Russia’s ambassador to Bucharest, Valery Kuzmin, commented ironically on his summons to the Romanian Foreign Ministry, claiming that it was the “most vague approach” he had encountered during his time in Romania, and that he could “only guess” why he had been summoned.

Kuzmin was summoned to the Foreign Ministry at the end of the week after the Russian Embassy’s Facebook page published statements by Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova in response to a European Parliament resolution on the return of Romanian treasures illegally appropriated by Russia.

After his summons to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Romania, the Russian ambassador in Bucharest commented on this approach to the Russian news agency TASS, and his statements were published on the embassy’s Facebook page.

He claimed that the Romanian authorities did not clearly inform him of the reason for the summons.

• “In an impersonal and vague form, we were given a statement that, according to the representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the communication of the embassy was too creative, emotional and incorrect.
• Since the topic of the conversation was not clearly defined, we could only guess that the statements refer to our reaction to the actions of the Romanian MEPs and the Romanian side in general during the preparation and adoption of the latest resolution of the European Parliament regarding the return of Romanian gold illegally appropriated by Russia over 100 years ago.” – said the Russian ambassador in Bucharest in an interview with TASS.

Kuzmin says it was the “most blunt approach” he encountered during his time in Romania.

“For my part, I said that if it turns out that some of the facts that I have given are not true, then we are ready to publish an error. According to the letter and spirit of the Vienna Convention, a diplomatic representation in a foreign country must convey the official position of its government to the state of accreditation, leadership and public opinion,” added the Russian ambassador in Bucharest.

Zakharova: “Romania’s debts to Russia are 20-25 times greater than the value of the entire Romanian treasury”

Romania, which demands the return of its treasury, would like to solve its economic problems at the expense of Russia, said the spokeswoman of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, quoted by RIA Novosti. The reaction came in the context of the European Parliament’s vote on Thursday for a resolution to return Romania’s treasures seized by Moscow more than a century ago.

“Romania is trying to shift its century-old phantom debts onto Russia’s shoulders in order to improve the catastrophic state of its national economy,” Zakharova wrote in Telegram, reports Agerpres with reference to RIA Novosti.

She claimed that Romania’s debts to Russia and the Soviet Union exceed, “according to experts’ calculations”, 20-25 times the value of the entire Romanian treasury that came to Russia in 1916-1917.

“Komsomolskaya Pravda” cites the spokeswoman of the Russian Foreign Ministry and writes that in 1949, Moscow “forgave Romania almost the entire debt for the destruction caused during the Second World War.” The Russian publication also writes that in 2022, Romania asked Russia to pay 4 billion euros to its treasury.

• On the same topic: “Romanians are not a nation”: Dmitry Medvedev, stormy reaction after EU asked Russia to return Romanian treasury

“Unprecedented international case of misappropriation of gold reserves”

The reaction comes as the European Parliament voted in favor of a resolution on Thursday that said Russia should return Romania’s treasures in full and that the EU executive and other competent European institutions should do everything possible to support the effort. The debate, which was attended by the vast majority of Romanian MEPs, was the first time that the issue of Romania’s treasury illegally appropriated by Russia was raised in the European Parliament.

“In a resolution adopted on Thursday, MEPs highlight the fact that, despite several attempts at diplomatic negotiations after the First World War, Romania’s national treasures, sent to Russia for safekeeping between 1916 and 1917, have never been fully returned by Russia.

• “This is an unprecedented international case of misappropriation of gold reserves and heritage objects, which is a constant concern for Romanian society,” the press release of the European Parliament says.

The resolution on the restitution of the Romanian treasury was voted by a large majority. “This is a matter of national dignity. Romania cannot and must not accept anything less than the return of 91.5 tons of gold and the entire cultural treasure. I thank my colleagues from the European Parliament for their participation and support. It meant a lot,” says MEP Eugene Tomak.

The European Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms, Elise Ferreira, said in her opening remarks that she was speaking on behalf of the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell.

