Valery Kuzmin, the ambassador of the Russian Federation in Bucharest, said to the Treasury of Romania in Moscow that Russia does not owe Romania anything, but on the contrary, forgave Romania its debts to Russia, saying in this sense what he would have said to Brezhnev Ceausescu in the 60s.

Valery Kuzmin said that former Romanian partners “continue to pull, as they say in our country, a dead cat out of mothballs”, referring to the issue of treasures that Russia should return to Romania.

Echoing the opinion previously voiced by Moscow, Kuzmin clearly said that Romania’s treasures would not be returned, and claimed that, on the contrary, Romania remained in debt to Russia. In this sense, he anecdotally recalled the scene that took place between former Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev and Nicolae Ceausescu in the 60s.

• “Comrades, Brezhnev would say to Ceausescu, I must tell you, as from communist to communist, that you must forget about the treasury. Because, as written in the legal documents, as a result of all the activities that fall under the responsibility of Romania, Romania owes more to Russia than Russia owes to Romania. But we do not need this debt from you. We forgive you this debt,” Ambassador Kuzmin said.

Valery Kuzmin also claims that “no one can accuse Russia of sabotaging bilateral relations with Romania.”

“Since my arrival here in 2016, I have tried many times and failed to organize a meeting of the Romanian-Russian intergovernmental commission dealing with economic, technical and scientific issues. I didn’t succeed,” the diplomat complained.

The subject of the treasury is periodically raised in public discourse in Romania, either by politicians or the governor of the National Bank of Romania, or by historians and journalists, but the moment of repatriation seems more distant than ever.