Six people with alleged links to Russia have been detained in Romania on suspicion of planning a coup.

The Organised Crime Unit of the Public Prosecutor’s Office made the announcement in a statement on Thursday.

The suspects are said to have had multiple contacts with “agents of foreign powers, both on Romanian and Russian territory,’’ the statement by the Romanian organised crime and terrorism agency said.

Romanian media had reported that one of those arrested was a 101-year-old retired major general who repeatedly spread anti-Semitic propaganda in the media.

The agency has requested pre-trial detention for four of the suspects and house arrest for the other two.

A judge is expected to rule on this later on Thursday.

The public prosecutor’s office accused the detainees of treason and of founding a criminal group that it said had been planning to impair the sovereignty and independence of the Romanian state.

This was through undermining the country’s defence capabilities from 2023.

The suspects’ goal was to lead Romania out of NATO, eliminate the current constitutional order and political parties, and take over the country’s rule, it said.

They then planned to introduce a new constitution and to change the country’s name and flag, the statement said.

Two of the suspects travelled to Moscow in January, where they met people willing to support the group’s takeover of power in Romania, the public prosecutor said.

According to the Romanian domestic intelligence agency SRI, the suspects also planned to establish a paramilitary group with the aim of destabilising the constitutional order in Romania.

Members of the group had actively requested the support of officers from the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Bucharest, the SRI said in a statement.

The arrests follow the expulsion of two Russian diplomats from Romania on Wednesday, who had actively supported the group, the SRI said.

The Russian military attaché and his deputy had violated the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Bucharest said on Wednesday.

Romanian media had reported that the name of the Russian military attaché surfaced in criminal proceedings against the pro-Kremlin and far-right former presidential candidate Călin Georgescu, who was said to be under investigation on suspicion of inciting actions against the constitutional order and founding a fascist organisation.

Mr Georgescu won the first round of the presidential election in Romania on November 24, which was subsequently annulled.
He intended to run in the election on May 4.

 (dpa/NAN)