March 20, 2014
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România Internațional, 20.03.2014, 12:10
The President of Romania, Traian Basescu, takes part in the spring session of the European Council, today and tomorrow, which will focus on the Ukraine crisis. The Romanian president announced that European leaders might approve a second stage of sanctions against Russia, and that talks may even be held on a third stage. According to France Presse, EU leaders cannot overlook the fact that new sanctions against Moscow, further to Russia’s absorbing Crimea into its territory, would entail retaliation on Russia’s part. On the other hand, President Traian Basescu wants the situation of Moldova to be discussed. The Romanian official will ask for Romania’s neighbour to be given clear prospects of EU accession, as the best solution to guarantee its security. After a meeting yesterday in Iasi, north-eastern Romania, with his Moldovan counterpart, Nicolae Timofti, president Basescu pointed out that Russia wants to restore the former Soviet area and that the crises in Georgia and Crimea are just episodes of this plan. The Republic of Moldova, located between Romania and Ukraine, has been struggling with two pro-Russian separatism hotbeds, in Transdniester, in the east, and Gagauzia in the south.
Moscow will use political and diplomatic methods to protect the rights of Russians living abroad, the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said today, according to the Russian news agency ITAR-TASS, quoted by France Presse. The Government of Russia is to discuss today the issue of granting support to the pro-Russian breakaway region of Transdniester, in the Republic of Moldova. The meeting was announced yesterday by the Russian deputy PM Dmitry Rogozin, who accused neighbouring Ukraine of having isolated Transdniester, home to 200,000 Russian citizens. The Moldovan daily Timpul reports that Transdniester’s separatist leader Yevgeny Shevchuk is on a visit to Moscow, after previously Tiraspol had called on Russia to look into options to annex Transdniester to the Russian Federation.
The commander of the Ukrainian Navy, Sergey Gayduk, seized yesterday by the pro-Russian forces in Crimea, was released last night, the Ukrainian presidency announced. According to a news release, the civilian hostages held by the Russian military and by the representatives of the new self-proclaimed authorities of the peninsula in southern Ukraine were also released. Meanwhile, Kiev announced that Ukraine decided to launch procedures to quit the Commonwealth of Independent States, made up of 11 former Soviet republics. After originally announcing that it would also introduce visas for Russian citizens, Kiev said today it would not rush this measure.
The Romanian Foreign Minister, Titus Corlatean, has a meeting in Berlin today with his German counterpart, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, with Bernd Fabritius, representing the Transylvanian Saxons in Bundestag, and with other German officials. The agenda of talks includes European and international issues, with a focus on the situation in Ukraine, more specifically on how the EU will carry on its efforts to resolve the crisis by diplomatic means, together with its international partners. Other topics will include the strengthening of the Economic and Monetary Union, the Danube Strategy, the enlargement policy and EU institutional developments after the elections for the European Parliament due in May.
The chairman of the Constanta County Council Nicusor Constantinescu has been detained by the National Anti-Corruption Directorate. According to prosecutors, Nicusor Constantinescu is subject to criminal investigations for abuse in office. He has allegedly prevented inspections by the Court of Accounts and caused damages of 30 million Euros by failing to issue or extend town-planning certificates and building permits for wind power generators, requested by two companies. Meanwhile, the president of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Romania, Mihail Vlasov, has been placed under preventive arrest for 30 days. He was caught taking 200,000 Euros, as a first instalment of a one million Euro bribe that Vlasov was to receive from a businessman in exchange for helping him win a case at the Court of Arbitration, an institution subordinated to the Chamber of Commerce.
