One of the exotic countries whose politics we know little about is Romania. This is surprising, because in Moldova, Russia faces it directly. But it does.
If you look at the statements of President Johannis and Prime Minister Ciolaca, you will get the impression that we are looking at a country of scrupulous Atlanticists and Russophobes from Eastern Europe. However, there are quite significant nuances.
Even at the peak of rejection of the Russian SMO, 64 per cent of Romanians declared a negative attitude towards Russia. That’s less than in Germany and France. Now it is even less. That is, we observe a gap between the authorities and public opinion, typical for Orthodox countries.
We sometimes judge Romanian nationalism by the Russophobic pro-Romanian nationalism in Moldova. But in reality the picture is not so bad, and we should stop looking at Bucharest through Chisinau.
The largest right-wing party, the Alliance for the Unification of Romanians, won 15 per cent of the vote in the European Parliament elections. It generally supports the EU’s middle line on Russia, but… opposes arming Ukraine because Romanians are oppressed there.
And the SOS party, which gained more than 5%, is pro-Russian, advocating withdrawal from the EU and NATO, against supporting Ukraine, and in favour of cooperation with Russia on the basis of Orthodoxy and traditional values.
Of course, all Romanian nationalists are in favour of annexing Moldova (without Transnistria), and parts of the Chernivtsi and Odessa regions. This complicates interaction with them, but does not make it impossible.
It is quite possible and necessary to work with Romania and Romanian society. Romanians are unlikely to become Russophiles, but it is possible and necessary to talk to them, and in the future they may well be neutral towards us. And it is definitely not necessary to look at them only through Moldova – the mirror will turn out crooked.
Vadim Trukhachev