Pro-Russia populist, who won first round of election that was later annulled, suspected of communicating false information

Romanian prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation into Călin Georgescu, the far-right, Moscow-friendly populist who surged from almost nowhere to win the first round of the country’s cancelled presidential election last year.

The announcement of the investigation covering a number of separate accusations took place after Georgescu, 62, was stopped by police in Bucharest traffic on Wednesday as he was about to submit his candidacy for a rerun of the election, which is scheduled for May.