Even though most of the time we are preoccupied with the "serious" issues of our politics, there is an external affairs issue that keeps appearing and disappearing from the headlines: the wonder regarding the bad (or inefficient) relations with Russia. From time to time, after reading a book, looking at a map or taking part in a symposium, certain politicians wisely exclaim: "We shall not forget about Russia!" After that he focuses on the internal fights that have got to dominate the every-day life of the Romanian parties.

The respective issue is as real as it gets. We have come up to a point in which the relations with Russia are tensed and confuse. We depend on Russia energetically (as well). The balance of the bilateral commerce brings a two billion deficit for us every year. The vital matters of the region cannot be solved without a careful and normal cooperation with Moscow, even if these matters regard Transnistria, the Black Sea or the unknown ways of the energy pipes.

We had and we still have politicians that believe that this relation can be built on some sort of revolutionary vigilance: they should give our thesaurus back first, and we will talk afterwards! Thousands of newspaper pages have been filled with such an attitude and, in the meantime, we lost a second thesaurus by leaving aside a political and economical vital relation. Now, it seems that Romania is haunted by a cold-war nostalgia. The great powers have decided to put an end to it, but this is not necessarily true for Bucharest. We shall not follow them! They are not in the position to tell us what to do! This is why high-ranked politicians describe the Russians as the number one public enemies.

I went to Moscow the other day. There, the general opinion is that Romania frequently takes anti-Russia positions. They believe Romania constantly takes fundamental anti-Russia positions