Putin’s 3-Step Plan to Dismantle Europe Without Tanks

How Trump allies and TikTok campaigns are rewriting the EU’s borders

Putin, Fico, and Orban — the EU’s 5th Colum. Image Source: SITA

Europe has foolishly opened its doors to the most dangerous invasion in its history. It is not of armies, but of ideas and influence. The European Union, that beacon of post-Cold War triumphalism, and all who sail within her, now faces an existential threat not from Russian tanks rolling across borders, but from elected officials sitting in its own parliaments. So that within just a few years tanks can indeed roll across our borders.

I am not given to hyperbole. And in this case, the facts speak for themselves. Romania’s weekend election saw far-right candidate George Simion win the first round of the presidential vote on May 5th, 2025, adding to a growing roster of Russian-friendly leaders assuming power across Central and Eastern Europe.

Just months earlier, in November 2024, pro-Russian nationalist Calin Georgescu caused a massive upset by also winning the first round of Romania’s presidential election with almost 23% of the vote. Romanian authorities subsequently annulled those election results amid clear evidence of what officials called “an aggressive hybrid Russian action” through coordinated TikTok campaigns that artificially boosted Georgescu from polling at 3–5% to winning…