Russia: Spoilt Brat of the East
Like an ill-mannered 5-year-old, the Russians are throwing a temper tantrum.
RIA Novosti reports
Russian gas supplies through Ukraine to Bulgaria, Greece, Macedonia, Romania, and Turkey have been halted… Gas deliveries to the Czech Republic have fallen by 75%…
Puţin has been responsible for advocating a policy of holding Europe hostage during the winter. His current Russian puppet president is pulled by the same strings, lacking the testicular fortitude to act in the manner he is legally entitled to and thereby demonstrating to the world-at-large that Puţin remains Russia’s communist dictator.
Portfolio notes two more victims.
Gas deliveries from Ukraine to Hungary have stopped… Slovakia is prepared to declare a state of emergency…
Apparently, the Russian government believes itself clever. They’ll send out a slew of junior varsity spokespeople to tell various media outlets that, of course, Russia will honor its contractual obligations to provide gas to Europe and would never purposefully seek to kill Europeans in winter so European governments might bow down to Russia’s whimsical ego.
BBC discovered
The move [to cut gas to Europe] came after Mr Putin held talks with Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller.
Twitterbrains who watch TV shows like 24 or, say, Lombarzilor 8 might believe the talking heads who regurgitate press statements as fact. Those of us who engage in a little critical thinking or favor investigative journalism might not have ever been fooled in the first place. Or so our egos allow us to muse.
Opening our eyes, you can see China View added another to the list of impacted countries.
Russian gas supplies to Croatia were completely cut off Tuesday… The underground storage and the gas produced by the INA cannot make up for the shortfall…
Contracts and obligations mean nothing to Puţin. He runs roughshod over the Russian Constitution more disastrously than George Bush over the American Constitution, which defies imagination. Puţin is throwing a temper tantrum over the lack of respect he commands from Europe by cutting off gas supplies that flow through Ukraine to Europe.
Reuters points out Russia is
…threatening disruption as far west as Italy and Germany…
Why? Simple.
Russia still owns Belarus by the short hairs, but they lost control of Ukraine in 2004. It was the Orange Revolution which brought some measure of real freedom to Ukraine. That victory is equally important for Romania as well.
The political party formerly known as Communist now goes by the PSD — “Social Democrats” is their destept euphemism — and has had a corrupt choke-hold on Romania ever since they themselves deposed Ceausescu in order to propel themselves to power.
It so happens that in 2004 the legitimate winner of the Romanian presidential election was being railroaded into accepting a fictitious loss, but the protests in Ukraine brought unprecedented media coverage to the region. Some of that spilled over into Romania. Just barely enough international attention that Basescu was able to brush aside the hoţi and claim his rightful victory.
That brought huge changes to Romania. In the past 4 years, the lives of average citizens all over the nation has changed dramatically for the better.
Russia is unlikely to control Romania again any time soon, but they do scare the world into letting Moldova remain prisoner. Russia would very much like Ukraine back into its pocket and is quite upset that freedom continues in Ukraine despite the on-going internal political upheavals there.
The current tactic is to cut off gas supplies flowing through Ukraine, the major pipeline for natural gas delivered to Europe. Puţin’s intent is for Europeans to suffer and die in the cold winter, so they’ll demand their government “do something” about the problem.
…the EU is reluctant to get involved in what it describes as a commercial dispute – reflecting Europe’s own deep divisions on how to respond to Russia.
Naturally, the Russian communists want Europe to become frustrated with Ukraine, to be disillusioned with Ukraine, to break faith with Ukraine, and to abandon Ukraine to stand alone in the cold, dark twilight of this early uncertain century. They want Ukraine to collapse and return to horrors of soviet life.
The impact here in Bucureşti today? No hot water as the nation tried to conserve gas for use that the centrala. It’s the centrala which pumps hot water to residential radiators to keep them warm in the winter. It appears other hot water uses are considered optional in the hierarchy of priorities.
A wise choice, if one has to make it. However, Romania seems ill equipped to deal with the shortage.
Politicians need to ensure city administrators have proper plans and procedures in place to swiftly redirect energy supplies from well-established gas reserves when an event like this occurs. It’s not as though this were completely unexpected. Russia has been mumbling for quite some time, if anyone will listen.
In order for politicians to react, the people must not tolerate a loss of hot water. It may be a typical side effect of life in an emerging nation such as Romania, but that does not mean we must suffer in silence. Elected officials generally understand the need to serve the masses, so it is incumbent on the people to make rational voices heard loudly in demand for proper municipal governance.
One doesn’t want to ignorantly scream “do something” when that something could be just what Puţin hopes for. Instead, complain about the lack of city energy planning and demand politicians properly direct their administrators to adequately establish reserve distribution procedures if they want your vote next election.
Constructive criticism will get positive results. Romanians, you deserve better.
Tonight, for now, the hot water has been restored. At least in the central part of Bucureşti. I can only imagine half the city is scrambling to take a shower in case the water is out again tomorrow.
