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The USA is dictating Romanian policy, it seeks to destroy the EU and is waging a war against Russia, according to a number of false narratives promoted by the former Foreign Minister of Romania, Adrian Severin, a former convicted criminal. The narratives have emerged from an open letter the politician turned criminal has conveyed to the new Ambassador of the USA in Romania, Kathleen Kavalec.
Romanian policy, dictated by Washington
NEWS: “[…] The USA does not negotiate with anyone, least of all with Romania. It takes everything for granted, including the perspectives of our national reunification, or repatriating our heritage lost in the 1941-1944 war lost to the USSR, obtaining security guarantees in our relations with an eastern partner that the USA is currently arming, fueling its aspirations of becoming a major regional player and forcing us to send all our forces to its aid, despite this neighbor’s hostility towards us and its anti-Romanian doctrines permeating its society. Let us be clear about it! “Slava Ukraini!” is not Romania’s agenda […] The time is now to recall the nefarious role the USA played with its so-called “support” provided for the reform of Romania’s judiciary and combating corruption. […] The interference of the secret services in the justice system in Romania has led to the rise of a genuine deep state that annihilated national elites in all fields – political, economic, academic, technical, medical, artistic, sports, etc. If the political programmes of parties running in elections are limited, if national capital has all but disappeared, if the achievements of Romanian athletes are embarrassing, if universities produce impostors in series and if all that has turned stupidity and incompetence in the most serious form of corruption in Romania, to a large extent America should get all “the credit” for its “support”. […] The EU is another collateral victim of the war between the USA and Russia fought on the territory of Ukraine, if not its primary target. The war seeks to cut off the EU from cheap energy sources from Russia and the Russian markets by destroying profitable economic exchanges with the Russian Federation, built over the course of decades, by depleting the military arsenals of countries in Western and Central Europe, and by turning the EU from a soft power into a hard power. […] Romania does not want a second Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact, as it is aware the signatories of the first have accidentally borrowed their names to an ever-lasting German strategy”.
NARRATIVES: 1. The USA is dictating Bucharest’s policy-making, both domestically but specifically its foreign policy. 2. The United States are to blame for the rise of a genuine “deep state” in Romania, which eliminated national elites in all fields. 3. The Russian-American war in Ukraine is directly aimed at destroying the European Union. 4. The USA is at war with Russia and has dragged Romania in the conflict as well. 5. The Ribbentrop-Molotov pact was an exclusively German strategy.
BACKGROUD: Adrian Severin is a former Romanian foreign minister and MEP caught taking bribe for influence peddling, for which he was sentenced to prison. Since his release, he has been constantly fostering sovereigntist and anti-Western narratives that echo Kremlin propaganda. After the start of the large-scale invasion of Ukraine, the former convict continued to carry over several theses of Russian war propaganda. More recently, the former politician turned criminal has been promoting his ideas on solidnews.ro and features on talk-shows hosted by Gold FM, a radio station that was fined by the Audiovisual Council for spreading fake news. Both media sources are associated with Cozmin Gușă, a controversial politician / analyst / consultant / businessman who over the years has been promoting false narratives and has been described by Romanian media as a close associate / sympathizer / agent of influence of Russia in Romania. The letter in question is not the first Severin addresses to an American ambassador. In 2015, the then Ambassador of the USA in Romania, Hans Klemm, was the recipient of a nearly identical letter, except the part referring to the war in Ukraine, which at the time was a regional conflict, with Russia denying any kind of involvement. In the 2015 letter, Adrian Severin claimed, speaking on behalf of the Romanian people, that Romanians are now preferring Russia to America, “as an optimal solution to ensure their survival as a free nation”. In May 2021, the former minister wrote another letter, this time addressing Vladimir Putin and Sergey Lavrov. Among other things, Severin expressed confidence that Romania and Russia share a lot of common strategic interests, while Romanian culture is incompatible with Western civilization, which has offered Romania nothing but “the doubtful privilege of becoming an outlet for Western products and a terrestrial aircraft carrier”. To provide further context to the opinions that the criminally convicted politician has been promoting for many years, we also recall that Adrian Severin also served as head of the European Parliament delegation for relations with Ukraine, UN Human Rights Rapporteur in Belarus, as well as permanent EU rapporteur on Russia, which enabled him to pay countless visits to Moscow.
