In the context in which Mircea Geoană is the subject of controversies caused by the revelation that one of the coordinators of his campaign, Rareş Mănescu, has connections with a Russian businessman and propagandist of Moscow, NATO states that the checks for obtaining the security authorization are done by the national authorities.
Mircea Geoană obtained their security authorization from the Romanian authorities. Archive photo
As Mircea Geoană could not work within NATO, especially in a position such as deputy general secretary, without being verified first, News.ro asked an official of the Alliance how the current candidate for the position of president of Romania obtained the authorization security necessary for all NATO employees.
“Mr. Geoana served as Deputy Secretary General of NATO between October 2019 and September 2024. All NATO employees must obtain a security clearance from their national authorities in order to assume their duties within the organization, and Mr. Geoana did this,” said the NATO official.
Therefore, Mircea Geoană held the position of deputy general secretary of NATO after having previously obtained, according to the regulations, a security authorization from the national authorities.
Regarding the verification of his possible dubious connections with Moscow, especially since he was responsible for relations with Russia within NATO, the press office of the Alliance specified that there was no information in this regard.
“During the period in which he was Deputy General Secretary of NATO, Mr. Geoana consistently worked in support of the Transatlantic Alliance and in defense of NATO’s democratic values”, the NATO official said.
All these discussions appeared in the context in which Mircea Geoană, who recently resigned from NATO to run for the presidential elections this fall, is at the center of a scandal, after The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project revealed that one of the campaign coordinators his, Rareş Mănescu, does business with a well-known Moscow propagandist, who traveled to Crimea at least 10 times after the illegal annexation in 2014.
Journalists from The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project network say that, while leading the movement preceding Geoană’s campaign, and he had not yet resigned from NATO, Rareş Mănescu established a company with the Russian businessman Aleksei Kozlov. According to the journalists, Aleksei Kozlov would also have had a secret identity, which he would have used to plead in favor of Russia.
Mircea Geoană, who believes that a “kompromat operation” specific to the FSB was launched against him, declared on Thursday that he addressed the specialized institutions of the Romanian state, but also allied structures to clarify this situation.
