Romania buys weapons from the Americans instead of putting money into education and has become a major investor in the United States without receiving anything in return, according to narratives promoted by the Kremlin mouthpiece, Sputnik. The narratives start from a text by journalist Patrick André de Hillerin.
NEWS: “For years, official propaganda has tried to make us believe that the United States is the main investor in Romania. But the truth is the other way around: Romania is a major investor in the United States. And a non-profit investor for that matter”. This is the conclusion of an analysis made by the journalist Andre Patrick de Hillerin, published in the daily Libertatea.
The journalist makes an analysis of the strong influence that the USA has on the political, social and economic decisions made in Romania. Wikileaks revelations but also the daily press show how Romania is influenced in most of its decisions. The Embassy of the United States, not the Romanian Parliament or Government, is the institution where the major decisions are made.
Romanian politicians are not allowed to intervene in the justice system even to defend themselves before prosecutors, let alone to exercise their constitutional right to govern, by passing laws or reforming prosecutor's offices.
But American diplomats have the right to provide valuable recommendations, directives, and guidance to politicians, judges and prosecutors […] The situation of indirect investment isn’t better. After checking Central Bank data, the conclusion is that “out of a total of 90.773-billion-euro worth of investments, the US’s contribution was less than 7%, accounting for some 6.16 billion dollars. This means it ranks 5th, after four EU countries (Germany, Austria, France and Italy) [...] In fact, it's like Yerevan radio. The real investor is Romania, not the US. And the US intervenes in Romania not to protect its investments but to protect its money supplier. […] The very expensive strategy to equip the army, which the Romanian state has committed to, has one main beneficiary: the USA […] It seems that we have found our country project: to financially support the US economy”, Patrick de Hillerin bitterly concludes. He also wonders what Romania would have looked like if the 20 billion spent on American weapons had been invested in Romanian education”.
NARRATIVES: 1. Romania is a US colony that is being manipulated to uselessly spend its money on American weapons 2. Romania has become an investor in the American economy without receiving anything in return. 3. The United States is interfering in the Romanian justice system. 4. Washington's claim that the investors’ interests be protected is unjustified. 5. The money invested in armaments should have been used for education.
LOCAL CONTEXT / ETHOS: Against the background of Russia's increased military presence in the wider Black Sea region, the NATO states decided at the summit in Wales to allocate 2% of the GDP to the defense sector.
NATO's decision came after Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in 2014 and started to support separatism in the east of the country in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
Russia is currently trying to push the West into accepting the conditions set out on December 17, 2021, namely to divide Europe again into spheres of influence and for NATO to significantly reduce its presence in the ex-communist states (including Romania) and to make firm commitments that it will not expand in the future. One of the aims is to decisively tip the balance of power in the Black Sea and to restore the spheres of influence existing before the collapse of the USSR in 1991. At the same time, Russia is trying to re-establish a model of negotiations between the great powers that does not take into account the will and choices of smaller states. It should be noted that the ex-communist states have asked to be admitted into NATO and have agreed to implement a series of reforms in order to be accepted. Decisive for these states was the need for security guarantees to protect themselves from Russia, which throughout history has been a regional aggressor; Ukraine, which was attacked by Russia in 2014, is currently in this situation and therefore wants to benefit from NATO protection, especially since Russia has already broken its commitment to respect Ukraine’s territorial integrity.
PURPOSE: To undermine Romania's efforts to strengthen its armed forces. To question Romania's membership in NATO and the Romanian-American partnership. To undermine efforts to strengthen the rule of law.
WHY THE NARRATIVES ARE FALSE: The ‘Western colony’ is one of the most common Russian propaganda themes and has been adopted by nationalist circles in Romania, where the influence of the official propaganda of the Ceausescu regime and its emphasis on the idea of “non-interference in internal affairs” is still being felt. Any warning from the Western partners is interpreted (not only in Romania, but also in other Eastern European countries) as “interference in the internal affairs”. In fact, when they applied for admission to the Western club, Eastern European countries also committed to observing fundamental principles, rights and freedoms, and the warnings coming from partners are generally about such commitments being broken.
In fact, the West wants to strengthen the rule of law among the allied countries and to secure the trust of foreign investors that are looking for countries with a strong rule of law to protect their investments there. The condition of a strong rule of law is intrinsic to Western investors' confidence in entering such emerging markets.
For example, countries such as Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova do not attract large numbers of foreign investors because their democracies are not strong enough to guarantee the full observance of the rule of law.
The Sputnik text also contains a rather hilarious sentence: “Romanian politicians are not allowed to intervene in the justice system even to defend themselves before prosecutors, let alone to exercise their constitutional right to govern, by passing laws or reforming prosecutor's offices”, which is either a gross attempt to manipulate or mere inability to understand the separation of powers principle - the author is outraged that “interference in justice” is not allowed and mistakes the legislative process, the act of governing (which is the role of the executive) for judicial decisions.
As regards the numbers, the Sputnik news takes over incomplete and misleading data. It is true that the 2020 report of the Romanian National Bank places the US in fifth place among the foreign direct investors in Romania with 6.16 billion USD, but “misses” the 2.27 billion coming from the US to Romania via the Netherlands (see page 25 of the NBR report for 2020). This would bring the US closer to France, which ranks 3rd in this classification.
Bilaterally, Romanian investments in the purchase of arms from the USA, those 20 billion dollars invoked by the author, represent a percentage of about 0.06% of the European investments in the US in 2020 alone, which total 2.942 billion dollars according to official US statistics.
General Constatin Spinu has explained in an interview to Veridica.ro that the Russian secret services have not changed their “modus operandi” compared to the Cold War period and that one of the main disinformation tools they use is weaking trust and cohesion in any society targeted by such methods.
“I think Romania is not the only place where we can see such narratives. I believe that such narratives are circulating in all the countries of the European Union and in the NATO countries. Of course, they are adapted to the local context. We exchange views and lessons learned with all our allies and we see that such narratives exist in the Baltic countries, in Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, basically in all the NATO countries, but also in the European Union, in the western core of the European Union so to say. There are narratives adapted for these societies, Spânu said.
Also, the conclusion drawn by the author of the article, Patrick de Hillerin, which perfectly fits Sputnik’s narratives, namely that Romania spends more money on armament than on education, is also false.
Romania allocates 2% , just like most of the NATO states, as agreed by the member states at the 2014 Alliance summit, but in 2021 earmarked 2.5% of the GDP for education, and the target for 2022 is 4%. Anyway, these are completely different areas that each need funding, so comparing them or eliminating the funding of one in order to fund the second is out of the question.
Against the background of Russia's increased military presence and real threats, including the one clearly targeting Romania , Bucharest cannot just sit and wait, with a poorly equipped army and exposed to all the related security threats. In order to ensure its security, a state - even a neutral one, such as Switzerland - needs armed forces, and they must be properly equipped and trained, according to the standards in the field, in order to be able to fulfill their mission. The Romanian army joined NATO with Soviet equipment, which in time became obsolete and their replacement became a must. In addition, given that Romania is a NATO member, its equipment must be compatible with NATO
GRAIN OF TRUTH: In the past few years, Romania has bought armament from the US, which is one of the best in the world and proved only to the US’s strategic partners .
Check sources:
