Romanian coup – dossier part 1 – the Potra scare.
12/12/2024
Context and motivation:
Romania, NATO country, experienced on December 6th a coup d’état in the context of the war in Ukraine and of a global NATO-Russia war danger. The Gleichschaltung of the war press is almost perfect in Romania and internationally. Only few bloggers, journalists, analysts dare to speak out and I found no thorough written investigation that could bring an objective alternative view for the international public. This is why I feel it’s necessary for me to publish a series of articles. My method is to read official documents in original, to look at interviews in original and to compare informations from several sources.
My view and my motivation is that the short term and long-term solutions to all this pass through the replacement of confrontation between blocks (The West vs. the BRICS dynamics) by cooperation. This would imply a political, cultural, economical renaissance of Europe based on it’s best traditions and a reignition of the intimate capacity that any human being has to conceive profound ideas.
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Introduction of part 1
Very good and very bad things happened in Romania and all this has to be covered now by criminal investigations and press scandals. What happened? The Constitutional Court cancelled the presidential election on december 6th because Călin Georgescu, an independent for peace with Russia and sovereignty, who surprisingly won the first round, would have won the second round, in spite of his character assasination.The coup d’état was “legally” done and is a very dangerous precedent which could be used by other states or by the EU to restrict rights or to organise similar coups. The decision of the Court was based on a declassified intelligence dossier, a ridiculous amateur work with many defaults (I will publish in the future some comments and excerpts ). The even bigger issue to hide is that Romania is being prepared to be a very important logistics platform, as in the Second World War, for the scenario of a war against Russia (for ex. the building of the biggest NATO base in Europe) and Romanians oppose this.
The interesting part is an anti-war pro sovereignty, unstructured, resistance movement that could take shape in Romania inspired, but not controlled, by Georgescu’s fight, who became a folk hero. If he is imprisoned, people will still vote for any other sovereignist pro peace candidate, despite the propaganda. This does not look like a fascist mass movement, as the international press may hint. At this stage, it looks like a nonviolent movement. Georgescu explicitly asked through several video interventions people to stay home and avoid violence. On the voting day, he called for decentralized, spontaneous vigils in front of the voting polls which took place without incidents. He declared his intention to fight a nonviolent fight, on a legal basis, and has asked in a recent video (with english translation) for international observers to go to Romania to investigate the vote and the allegations of foreign interventions. This nonviolent character could change, as his supporters are very frustrated. The 22nd of dec. could become a day of turmoil, because it’s the fateful day of the ’89 Revolution and the day after the end of the legal mandate of President Iohannis who said that he would stay in power until the new presidential elections.
There is evidence that can support the hypothesis that the scare around an alleged attempt of violent operations on the capital organised by mercenary leader Horațiu Potra, “Georgescu’s mercenary”, has been launched in order to internationally and nationally cover up these issues. Several perquisitions were made, but the press hyped this up in Romania to a point that the general fear reminds us of the times of the Securitate operations. This hypothesis can be confirmed by Potra’s profile, who seems to be rather a pawn for the Government and for the ruling PSD party than for Georgescu.
The official press story on this is for instance here: “The Wagner-style mercenaries plotting unrest in Romania” (Financial Times).
What are the exact charges against Potra?
The press reports in Romania mention around 20 people organised by Potra who was planning to disrupt Bucharest. The official Communiqué of the Prosecutor’s Office of the Ploiești Court of Appeal says « Following the investigations it was established that, on the night of December 7/8, the defendants P.H. and L.A.F. and other persons, were moving towards Bucharest Municipality, carrying white weapons (machetes, swords, daggers), firearms, as well as large sums of money (approximately USD 18,000 and RON 25,000), laptops, storage media and a professional drone, which were allegedly intended to be used to instigate and reward persons to commit crimes in unauthorized public meetings. » They investigate « the offenses of failure to comply with the regime of arms and ammunition, any operations with pyrotechnic articles and public instigation, at the residences owned by the defendant P.H. and in other locations where it is alleged that there were meetings between him and other persons suspected of involvement in the commission of these offenses. » Note that the 8th of December was the voting day in Romania and that Georgescu called on peaceful vigils in front of the very numerous closed voting polls, without any violence. Some people got in front of the voting polls expressing their shock for the denial of their right to vote, without incidents.
