“The stakes of the Galati drone are huge. Great historical events begin in small countries”
Professor Vladimir Tismăneanu, professor of political science at the University of Maryland, commented on the incident in Galați – where a drone fell on a block of flats on the night of Thursday to Friday – in an analysis that reflects the relevance that Romania has in Moscow's strategy.
“I always say it to my students. I repeat it for my readers. Great historical events begin in small countries. Or at the border between a large country and one of medium or small size. The stakes of the drone in Galați are huge,” the professor begins his message on Facebook.
He then comments on Putin's appearance related to the Galati incident. “The fact that Putin or his doppelgänger appeared to support the official Russian legend speaks volumes. This kind of thing doesn't happen unless it's something really vital to the Kremlin,” he continued. In his first reaction to the incident, the Russian president questioned the origin of the drone. “Send us the leftovers,” Putin said. Today, Nicușor Dan published both pictures and the conclusions of the technical report on the provenance of the drone.
“A Bucharest-Budapest axis was taking shape”
“Such a thing wouldn't happen if it wasn't something really vital for the Kremlin,” continues Tismăneanu, referring to Putin.
He then mentions the canceled election in Romania. “The 2024 elections in Romania were rigged through an unprecedented psychological-technological operation. The scenario predicted the success of the anti-European candidate. A Bucharest-Budapest axis was taking shape. Let's not forget that it was a turbulent period. Trump had not revealed in his electoral campaign the irreducible hostility to NATO. Nor the sympathy, suspected but not sufficiently documented from a factual point of view, for the Russian dictator. They the moles in Romania were instantly activated. Some had been established for years in the West”, continues the professor.
“The Russian Party in Romania heard the message and mobilized”
Tismăneanu stated, in the same message, that American Vice President JD Vance, through the speech delivered at the Security Conference in Munich in February 2025, “formulated the main directions of the strategy to destroy the North Atlantic alliance”, recalling that “Romania was mentioned expressis verbis”.
“The reference was favorable to Călin Georgescu and the AUR movement party. A neo-totalitarian party. Neo-legionary. The Russian Party in Romania heard the message and mobilized. I don't think that Nicușor Dan and some of those who would be his advisers noticed what was actually happening. The fumbling and stuttering that followed prove how confused they were. The game was beyond them then. I want to hope. that in the meantime they woke up, although I have enough reasons to be skeptical”, Vladimir Tismăneanu also declared.
He ends his message by recommending a book, which he says he considers “the most serious demystifying undertaking related to the new ideological storms we are living through.”
“The book of the French political thinker Arnaud Miranda appeared this year at Gallimard in the collection «Bibliothèque de géopoltique». The final chapter is entitled «Et maintenant?» (in trans. – And now?). It begins with the subchapter “L'énigme Vance” (The Vance Enigma).
Vladimir Tismăneanu is a professor of political science at the University of Maryland. In 2024, the Humanitas publishing house published his book “Aventura ideilor”.
He is the author of the researches: “The Devil in History: Communism, Fascism, and Some Lessons of the Twentieth Century” (University of California Press, 2012), “The Secret World of Nomenclature” (Humanitas, 2012), “On Communism. The Destiny of a Political Religion”, “The Archeology of Terror”, “The Unrepeatable Past”, “The Shipwreck of Utopia”, “Stalinism for Eternity. A Political History of Romanian Communism”.
He is also co-editor, together with Dorin Dobrincu and Cristian Vasile, of the “Final Report of the Presidential Commission for the Analysis of the Communist Dictatorship in Romania” (Humanitas, 2007).
