Romania expelled 3 Russian diplomats following the Ukrainian espionage scandal (the Austrian report)

Romania’s relationship with Russia has been recently affected by an Ukrainian espionage scandal, which led to the expelling of two Ukrainian military attaches and three Russian diplomats, according to Romania’s incumbent president Traian Basescu, quoted by a document obtained by NewsIn press agency.

An internal report, belonging to the Austrian Embassy in Bucharest, describes Romanian president Basescu’s speech on Tuesday, held at Bucharest EU diplomats’ lunch. Basescu is quoted to declare that „Romania’s relationship with Russia has been affected by the espionage scandal and by the decision to expel three Russian diplomats from the Embassy in Bucharest”. According to the document signed by the Austrian Ambassador Martin Eichtinger, Traian Basescu also stated that he believed Russia will never redraw from Transnistria, which will become a second Kaliningrad.

As far as the relationship with Ukraine is concerned, the President underlined four problems:

• the fact that Ukraine does not respect the international environment agreement in managing the Bastroe Cannel;

• Ukraine does not implement the International Court of Justice’s verdict addressing the delimitation of the continental plateau around the Insula Serpilor (Island of Snakes);

• the Romanian minority from Ukraine is not represented at a parliamentary level, the way the Ukrainian minority is in Romania’s Parliament;

• following the mentioned espionage scene, the Romanian army had to modify all its communication systems’ frequencies.  

The Austrian report dates from May 14 and is addressed to the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and to the Austrian embassies in Brussels, Chisinau, Kiev and Moscow.