Social Democratic leader, presidential candidate Mircea Geoana says spring visit to Moscow aimed at "normalizing dialogue" with Russia

Presidential candidate and Social Democratic Party (PSD) leader Mircea Geoana said on Friday that his private visit to Moscow this spring, about which HotNews.ro first reported this week, was aimed mainly at „normalizing” the dialogue between Romania and the Russian Federation in a period of „frozen relationship” for which he blames incumbent president Traian Basescu, Romanian news agency NewsIn reports.

Geoana said he recently received an official invitation to visit Moscow from the Russian Senate speaker, a visit he would honor after Romania’s presidential elections.

Asked what he discussed during his private visit to Moscow in April 2009, he said: unofficial contacts are unofficial contacts, they prepared this political moment which is due to come. He said he made the visit following consultations with relevant institutions, especially the Foreign Ministry.

He would defy any provocation to give a political angle to an issue which is in the interest of the country, Geoana said.

He said he paid several unofficial visits to a multitude of countries including the US, Italy, Germany, Britain, Austria and France. And he said that while the place of Romania is with the Western world. the national interest imposes normalizing relations with its neighbors, an issue which the incumbent president has tackled in a „primitive” manner.

The PSD leader also said that Romania was now having „so fragile” relations with important countries.