Author: Aura Piha

Bogdan Diaconu, deputy president of the Commission for the Romanians outside Romania with the Chamber of Deputies in Bucharest, says the neighboring Ukraine is recruiting ethnic Romanians from the Cernauti region in the west to deploy them in the regions controlled by pro-Russia militants instead of Ukrainians. The Romanian official says that this is the solution the authorities in Kiev have found to what he called ‘the extermination’ of the Romanians in the region. His statement comes after hundreds of ethnic Romanians have received conscription orders, which means they could be deployed in eastern Ukraine to fight pro-Russia rebels. The Romanian community in Ukraine, which consists of roughly half a million people, is concentrated mainly in the west of the country, in the Romanian territories annexed by the former Soviet Union back in 1940, which now belong to Ukraine.

The black boxes retrieved from the Malaysian airliner that crashed in Ukraine have confirmed the plane went down after the cockpit had been depressurized by the explosion of a missile, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council was quoted by the international press agencies as saying. The Malaysia Flight 17, which was going from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, was shot down on July 17th in eastern Ukraine in a region controlled by the pro-Russia militants. Kiev and the West have blamed Moscow for the tragedy, while the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay on Monday said the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 might amount to a war crime. In another development Ukrainian forces have announced they have taken control over some strategic positions close to the place where the airliner crashed.

Prime Minister Victor Ponta on Monday conveyed a message to the Muslim community in Romania wishing them all the best on the occasion of Bairam, the festivity marking the end of Ramadan. ‘We have a Muslim community with which we share the tradition of harmonious cohabitation, strengthened through cultural and social solidarity, mutual respect, and the respect o traditions and faith’ — the Romanian Prime Minister went on to say. Romania, a country with a Christian Orthodox majority, boasts a community of 70 thousand Muslims, mostly consisting of Tartar and Turkish ethnics, who are now living in Dobrogea, southeastern Romania, a province, which was part of the Ottoman Empire for centuries.

According to Radio Romania correspondent to the Middle East, the UN-brokered ceasefire was repeatedly violated on Monday. Several missiles have been launched from Gaza against southern Israel. In turn, Israel says that an offensive is needed to put an end to Hamas’ rocket attacks and destroy its network of tunnels. According to Palestinian sources, the Israeli military operations that commenced three weeks ago have caused the death of 1030 Palestinians, mostly civilians and numerous children. Israel says it has lost 43 soldiers and three Israeli nationals have been killed in the rocket attacks from Gaza.

Russia’s expansionist attitude should be a reason for concern, as it has the potential to propagate negative situations on Romania’s territory, head of the Romanian Intelligence Service, George Maior told Adevarul LIVE on Monday. Maior has also stated that the Black Sea region, which Romania is part of, will in time become a geopolitical zone, an intersection point of some very powerful players — Russia, Turkey and Ukraine. The new international tensions are not specific to classical war, but they rather characterize a new type of war, a more complex one, with actions such as cyber attacks, that will affect the region for a long period of time, head of the Romanian Intelligence Service, George Maior has pointed out.

REACTION – The international community firmly condemns Russia’s actions in Crimea and threatens to impose new sanctions on Moscow after Russian president Vladimir Putin on Tuesday signed an agreement that allegedly sanctions the annexation of Crimea and Sevastopol to the Russian Federation. German Chancellor Angela Merkel responded, seeing Russia’s actions as going against international law. In turn, French president Francois Hollande has called on the EU to react. Moreover, British Foreign Secretary William Hague has announced that London will suspend all military cooperation with Moscow. In turn, US vice-president Joe Biden sees Russia’s actions as a territorial takeover. Before signing the agreement, Putin addressed the Russian Parliament, labelling Sunday’s referendum as a legal and democratic move. Putin referred to the precedent in Kosovo, a province with an Albanian-speaking majority that declared its independence from Serbia in 2008. On Sunday’s referendum, 97% of voters expressed their willingness to separate from Ukraine.

ROMANIA AND UKRAINE – The Romanian Foreign Ministry believes that Russia’s efforts to annex Crimea and Sevastopol might destabilize the entire region, representing a clear option for Moscow’s international isolation. The Foreign Ministry expressed its staunch disagreement with Russia’s latest actions, considering them illegitimate and going against fundamental principles of international law, a clear breach of the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of neighbouring Ukraine. The Ministry also expressed concern that Russia’s decision to alter international borders might encourage frozen conflicts in Romania’s vicinity. Romania nevertheless hopes that despite Russia’s decision, the Governments in Kiev and Moscow would reach a solution to the current crisis.

MOLDOVA – According to Nicolae Timofti, president of the Republic of Moldova, an ex-soviet country with a Romanian-speaking majority, Moscow’s possible acceptance of an application from Transdniester, a breakaway Russian enclave in the Republic of Moldova, to join the Russian Federation, would be a step in the wrong direction. The Moldovan official has termed such actions as counterproductive. His reaction comes after the speaker of Parliament in Tiraspol, Mihai Burla has sent a letter to the president of the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian legislature, Sergey Naryshkin, in which he recalls that 97.2% of Transdniester’s voters stood for joining Russia in the 2006 referendum. We recall that Transdniester de facto came out of Chisinau’s control in 1992, following an armed conflict, which left hundreds of dead and was settled with the intervention of the Russian troops on the side of the separatists. Timofti went on to say that the Republic of Moldova didn’t recognize the returns in the Crimean referendum and said he would tackle the geopolitical situation with his Romanian counterpart Traian Basescu in Iasi on Wednesday.

VISIT – Romania supports Albania’s efforts to be granted EU candidate status, Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta on Tuesday announced in Tirana. The Romanian official held talks with his coutnerpart Edi Rama about how Romania might actually supports Albania’s EU bid. Also on Tuesday, the head of government met in Athens with Antonio Samaras, the Prime Minister of Greece, a country currently holding the six-month rotating presidency of the EU. Talks focused on topics high on the EU agenda.

NATO – NATO’s anti-missile shield will become operational in Romania as scheduled next year. The spokesperson for the project Richard Lehner has told Radio Romania the Aegis system to be installed in Deveselu, southern Romania will this summer be put to a series of tests aimed at proving its capability of operating both on sea and land. Last week the US Court of Accounts estimated that out of technical reasons, the implementation of the anti-missile shield in Romania and Poland might be delayed.

BAN – Four Hungarian citizens, including two members of the far-right Jobbik party, suspected of carrying out nationalist-extremist activities have been banned from entering Romania for one year. Romanian Interior Ministry says that other persons involved in permanent nationalist activities running counter community norms and national legislation in the field are also being monitored.