Last week, there was political chaos in Romania following a Russian insult towards Her Majesty Margareta, Custodian of the Romanian Crown. Now, the Russian Embassy has made a somewhat apology to the Romanian Royal Family. Shortly after apologising in a private email to the Romanian royalists, the Russian Embassy published a critical article against Her Majesty Margareta, Custodian of the Romanian Crown on their Facebook page. This has created a unique situation with dual communication that continues to dominate the news in Romania and continues to dominate the already poor political relationship between the two nations.
The Russian Embassy in Romania wrote in a letter to the Romanian royalist movement the following: “It was nothing personal, we were forced – because Her Majesty’s speech was published in the Romanian media – to explain the official position of the Russian Federation. As in the past, the Embassy holds a respect for the Romanian Royal House as an entity that symbolises a long period in the history of Romania”.
Last week, the Russian Embassy invited the royalist movement of Romania to a meeting. The royalists do not want to meet with the Russians until three demands are accepted. These demands are that the Russian Embassy deletes the offending press release on their Facebook page, publicly apologises to Her Majesty and gives a public condemnation of the Russian Ambassador because of the press release he published.
Historian and former leader of Romania’s royalist movement, Tudor Vişan-Miu, explained to Royal Central’s Senior Europe Correspondent, Oskar Aanmoen that they are in dialogue with the Russian Embassy and now want to organise a round table to debate Russian influence in Romania. Vişan-Miu said: “After entering a dialogue with the Russian Embassy in Bucharest, we announce that we have taken into consideration the opportunity to organise a round table with the following theme: ‘How much did the Soviet occupation in 1944 affected Romanian sovereignty and what are the consequences for today?’
Vişan-Miu also added that the Russian Ambassador has been told that he will receive an invitation to such a round table meeting, not a debate, after he has public apologised to Her Majesty Margareta, Custodian of the Romanian Crown.
It was on Thursday, 21 October that Her Majesty held a reception for the Diplomatic Corps of Romania. During her speech, the Custodian of the Romanian Crown expressed her feelings over the current political situation in Europe where she warned against Russian aggression. The Russian Embassy in Romania quickly reacted to this speech. They said that “Mrs Margareta” was playing with the big boys and advised her to use her time on fixing problems in Romania and not Russia.
This created much political turmoil. Many demanded that the Russian ambassador should be forced to leave the country, and in the last week, the ambassador was summoned by the Romanian government to give an explanation. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement where they said that they wanted to clear the air with the Russians following “unacceptable character of the positions of the Russian diplomatic mission to Romania.”
After the Romanian Foreign Ministry called the Russian Ambassador they have later issued a statement where they said that: “The Romanian part emphasised on the intolerable stance of the Russian diplomatic mission and reaffirmed the importance of avoiding useless rhetoric and the necessity of maintaining a public discourse in the limits of diplomatic standards, to avoid a negative impact on bilateral relations.”