Only Potra and his chauffeur were detained on the night of 7/8 December and perquisitions took place at other people’s houses. On the 10th of December Horațiu Potra was released and placed under judicial control. The judges rejected the prosecutors’ request for pre-trial detention which means that he was judged not so dangerous after all.
In the inquiry, there is no tie between him and Georgescu’s campaign.
On Potra’s profile:
At the beginning of the ’90 he was in the French Legion Etrangère and then he was hired by different leaders like The Emir of Qatar. He created “Asociatia RALF”, a paramilitary company with romanian ex-fighters from the French Légion Etrangère and became very rich. The number of Romanians in the French Legion is reportedly the second largest after the French, so he has a big recruitment source. He was recently hired by the Government of the Democratic Republic of Congo in order to fight against M23. He hired several hundreds/a thousand Romanian fighters.
Sources (paid acces to an older french detailed article )https://revue21.fr/article/de-mysterieux-instructeurs-au-secours-de-letat-congolais/
Romanian journalist who published a translation of this article https://inpolitics.ro/si-totusi-cine-e-misteriosul-mercenar-horatiu-potra-si-ce-poate-face-el_1860084753.html
There are several reports estimating the number of Potra’s Romanian mercenaries in the DRC at 1000 and some commentators argue that it is impossible to organise such a huge military operation without the state and that Potra is in fact in close ties with the Romanian State, like Wagner to the Russian State. Several mercenaries are employees of the Romanian military and police with a suspended contract. In february 2024 a mercenary, named Vasile Badea, from Potra’s group was killed in DRC. He was buried in Bucharest with military honours by the State, although the ex policeman had suspended his contract with the Romanian State 6 month before. He had been instructor in the service of Special Actions (Serviciul de Actiuni Speciale) which is an elite corps specialised in difficult interventions, liberation of hostages, armed attacks etc., member of the ATLAS group of the EU. This could be complex, I did not research further, to see the international links.
https://www.impactpress.ro/2024/02/10/instruia-luptatorii-serviciului-de-actiuni-speciale/
ATLAS : https://www.europol.europa.eu/partners-collaboration/atlas-network
Another important aspect is that Potra campaigned in 2024 for the ruling party, PSD, at the local elections, disturbing fact that hints on him being rather a pawn for the State and the ruling party.
Potra is presented by the press as “Georgescu’s Mercenary”. Georgescu had a very bad press moment, when one day he said on Realitatea Plus TV that he didn’t know him and the next day, two photos appeared with him and his close supporter, Eugen Sechila, discussing at a table with Potra. He explained the next day on the same TV show that he meets 1000 people each week and that he didn’t remember exactly in which context he met him. Eugen Sechila was invited in the same show and said that they were discussing 4 years ago a possible security contract with Potra, but that it was a short meeting and this was it. Eugen Sechila knows Potra because he also was in the French Légion Etrangère. Georgescu explained that he refused the state security offered to presidential candidates and that he preferred ex-fighters from the French Légion Etrangère, and that his security was organised through Sechila.
In an opinion paper, well-known journalist Cornel Nistorescu, Director-General of the Cotidianu site wrote « Horațiu Potra can go home with a Diploma of Honor from the government and Marcel Ciolacu personally (the PSD Prime Minister-TN), as well as with comradely thanks from the SRI (Romanian Intelligence Service, ex Securitate) leadership for the kindness with which he played the role of the great danger to the country, helping the SRI to put into operation this post-electoral mini-opera. After all, the portrait of Horațiu Potra with his shiny cap like a handball has permanently stuck to the name of Călin Georgescu and will not disappear from there until Georgescu falls from the short list of the main presidential candidates.»
More to come.