Romanian Foreign Ministry reacts to the message of Russian Embassy in Bucharest: Historical facts should be debated by historians

Romanian Foreign Ministry has retorted to a message posted by the Russian Embassy in Bucharest, according to which there is an ongoing denigration campaign of the Red Army, although the Russian soldiers had liberated “the Eastern and Central countries of fascism”, stating that it’s wise that historical facts should be a debate for historians.

“In the spirit of some relations with the Russian Federation that we want pragmatic and predictable it is wise that historical facts should be a topic of discussion for historians and for the academic environment in general. The Russian Embassy’s post doesn’t have the rigour that an academic debate can have, while the disseminated information in the public space through this post are not complete. We regret that the Russian Federation Embassy continues the series of <the historical episodes>. The past relations between Romania and the Russian Federation must not leave room for some speculation and baseless opinions that might harm the bilateral relations,” the Romanian Foreign Ministry said.

“We also remind there is a Romanian-Russian joint Commission, which has the goal of analysing the common history of the relations between Romania and Russian Federation. The Foreign Ministry has constantly evoked the importance of this joint commission of historians, including as a response to the <historical incursions> of the Russian Embassy to Romania. We invite the Russian Embassy to update the historical information that it is using, through a future session of the joint commission,” MAE added.

The Russian Embassy’s Facebook post says there is a denigration campaign against the Red Army and there is an attempt to label the Russian soldiers as “a bunch of robbers and rapists”, although they were the ones who “liberated the Eastern and Central European countries of fascism”.

“During a long period of time, the Western and the Romanian mass media has constantly published articles meant to denigrate the soldiers of the Red Army who liberated the Eastern and Central European countries of fascism. Within this perpetual propaganda campaign, anti-Soviet and anti-Russian hostile critics are insistently trying to convince people that the Red Army was a bunch of robbers and rapists who had no mercy for the population. Today we witness the revitalisation of this campaign.

Yet, these <experts> on atrocities of the Soviet soldiers forget to mention that such actions against civilians (robbery and rape) had been banned in the Red Army at the highest level and they had been punished by execution (…) Therefore, we urge people one more time to analyse the information published in the mass-media and to compare it with verified historical facts. Naturally, one question arises: who is benefiting of the poisonous oil of lie set on the fire of russophobia, infiltrated in the public conscience of the Romanian people, many years after hostilities had ended in Europe? May this owe to the upcoming 75th anniversary since Romania had been liberated by the Red Army?”, reads the Russian Embassy’s post.