Romania |
Russia |
Romania–Russia relations are the foreign relations between Romania and Russia. Romania has an embassy in Moscow and 2 consulate-general (in Rostov-on-Don and Saint Petersburg). Russia has an embassy in Bucharest and a consulate-general in Constanţa. Historical relations have oscillated between grudging cooperation, neutrality and open hatred and hostility.
Both countries refused to recognize Kosovo's independence from Serbia and strongly supported its territorial integrity (albeit for different reasons). About 30,000 Russians live in Romania, mainly in the Tulcea County (see Lipovans). About 5,308 Romanians live in Russia, mainly in the Russian Far East. Both countries are full members of the Council of Europe and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.
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In 1992 and 1993, relations between the two were especially strained, as they backed opposite sides in the Transnistria conflict. Romania is part of NATO, which Russia views in a highly negative light. Debates over the status of Transnistria maintain antagonism between Romanians and Russians. Furthermore, according to The Balkans: Nationalism, War, and the Great Powers, 1804-1999 by Misha Glenny, dislike of Russia and Russians is deeply integrated into Romanian culture since the end of the 19th century due to chronic quarrels between the two countries, and has been for most of the modern era. Many Russians have negative views of Romanians as well.
Russian-Romanian relations were generally cordial until the end of the 19th century when Russia was helping Romania free itself of Ottoman domination.
Russia's role as a spiritual "guardian" for the Ottomon Empire's Orthodox Christian subjects was affirmed in the 1774 Treaty of Kuchuk Kainardji, and Russia soon after gained a border with the Ottomon Empire right next to the Romanian principalities.[1] The "Danubian Principalities" (Wallachia and Moldavia) were then semi-autonomous, ruled by Greek Phanariot hospodars, whom the Romanians (both the boyars and the peasantry) widely resented. The hospodars were overthrown by a Romanian revolution led by Vladimirescu (a former Russian army soldier). A Romanian oligarchy replaced the Greek Phanariot one, but faced with the threat of peasant unrest, the new Romanian proto-state actually welcomed the return of Ottomon rule.[2] However, Romania was flooded with French literary works transmitting Enlightenment ideas, and due to the similarity of Romanian and French, these had a much faster effect on Romania than other areas.[2] Hence, from a very early time, there was competition between France and Russia for Romania's affinities, even though Russia was the only one of the two to have any real immediate significance to Romania.
Romania's independence from the Ottoman Empire was achieved mainly with Russian assistance, although during the Russo-Turkish War in 1877 it was the Russians that requested military assistance from Romania, after suffering heavy losses in Bulgaria[3].
From very early on, however, Romanian economic competition with Russia throttled good relations. Romania is a natural economic rival of Russia (on the eve of World War II, in fact, it was the world's fourth larges food exporter, after Russia, Canada and the US)[4]: if managed properly, it is a breadbasket, and also had a large supply of oil at the time. Russia moved to try to make Romania a pliant satellite. Romanian boyars were thus forced to sign the Organic Declarations by Russia[2]. Balkans expert Misha Glenny explains Russia's historical attitude towards Romania as such:
...Russia saw wheat cultivation in Romania as a a threat to its own harvests in southern Russia, much of it sold on to Britain and France. If the Principalities were able to modernize the port facilities on the Danube and the Black Sea, they could begin to undercut the price of Russian wheat on world markets. To throttle this competition, Russia exploited its position as protector of the Principalities by allowing the mouth of the Danube to silt up. Russia's interest in the Principalities was essentially strategic. St. Petersburg wanted a pliant satellite, not an economic competitor.
Russia's actions caused a multiplication of anti-Russian sentiment throughout the Principalities, for each group having a different reason. The urban elite (the later Liberals) were frustrated by Russia's opposition to reform in Romania; while landowning boyars (the later Conservatives) were frustrated by Russia's impediments on the economy.[2] These feelings provided the basis for the modern anti-Russian sentiment in Romania.
In 1848, Romanians for the first time revolted against Russia, and the Russian flag and the Organic Declarations were burned in public.[2] Romania in fact wooed the Porte, which had to be "persuaded" by Russia not to aid the Romanians.
In July 1853, Russia invaded and occupied Romania.[2] Russian occupation was harsh and all political organizations were suppressed. When the Porte declared war on Russia in October of that year, Romanians hoped desperately that Russia would be driven from their country (ironically by the country which they had just recently separated from). This wish was granted by the coalition of both Turkey and Austria against Russia.
