Anti-Putin Tirade Worsens Russia-Romania Relations

The Romanian Foreign Ministry on Monday summoned the Russian ambassador to Bucharest, Oleg Malginov, to express its concern about his "insulting language" concerning the website Contributors.ro., which roused the ire of the diplomat after it published an article that was highly critical of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The offending article called Putin "an amoral dictator" who is "tone-deaf to the principles of international law, despises the rule of law and believes in nothing but sheer force. He is anti-Western and anti-liberal to the core.

"He feels at home in the cult of soldierly discipline, in imperialist hymns and marches, in the racist doctrines that inspire, in some respects, the Eurasian project. He has nothing to offer the Russian people but guns, aggression, and extravaganzas," it added.

Malginov described the authors of the critical article as "boors" and said the website had "ceased to exist as a media source worth any respect" as far as he was concerned.

"We express the commitment that freedom of expression is an absolute value in a democratic society," the Romanian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Relations between Romania and Russia are already rocky. NATO member Romania has been among the strongest regional backers of the package of Western sanctions imposed on Russia in connection to the crisis in Crimea and eastern Ukraine.

In recent months, Bucharest officials have urged the US and NATO to boost their military presence in Romania to ensure regional stability.

In 2010, Bucharest agreed to host interceptor missiles as part of a US defence shield in Europe, a plan which Russia is strongly opposing. Late that year Romania ordered the tit-for-tat expulsion of a Russian diplomat, a day after a...