Diana Sosoacă, in dialogue with Putin in Saint-Petersburg: “Romanians don't hate you, we admire the entire Russian people.” The Kremlin leader's response
MEP Diana Iovanovici-Şoșoacă (SOS Romania) addressed Russian President Vladimir Putin, during the International Economic Forum in Saint-Petersburg, conveying to him that Romanians admire the Russian people and that they would like to have peace with Russia.
In the session in which Putin addressed the participants of the St. Petersburg Forum, Diana Sosoacă also had a short intervention.
“Romanians don't hate you, Romanians want peace with Russia. We don't want to help the Ukrainians, give them money and weapons, but, unfortunately, Romania is ruled from Brussels. I can't send you the president's warm greetings because we don't have a president,” said Soșoacă.
“We admire you for your strength”
She presented herself as the president of SOS Romania, which she said would be “the only opposition party”.
“And I can't send you a warm greeting from our president because we don't have a president, from our point of view. I'm the president of the SOS Romania political party,” she added.
“I want to convey from the bottom of my heart to the Romanian people and the Europeans, who think and have brains, that we want to cooperate with Russia, we are not enemies. You are the largest country in the world and one of the largest economies. We admire you for your strength and we admire the entire Russian people (…) I hope that in a short period of time we will no longer have Ursula von der Leyen as president of the European Commission,” said Diana Iovanovici-Şoșoacă.
Putin responded by asking him to greet the Romanians from his side, but those who are Orthodox.
“I cannot and, to be honest, I do not want to comment on Romania's internal affairs, but we have here the friend from Saudi Arabia who mentioned that Russia remains a predominantly Orthodox country. Well, Romania is also Orthodox and my wish is that you convey my best wishes for all the Orthodox in Romania,” said Vladimir Putin.
At the same table as Marina Tauber
This was the second intervention of the pro-Russian MEP at the forum dubbed “Putin's Davos”, after, the day before, she spoke in the same panel where Marina Tauber, former vice-president of the ȘOR party from Moldova, internationally wanted after she was sentenced to prison, also spoke.
Diana Șoșoacă declared that Romania needs “diplomats of peace, not of confrontation” and that her presence in Saint Petersburg represents “a hand extended in favor of peace and dialogue”, after the tensions generated by the incident with the Russian drone falling over a block of flats in Galati.
“I came here because Romania must be present where the future of the world is discussed. We cannot be absent from the table of major international debates and then pretend to defend our national interests. While the current power in Bucharest chose the path of deteriorating diplomatic relations with the Russian Federation, I chose to come here to keep a communication channel open,” declared Şoşoacă.