“Imports of Russian gas are now reduced by around 75 percent,” Transgaz director Ioan Rusu told Reuters by telephone. “But we can overcome this winter without problems.”
The economy ministry said in a statement that measures had been taken earlier in the day to ensure constant gas supplies to all Romanian consumers.
I’ll take this opportunity to explain to corporate shill Ioan Rusu, the fascist ministrul economiei şi finanţelor Varujan Vosganian, and their shady gaggle of pro-Russian cohorts who suddenly reverse their roles and undermine Romanian policy — no doubt in anticipation of making a large profit from the arrangement — how exactly it is that one determines whether there is a gas problem.
Hop into your tub or shower one Bucharest morning and crank on the hot water; if you suddenly feel as though you can relate to these Romans, well then you know the score, bubba.
January 7th, 2009 at 4:27 am
Sorry for being a bit off-topic, but speaking of hoţi, Băsescu was the “good guy” back in 2004, when I also voted for him, now he’s just another corrupt politician who wants just more and more power for himself and his millionaire cronies. Băsescu is now for me a second G.W.Bush: same cowboy style, maybe just a bit more rude. Good thing he doesn’t have any nukes.
He wants to concentrate the power into the hands of the president (i.e. his own), you may have heard the idea of a ‘republică prezidenţială’ around.
The proposals from his party were about a new constitution which would give lot of power concentrated in the hands of the president, who would have complete control over a weak unicameral parlament. (powers would include vetoing their laws and the president would even have the power to dismiss it altogether if it doesn’t rubber-stamp the Great Leader’s ideas)
That power of dismissing the Parliament (proposed a year ago by Băsescu’s pal, Stolojan) is particularly bad because most MPs wouldn’t risk their warm seats in the gambling of new elections, so they’d do everything that The Man wants.
January 7th, 2009 at 1:32 pm
Bogdan, thanks for the insight. My first reaction is to find consolidation of power in the presidency to be an extremely dangerous proposition. I wonder how much of that is borne out of a cantankerous relationship with the traditionally PSD-ruled parliament which has been so hostile to change. If there’s some validity in that being impetus for any political attacks on the parliament, it would not alter the reality that any such undermining of the balance of power between parliament and the presidency would be quite perilous for Romania. That PSD might have been skilled in waging war as parliamentary leaders is not excuse to weaken the institution. I’m sure we agree on this point.
There are times when a good man can have ill effects. It may be that his bold style was precisely what was needed to break some psychological locks in the minds of political cliques. What seems unclear now is whether the time for such is coming to an end or a little longer is needed to have a lasting impact on the PSD mafia.
Perhaps PNL could push Popescu-Tăriceanu off the top of the pile, re-constitute itself with better leadership and take the mantle of president. That’d be fun.
I’ve been thinking for some time now that Romania needs a new constitution. The one hastily slapped together by the communists may not be the model that best works. However, I’ve been ignorant of any PD/PD-L proposals of this sort, so I’ll need to read their ideas as I’ve been off in the weeds with my own ideas.
January 7th, 2009 at 3:26 pm
There’s no doubt that the PSD mafia lost its influence during the last four years, but i’m starting to wonder if there’s a new PDL mafia arising.
In Romania, there’s a funny thing happening: the most powerful party becomes more powerful with the help fo the migrating birds from other parties. PDL began with 38 deputies after the 2004 elections and it ended up with 69 deputies right before the 2008 elections. Also, businessmen who do affairs of dubious legality joined the party to get their protection.
Otherwise, it’s business as usual: companies belonging to Băsescu’s friends win bids to build motorways; dubious individuals (like Vitaly Machitski, some Russian mobster/”oligarch”) receive cheap hydro electricity for their aluminium smelter, while the locals living around the hydro plants pay several times more for coal-generated electricity; and now, the members of the new cabinet probably have more than a billion euros in combined wealth. The Prime-Minister himself, Boc, is likely the only one who owns no large-scale business.
January 7th, 2009 at 4:02 pm
Speaking of Vitaly Machitski, isn’t it ironic that Băsescu, the great anti-Russian and anti-corruption crusader, personally met the representatives of the company (ALRO), discussing the issue of a cheap hydro power contract? (the contract was signed and it is valid until 2012)
January 7th, 2009 at 5:13 pm
As far as methane gas is concerned, there’s nothing to worry about. We have plenty of it ourselves:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVoIT7oUC3s
January 7th, 2009 at 6:59 pm
I rather like Emil Boc from a distance. Which is to say that I first experienced Cluj in 2004 shortly after Gheorghe Funar lost control of the town. Cluj remained I place I visited with some regularity over the next 3 years, so I watched it recover from the silliness and retake its place as a great city of Transilvania under the leadership of Boc.
What’s more interesting to me is how Stolojan once again ducked a public leadership office under some pretense or other, keeping himself off to the sidelines instead. Curious, that.
January 7th, 2009 at 9:57 pm
Ha! Very funny, CO. Missed that at first.
January 8th, 2009 at 4:04 am
I don’t understand you, people. How the hell was at any time Basescu a viable, rational choice?
