its operations in Moldova and Georgia. Moscow seems to be preparing for a final showdown against the West.
Ion Antonescu’s arrest and Romania turning arms against Nazi Germany were two events that have been permanently interpreted through the lens of politics, to the detriment of a critical analysis, free from ideological constraints.
Russian propaganda is now fixed on Romania and Moldova. The Kremlin is reiterating a number of older Soviet narratives, such as the one on Moldovenism, while at the same time spreading new lies, for instance claiming Romania has allegedly given Moscow its treasure.
Real or not, the Wagner Group rebellion has shown that, although it desperately fashions itself as a new type of dictatorship, Putin’s regime is just another political construct lacking any real foundation.