Russia Accuses Klaus Iohannis of Distorting History, Rehabilitating Nazis

"Some learn from history and make peace, others constantly try to coerce, aggress or invade their sovereign neighbors", Romania retorts.

By Romania Journal Last updated Aug 29, 2024

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The Russian Embassy in Romania presented on its Facebook page the statements of the spokeswoman of the Russian MFA, Maria Zakharova, in which she accuses the authorities in Bucharest of distorting history, calling the statements of President Klaus Iohannis in the message sent on August 23, on the occasion, as slanderous on the Day of Commemoration of the Victims of Fascism and Communism, in which he stated that “Nazi and Soviet policies led to the Holocaust and genocide”. Russian MFA also accused President Klaus Iohannis of “rehabilitating Nazi criminals”.

In response, the Romanian Foreign Ministry (MAE) posted a message on the X network on Thursday according to which “some learn from history and make peace, others constantly try to coerce, aggress or invade their sovereign neighbors” and also lie and manipulate in constantly.

“Some learn from history and make peace, others constantly try to coerce, aggress or invade their sovereign neighbors. Another pattern is that they constantly lie, distort and manipulate,” the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Thursday on “X”, the former Twitter network.

The reaction of the MFA comes after the Russian Embassy in Bucharest published statements by Maria Zakharova on Wednesday evening. “About the slanderous statements of the President of Romania. On August 23, on the occasion of the revisionist date announced in the European Union, the ‘European Day of Commemoration of the Victims of Nazism and Communism’, the President of Romania, Klaus Iohannis, slandered our country, attributing to the Soviet Union, along with Hitler’s Germany, the responsibility for the outbreak of the Second World War and – you won’t believe it – the Holocaust”, Zaharova said.

“We are talking about blasphemous and deliberately false insinuations. Klaus Iohannis and those who wrote this to him should remember, first of all, the ‘Munich Accords’ of 1938, which actually gave Adolf Hitler the signal to seize Europe, as and the active participation of the Romanian army in the years 1941-1944 in the war against the Soviet Union on the side of Germany, the genocide of the Roma and the Jews carried out by the Romanian state”, said Zakharova.

“In just three days, from October 22 to October 24, 1941, in occupied Odessa, on the orders of Ion Antonescu, 22,000 civilians, most of them of Jewish nationality, were shot, hanged and burned alive”, citing actions from that time of the “pro-fascist regime from Bucharest and the Romanian military”. “Perhaps Klaus Iohannis would like to say something about this? Or is everything designed for the ‘TikTok’ generation, for whom only the number of clicks under the videos is important? They don’t know history. Then you should expect problems on a planetary scale. These plans were thwarted only by the Soviet Union at the cost of incredible heroic efforts and millions of victims,” she claimed. “Unfortunately, the current leadership of Romania not only does not try to learn lessons from the past, but also embarks on the slippery path of distorting history and rehabilitating Nazi criminals. This will not lead to any good“, concluded Zakharova.

President Iohannis’ message on August 23

On August 23, on the Day of Commemoration of the Victims of Fascism and Communism, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis sent a message stating that this day “represents an opportunity to remember and honor the memory of the victims of the totalitarian regimes established on the European continent and the sacrifices of all those who did not give up to fight against them, for democracy and freedom”.

“85 years ago, on August 23, 1939, the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact was signed, a terrible agreement following which the destinies of millions of people were sacrificed for the interests of some criminal regimes,” Klaus Iohannis recalled.

“Nazi and Soviet policies led to the Holocaust and genocide, to deportations, to the separation of families, to famine and numerous abuses. These horrors left scars and traumas that affected entire generations, forced to face poverty and the persecution of totalitarian regimes”, the Romanian president wrote.

August 23, the day of the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact, was established by the European Parliament, through a 2008 Declaration, as the European Day of Commemoration of the Victims of Nazism and Communism. At the same time, in 2011, the Romanian Parliament, through Law no. 198, declared August 23 the Day of Commemoration of the Victims of Fascism and Communism.

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