PURPOSE: To amplify anti-American and by extension anti-Western, anti-NATO and anti-European sentiments in Romania, to fashion a parallel geopolitical reality, where the USA is directly responsible for the war in Ukraine, to exonerate Russia and depict this country as a victim forced to defend itself.
The wolf who cries wolf
WHY THE NARRATIVES ARE FALSE: The story about Bucharest conceding its decision-making autonomy to Washington, similar to the narrative about political decisions on Romania being taken in Brussels, is a typical narrative of Russian and pro-Russian propaganda dating back to the Cold War about the West’s imperial drive. In fact, Romania wanted to build a privileged relationship with the USA, both in political and economic terms, but particularly in the military field, in order to ensure its national security. The presence of American troops on Romania’s territory is the natural consequence of this undertaking. Furthermore, it was also Romania that filed for NATO accession. Once a member, it pledged its commitment to implement and uphold common regulations observed by all member States.
The existence of a deep state in Romania is a theory promoted by several Romanian politicians who were sentenced for corruption. Similar conspiracy theories often surface in numerous other countries, promoted by populist politicians such as Recep Tayyip Erdogan. As regards the elimination of national elites from all fields, assuming such a campaign ever took place, this is merely the result of academic imposture sweeping the entire Romanian political class and the absence of full-fledged meritocracy as fundamental criterion for the advancement of Romanian politicians.
The false narrative about the fight between Russia and the US-led West is not new. It has been disseminated ever since the start of the Russian invasion in Ukraine, in several of the Kremlin’s disinformation campaigns. By resorting to self-victimizing narratives, the Putin regime is trying to attract the sympathy of the international community, although so far most countries have condemned the invasion of Ukraine, whereas Western economies have introduced unprecedented sanctions against Moscow. What is new about Adrian Severin’s letter is the “USA’s willingness to destroy the European Union”. The USA-EU Partnership, even after Great Britain, the Americans’ traditional ally, left the community bloc, is right now the most important and the closest relationship in the world, one based on shared values and interests, as well as on strong cultural and historical ties. In both economic and military terms, the trans-Atlantic partnership is vital to ensuring the security, stability and prosperity of Western civilization. From this point of view, a robust European community is also a strong imperative for the USA, and the idea that Washington would want the EU economy to collapse is just another attempt from Moscow to divide the Western world.
The narrative about Romania being dragged in a NATO-Russia war in Ukraine, surfaced just before the war, has been promoted in various forms at local level. Over the years, Veridica has disproved several of its versions: in mid-February, Ion Cristoiu said the West and Romania will go to war on the side of Ukraine. In December 2022, a former American intelligence officer, suspected of being tied to the KGB, said Romania has already deployed thousands of servicemen in the war in Ukraine, whereas a highly controversial MP warned two weeks ago that Romania is preparing to join the war, one where Romanian servicemen will serve as “cannon fodder”, being sent to the front line.
For Romania, apart from the Second Vienna Award, the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact was the most nefarious agreement at international level. A non-aggression pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, the Pact mapped out spheres of influence in Eastern Europe, divided between the two totalitarian states. One of its dramatic consequences for our country was the concession of Bessarabia to the USSR and the conjectural alliance with Hitler’s Germany.
By referring to this pact, Adrian Severin is subtly trying to confirm one of the main ideas Russia has been using to justify its invasion, namely the fight against Nazism. At the same time, the former minister is just as subtly trying to shift the blame for the territories Romania had to concede to the West (represented by Germany) and to present-day Ukraine, from its main beneficiary, namely the USSR. We cannot, however, fail to notice that today, Russia is the one that is still fashioning its foreign policy using Stalinist-era terms. Russia is a country built through wars, territorial annexations and the subjugation of 200 distinct ethnic minorities. Russia is the one that is imposing exclusion zones in the Black Sea. This is a country that is launching traditional or hybrid wars against its neighbors, annexing territories of other states and encouraging separatism – see the cases of Transnistria, Abkhazia or South Ossetia.
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