The Romanian public looks now very much like men who dated many women and now are unable to hold an erection following regular sexual stimuli. So they are compelled to engage in more violent sexual endeavors.

Romanians do not react any longer to news; they need to be out of the ordinary news.

This is one way to explain why the Romanian public is treated now to a "treason and spy affair," to explain an issue which would have normally fallen under corruption charges.

I am speaking of the issue of the Petrom privatization, and the buying company OMV allegedly having access to inside information prior to striking the deal with the Romanian state.

Well, for one, I believe that corruption charges would have been more than enough to fully investigate the matter.

Then I have to exercise some caution regarding the name of the prosecutor investigating the case: Ciprian Nastasiu had a dubious professional record, having investigated the case of industrialist Dinu Patriciu appropriating the money his company Rompetrol owned the Romanian state, or the case of the journalists kidnapped in Iraq with first arresting alleged mastermind Omar Hayssam, then asking the court for his release, which finally enabled the latter to flee Romania and escape prosecution.

So, to my mind, this spy spin put on a corruption story serves several people and purposes:

1) it serves Romanian President Traian Basescu.

He looks now like a true patriot to the nationalists, as he stood up as a guardian of the country’s natural treasures in the face of privatizations towards multinational companies.

Had former social-democrat president Ion Iliescu attempted such a spoof, he would have been castigated by the media. The media however did not give Basescu this treatment.

2) it serves the Romanian intelligence services had finally seen their decades""