When the frozen EU was striving to determine Russia and Ukraine to resume the gas supply for the European houses and factories, Traian Băsescu, the president of a parliamentary republic, has found appropriate to call Mr. Vladimir Putin, the Prime Minister of a presidential republic, to exploit the crisis for his personal goals.
Shortly after that, as a response to the question of a reporter, Vladimir Vladimirovich sent an offer one can't deny to the Romanian President: Russia will give the gas to Romania and will allow our country to sell it to renitent Ukraine; Russia will integrate Romania in the Russian project of the South Stream pipeline; Russia is ready to sell gas directly to Romania. One can conclude that these were the issues that Mr. Basescu talked about. If so, their disclosure is an outrage, expressing his refusal to any confidences with the Romanian Head of State. If not so, we are dealing with a maneuver that transforms his unadvised initiative into a proof of his duplicity, fueling suspicions both in Brussels and in Kiev. Mr. Putin loves betrayal, but not the traitors.
His hint that Romania could become an intermediary in the sale of the Russian gas to Ukraine is, in fact, a "warning-offer" made to Kiev, thus invited to choose between two not so favorable situations: the Romanian or the Russian neighbor, both demonized by the Ukrainian nationalism, and to observe the way in which the Romanian orange representatives join the Moscow orange-haters, transforming the Russian-Ukrainian dispute into a European-Ukrainian dispute. One can easily imagine the smile of Mr Putin at the thought that, by accepting his offer and becoming a transit country for the Russian gas, Romania will have to face, on one hand, with the bad payment behavior of Ukraine and, on the other hand, with the EU pressure.
Romania's participation in