On the onset of World War II, Romania was divided in sympathies. Most of the country followed the Liberals' Western ideals, mainly represented by Nicolae Titulescu, while swathes of peasantry and young intellectuals supported the fascism of Corneliu Zelea Codreanu. Initially allied with France and the United Kingdom, Romania pledged neutrality early in the war. Titulescu had a policy of a "balancing act", which succeeded (while he was in power) of balancing out the dangerous influences of both the Third Reich (Nazi Germany) and the Soviet Union, by trying to maintain cordial relations with both sides. Titulescu's Romania also supported the other two members of the Little Entente (Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia) whenever possible, and tried to remind France of her commitments in the region. However, in addition to the destabilizing growth and momentum of Codreanu's various fascist organizations (the Iron Guard, TPT, etc.), there was also the king and his "camarilla", who had returned to Romania. The goal of King Carol (and his camaraderie, a circle of business men as well as his wife, Elena Lupescu's influential "friends") was to create an industrialized Romania, brought to the standards of Western Europe. However, Romania's population was dominated by rural peasantry, who greatly resented the upper classes, and would vehemently oppose any such plan. The King, having already vastly increased his influence by exploiting political quarrels both between parties and within the Liberal party as well as using his right to decide who the Prime Minister was, was eventually persuaded that democracy was an obstacle to his goal of an industrialized Romania. The electorate and parliament slowly became more and more dependent on the King, and were practically his tool by 1938. Codreanu's influence was also growing. He won support mainly among Moldavian and Transylvanian Romanian peasants not only by protesting in favor of their rights, he also actually gave assistance in bringing in the harvest, building bridges, etc. The affinity of the peasantry to Codreanu grew as resentment to the king and his camaderie grew, not in the least because of large amount of Jews in close association with him (which also aided the indoctrination of the peasants with anti-Semitic ideologies), including his wife. In 1936, Titulescu was forced to resign over a scandal, and in 1938, the Liberals lost their dominance of the parliament. Even more alarmingly, about 26% of the electorate voted for Codreanu's party, and 9% for the Goga-Cuza alliance (an anti-Semitic coalition which had since broken with Codreanu). Carol, repulsed by Codreanu, allowed the Goga-Cuza alliance into the government, and after two months had sown discord between them and Codreanu's faction. The two groups began fighting, and Carol announced a state of emergency and a ban on all political activity, basically solidifying his dictatorship. Facing a decision between a monarchy and a fascist state, the Liberals quickly sided with Carol. By this time, Czechoslovakia and Poland had already been attacked by Germany, having been abandoned by the reluctance of France to engage in war.
However, the fall of France and Britain's retreat from continental Europe rendered their promises of protection meaningless, and on June 26, 1940, the Soviet Union issued an ultimatum forcing Romania to cede Bessarabia, Northern Bukovina and the Hertza region. Consequently, Romania left the Allied camp and joined the Axis. Romania contributed extensively to Operation Barbarossa, and also aided Nazi Germany economically. Romania also annexed Transnistria, partly as a compensation for the loss of Northern Transylvania to Hungary. This move was met with much controversy and opposition in Romania.[6] After the tides reversed against the Axis in 1944, Romania again switched sides and joined the Allies, with the Romanian Army fighting alongside the Soviets across Central and Eastern Europe.
The forceful imposition of communism on Romania, described by Misha Glenny's book as the "only Balkan country in which practically none of the population supported communism", as well as the Transnistria conflict have obviously not improved the situation for cultural relations between the two groups either.
Romania's foreign policy after 1990 was built exclusively on geo-strategic reasons and less on economic relations, which has led to minimal relations with Russia.
It was only in 1999 that Bucharest said it was ready to reconsider its relations with Moscow, both at political and economic level.
A series of high-level contacts culminated with a visit of President Traian Basescu to Moscow in 2005, but his statements at the time, of overcoming historical prejudice of the previous 15 years, did not take shape as the relations continued to freeze.
A main source of tension now is the status of Moldova. The conflict over Moldova, or Bessarabia, is not new. It has been ongoing between Romania and Russia for over a century, due to Russia's strategic interests in the region conflicting with Romania's goal of a unified pan-Romanian state. Bessarabia, now known to most of the world as Moldova, was originally a region within Moldavia; Romania was forced to hand it over to Russia at the 1870s Congress of Berlin. It was briefly regained, then retaken by the Soviet Union after World War II. Romanians may view Moldova as being "stolen" by Russia. Romania regained the territory at the end of World War I, only to lose it again at the end of World War II. At the time of the fall of the Soviet Union, the Romanian language (under the controversial name of the "Moldovan language") with a Latin script was mandated as the official language of Moldova, causing conflict with non Romanian-speaking regions (namely, Gagauzia and Transnistria). However, Moldova opted against rejoining Romania at the time, claiming that it had a separate national identity (see: Moldovan–Romanian relations; movement for the unification of Romania and Moldova). Romanians may view Moldovans as being victims of forced Russification and brainwashing.
After the fall of the USSR, the Russian governments' position toward the Romanian Treasure remained the same and various negotiations failed. The Romanian-Russian treaty of 2003 did not mention the Treasure; presidents Ion Iliescu and Vladimir Putin decided to create a commission to analyze this problem, but no advances were made.
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