“You invited the European Commission to speak in connection with Russia’s return of Romania’s national wealth. The treasure was handed over to the tsarist empire for safekeeping, but it was never fully returned to Romania by either the USSR or the Russian Federation,” the high-ranking EU official recalled.

“The European Union is ready to support the Romanian authorities in the full return of the treasures, if they demand it,” Eliza Ferreira emphasized. At the same time, she drew attention to the fact that “Russia’s unjustified war against Ukraine led to the suspension of cooperation mechanisms” with Moscow.

She complained that the war against Ukraine “is a crime and a gross violation of international law,” and reminded that “measures against Russia include the largest package of sanctions adopted by the EU.”

Mugur Iserescu: Romania has every right to claim

Romania has a completely valid claim from a historical and legal point of view to its gold deposit, which was evacuated to Moscow in 1916-1917, the head of the National Bank of Romania said in November.

What Mugur Iserescu said then:

• “Since 1991, the National Bank of Romania has consistently implemented a strategy to present to the domestic and foreign public the Treasury issue sent to Moscow and then captured by the Soviet Union. Debt law in Romania is older than a century. We are not the first acts in this line.
• On the occasion of Russia’s accession to the Council of Europe in 1995, Romania, together with other former communist states, presented proposals for the restitution of goods confiscated by the Soviet Union. The Council’s Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights then decided that these issues should be resolved between the member states concerned.
• Russia did not accept this discussion even at the level of experts under the pretext that Moscow is discussing a draft law on the restitution of material goods that belonged to other states and were kept in the USSR during the war. Later, the draft law referred to by Russian experts was rejected by the State Duma of Russia.
• This development of events made it obvious the need to correctly inform international public opinion on the basis of indisputable documents. And this meant informing historians, scientists, politicians, diplomats and, last but not least, those who make decisions in Europe.
• In this regard, our main concern, I say, the concern of the National Bank, was to make public the documents we have on this issue. I mean the originals of the documents, I emphasize the originals collected in a special file that has been kept in the storage of the Viceroyalty of the BNR since 1922.
• The Treasury file has been passed from one governor to another since 1922, including the communist period. That’s how I got it too – as proof of the decision of the National Bank of Romania to return the assets that belong to it.”

The history of the treasury’s move to Moscow

Entering the war with the Entente in August 1916, Romania soon found itself in an extremely difficult situation due to fighting on two fronts in both Transylvania and the Danube. Therefore, already in September 1916, the National Bank of Romania took the first steps to hide its gold treasure.

Thus, the director of the Iasi department of the BNR was instructed to wait for director Teodor Kepitanovych at the station “Thursday, September 8, five o’clock in the afternoon” in order to prepare the carriages and reserve five rooms in the hotel. A week later, the mission to transport the treasures of the BNR to Iasi was already completed.

The special concern of the bank’s management for this treasure is explained by the fact that it was a legal metal reserve, the basis of the bank’s banknote issuance. According to the Statute of the BNR, “The Bank will have to have a stock of metallic gold of at least 40% of the number of tickets issued by it.”

In exceptional circumstances, such as during wartime, coverage was reduced to 33%. Therefore, the number of banknotes in circulation depended on the size of the metal reserve in the treasury of the National Bank, the preservation of the gold coating, which ensured the convertibility of the lei, the national currency.

Although the National Bank of Romania was a private bank between 1900 and 1925, the metal reserve did not belong to the shareholders, it was the property of the institution, “our asset”, as the head of the National Bank of Romania at that time (Ioan G. Bibicescu) called it.

Due to the advance of the troops of the Central Powers to Bucharest, the royal family, the government, the parliament and other central institutions of the Romanian state took refuge in Iasi.

On November 14, 1916, the headquarters of the National Bank of Romania also moved to the Moldavian city, which became the capital of the national resistance. On the eve of the winter of 1916, two-thirds of the national territory was occupied by the armies of the Central Powers, the Romanian army retreated to new lines for recovery, and a significant part of the population moved to the east of the country, where they endured not only the harsh winter, but also hunger and disease.