Three former US Ambassadors to Romania have warned in an op-ed that Russia’s Vladimir Putin continues to pose a threat to Europe with the Kremlin’s hybrid war.

The new battlefield is online, and the stakes are democratic sovereignty, former U.S. Ambassadors Mark Gitenstein, Jim Rosapepe, and Adrian Zuckerman wrote in Politico.

 Their message was clear: Romania’s 2024 elections came under direct digital assault from the Kremlin.

The three who served Romania after the fall of communism have witnessed Romania’s path from dictatorship to NATO firsthand raised the alarm on this new kind of warfare that is affecting Europe.

In the article published on July 2, they revealed:

The Kremlin used bots, covert funding, and fake news to lift a pro-Russian candidate to 21% of the vote.
That candidate had no reported funding—but benefited from millions in digital interference.
Romania fought back. But the threat to transatlantic democracy is far from over.

Here is the text:

The fight for democracy now extends to cyberspace, where Putin’s invasion tactics must be thwarted, just as they’ve been on the battlefield. The new battlefield is online, and the stakes are democratic sovereignty.

Mark Gitenstein (ret, 2009-2012), Adrian Zuckerman (ret, 2019-2021) and Jim Rosapepe (ret, 1998-2001) are all former U.S. ambassadors to Romania.