“Russophobia is very widespread in Romania. They are willing to attribute any incident to Russia,” claims a Moscow diplomat
The permanent representative of Russia to the international bodies based in Vienna, Mihail Ulianov, said on Monday that Romania is willing to attribute any “unpleasant” incident to Russia, commenting on the impact of a drone on a building in the Romanian city of Galati, which took place last week, reports EFE, taken over by Agerpres.
“They drew conclusions before any investigation, which shows that they are frivolous people, lacking political independence, that Russophobia is very widespread there and that they are willing to attribute any unpleasant incident to Russia,” Ulianov told Russian state television.
He added that what Bucharest wants is “to blame Russia”. In the opinion of the Russian diplomat, the Romanian authorities put themselves in a “ridiculous and absurd” situation by making statements before the completion of the investigation into the incident.
Putin demanded that Romania hand over the wreckage
The President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, stated on Friday that the origin of the drone has not been proven and requested Bucharest to provide proof that it is a Russian device. He suggested that the wreckage of the drone be handed over to Russia for investigation.
“No one can establish the origin (of the drone) until an examination of the device is carried out,” said the Russian leader, who added that Moscow is willing to “conduct an objective investigation” and only then express its opinion on what happened.
At the same time, he stated that, on other occasions, when Ukrainian drones violated the airspace of neighboring countries, it was initially believed that those devices were Russian.
The conclusions of the technical report
President Nicusor Dan announced on Sunday that the drone that crashed in Galati was Gheran-2, of Russian origin, stressing that Romania will not ignore or minimize any incident that endangers the lives of its citizens, national security or the sovereignty of the Romanian state.
“This is the undoubted conclusion of the technical report completed by the Romanian state specialists. The investigation established this based on a consistent set of technical evidence. The inscription in Cyrillic characters was identified on the recovered fragments (…), and the electronic components, navigation systems, control modules, engine and constructive elements analyzed show similarities to the point of identity with those of other Geran-2 drones previously recovered on the territory of Romania and identified with certainty as being manufactured in the Federation Russian”, communicated the Romanian president.
Following the incident, Bucharest decided to close the Consulate General of Russia in Constanta and to declare the Russian consul “persona non grata”.
