By Simona Carlugea, RFE/RL's Romanian Service and RFE/RL's Bulgarian Service November 11, 2025

Authorities in Romania have arrested a former senator for allegedly attempting to offer a 1 million-euro ($1.16 million) bribe to the country's defense minister to facilitate an arms deal that could be fraudulently financed by a European Union program.

The deal in question was convoluted: to purchase Russian-type shells in Kazakhstan, import them to Romania, refurbish and relabel them as Romanian shells, then sell them on to Ukraine via an intermediary in Bulgaria.

The idea was to create a scheme for future business that might obtain funds from the EU's Rearm Europe program, launched in March to support weapons manufacturing in the 27-nation bloc. The Russian-type shells are widely used in Ukraine but not produced in EU countries.

RFE/RL's Romanian Service has spoken to two key figures in the case.

One described being approached by former Senator Marius Ovidiu Isaila, another by a Bulgarian businessman called Roman Ivanov Angelov.

In early October, Angelov allegedly led a delegation that approached the head of Romtehnica, an arms trading company that represents the Romanian Defense Ministry, seeking to make use of its contacts in Kazakhstan.

"They proposed a deal to me," Romtehnica chief Razvan Mincu told RFE/RL. "We would take ammunition from Kazakhstan and resell it to them."

But Mincu said the offer looked "suspicious" and that he rejected the proposals.

According to a report by Romanian prosecutors, Isaila approached an intermediary to try to bribe Defense Minister Ionut Mosteanu to facilitate the deal.