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Russia Ambassador to Romania attacks opinion website and newspaper, calls authors "boors". Contributors.ro website, authors react

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An opinion article published by Romanian opinion and debate website Contributors.ro, called „The fascist lure of Comrade Putin”, which was re-published by newspaper Romania libera, has sparked a harsh reaction from Russia Ambassador to Bucharest Oleg Malginov. In a press release published on the embassy website, Olginov claimed that „any boor having a say in the pages of central [Romanian] newspapers is not necessary at all”. He also said that he was „surprised and disappointed” to read the article and that once he did so „the informative portal Contributors.ro and Romania libera newspapers have ceased to exist for me as media outlets worthy of respect”.

Contributors.ro – which is not an informative website, but one that encourages public debate on major issues of interest for the Romanian public – reacted by publishing the stand of the authors of the article which prompted Ambassador Malginov’s statement, Vladimir Tismaneanu and Marius Stan.

The two wrote, among others, that „the Ambassador considers he can teach lessons to media in Romania, a free country which is a member of NATO and the EU, to teach it what it should publish and what it should censor. We believe this is an act of historical confusion: Romania is no longer a „popular democracy”. The Warsaw Pact collapsed many years ago. We are in 2015 and the freedom of speech is guaranteed by the Romanian Constitution, as is the freedom of opinion.”

Contributors.ro also said it disavowed the „insulting reaction, based on no arguments at all, of the Ambassador of the Russian Federation to Bucharest, Mr. Oleg Malginov, to the writings of Vladimir Tismaneanu and Marius Stan, two reputed Romanian historians and publicists.

„We consider that Ambassador Oleg Malginov used insults deemed unacceptable for a civilised world, and his language dishonors him. No self-respecting diplomat would name the one who has coordinated a report to condemn Romanian communism in terms such as „any boor””.

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