Romania must consolidate the efforts of all security agencies in the NATO country if it is to respond effectively to an intense hybrid war being waged by Russia in the Black Sea region, a senior Romanian general has told BIRN.

General Marian Botea, chief of the Operations Directorate in the Romanian Defence Ministry, said Ukraine, Romania and Moldova were all targets of a campaign of Russian propaganda, misinformation, subversion and cyber attack.

The threat, he said, had grown since Russia’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula and was aimed at ordinary Romanians and the political establishment alike.