Criticism from Moscow towards Klaus Iohannis’s message on the Day of Commemoration of the Victims of Fascism and Communism. The spokesperson for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs criticizes the President of Romania, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Bucharest responds to the Russian official.
The message that upset the Russians
On the Day of Commemoration of the Victims of Fascism and Communism, President Iohannis sent a message where he equally criticized the totalitarian regimes and extremist ideologies that marked the period of World War II.
„Eighty-five years ago, on August 23, 1939, the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact was signed, a horrific agreement that sacrificed the destinies of millions of people for the interests of criminal regimes.
Nazi and Soviet policies led to the Holocaust and genocide, deportations, family separations, famine, and numerous abuses. These horrors have left scars and traumas that have affected entire generations, forced to confront poverty and the persecutions of totalitarian regimes,” Iohannis transmitted.
???? #Zakharova: @KlausIohannis slandered our country, attributing to the USSR on par with Hitler’s Germany the responsibility for unleashing #WWII.
The Romanian leadership failed to learn from the past & chose the path of distorting history and rehabilitating Nazi criminals. pic.twitter.com/61Ih0vVxRR
— MFA Russia ???????? (@mfa_russia) August 28, 2024
Moscow’s Reaction
In a message distributed through public communication channels, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs criticized Klaus Iohannis’s message.
„Klaus Iohannis slandered our country by attributing to the USSR, on par with Hitler’s Germany, the responsibility for triggering World War II. The leadership of Romania has not learned from the past and has chosen the path of distorting history and rehabilitating Nazi criminals,” states a message attributed to Maria Zaharova, the spokesperson for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Response
The Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs reacted with a message transmitted by spokesperson Radu Filip: „What the Romanian society has learned from the past is clearly evidenced by Russia’s brutal aggression war against Ukraine. Revanchism and imperial revisionism are the path to war, either through the Ribbentrop Molotov Pact signed in Moscow or Russia’s excuse for an illegal war.”
The message was also shared on the official former Twitter account of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with an additional comment: „Some learn from history and make peace, others constantly try to coerce, bully, or invade their sovereign neighbors. Another pattern is that they constantly lie, misquote, and manipulate.”
Some learn from history and make peace, others constantly try to coerce, bully or invade their sovereign neighbours. Another pattern is that they constantly lie, misquote and manipulate. https://t.co/sLYwHmwXZ0
— Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Romania ???????? (@MAERomania) August 29, 2024