He was a communist, the star of Romania’s commercial fleet during Ceausescu, he spent years in West as an Romanian official in a job always reserved for hardcore communists and Securitate folk. At the time of the so called “Revolution” he had more than $60k (which is no matter how you look at it, a HUGE sum), a sum he amassed when owning foreign currency was illegal and meant prison time. He was in the FSN government in very high position from day one (secretary of state in the Ministry of Transports). He somehow managed to dismantle the huge commercial fleet of communist Romania for peanuts. He is a millionaire despite the fact that all his businesses make very little money . He gave himself a house while being the mayor of Bucharest, despite having a fortune worth millions of euros. Etc.
Also, this Boc fellow is absolutely ridiculous. He managed to contradict himself in the same day, live on TV, in the space of less than two hours, just because his Master had another opinion and he didn’t take the precaution to consult HIM first. He claims he has a copy of the constitution in the pockets of every suit (something that was apparently of no use, because he signed a governmental ordinance regarding property rights, a thing EXPLICITLY forbidden by the constitution). He wrote a doctoral paper on how the parliamentary republic is a better form of government than a presidential one, and how a bicameral Parliament is superior to a unicameral one, while now he claims with a straight face the absolute contrary, again, because the Master thinks otherwise. He is a puppet, a ridiculous puppet.
I also think this gas crisis will not touch us because it will not last more than a week or two. The previous government and the governments before it, no matter what perception we have about them, did their job in this area and pushed for energy independence. Right now, Romania is less dependent than ever on Russian imports.
January 8th, 2009 at 4:51 pm
Ubu, I’ve known Basescu was captain of a ship, but the star of the fleet? Not disputing it, but admitting I’ve not heard this claim before. Can you direct me where to read details of this characterization (top dog in a slot reserved for hardcore securitate people)? That’d be helpful to me. I can image the cash came from bribes and I wouldn’t expect any leader of PD to be immune from corruption. That party sucks, frankly. Just nowhere near on the scale of evil as folks like PSD or PNG, who are REALLY someone to worry about. PD is a bother, not a crisis.
I am very eager to learn more about Boc’s new found hypocrisy. Thank you for bring it up. He had seemed to be an all-round decent fellow, but these reversals would certainly show a lack of spine. I dislike politicians who make huge turns like this. On the one hand, one must recognize that people change and their ideas change (I have, and I’d bet so have you) but sometimes huge philosophical flipflops such as pro-parliamentary government versus anti-parliamentary are unforgivable mistakes. He would have to reverse himself yet again and clarify his position within the next year, but even then would probably never regain respect (outside of some circumstance I cannot imagine).
As for Basescu, let me summarize by saying as leader of the PNL-PD alliance, he was absolutely the clear choice. Period. Since you seem to disagree, please let us know who you think was the clear choice in that election. I’m interested. As for the history of the past 4 years, I think it entirely fair to say that Basescu’s presidency has been very useful to the Romanian state as some issues are more important than others and, in that vein, rebuffing the PSD mafia nearly tearing it asunder has been and will be seen to have been a major victory for Romania. Granted, if the hero has indeed turned villain (to cast the situation in Shakespearean terms), as proposed by Bogdan, then I’d be in favor of tossing the dog out on his ear. What is needed then is a viable alternative. I don’t yet see whom.
January 9th, 2009 at 3:42 am
Romerican, actually, yes, he was the star of the fleet: he was the captain of the largest Romanian oil tanker, the 300-metre long Biruinţa.
Anyway, next Wednesday, “Comisia prezidenţială pentru modificarea Constituţiei” summoned by Băsescu will present its report on the project of a new constitution which would give more powers to the president.
A change in the constitution requires a referendum with a turnout of >50%. Based on the last election figures, this is unlikely to happen anytime soon, unless fraud occurs.
About the Băsescu and PDL fans: before the last elections, I was pestered by a friend of mine to go and vote for PDL, because otherwise, the evil PSD will form the government. It turned out that not only PSD and PDL got along perfectly after the elections, but also that they have been secretly negotiating a coalition for the last two years.
Of course, a lot of naïve PDL voters who voted more like anti-PSD than PDL were outraged by this, but Băsescu intervened to calm things up and said that they’re doing the alliance with PSD “in the interest of the country”.
The good old argument to patriotism. The Fatherland would decay, the Carpathians would crumble and the Danube would run dry without PSD in power. You see, Băsescu’s option makes sense now.
January 9th, 2009 at 4:07 am
Bogdan – If I understand correctly, you’re suggesting the PSD parliamentary brawl against Basescu was a ruse which allows PD (now PDL) to clamor for consolidation of power in the presidency… and quietly PSD and PD/PDL merge in all but name, having effectively destroyed the PRM faction and leaving PNL withered on the vine. Pincer move? A striking scenario, sir. Or perhaps we’re reading a little too much into the tea leaves. Possible.
January 9th, 2009 at 8:41 am
This is more like it.
Basescu was the captain of Biruinta, the admiral ship of the commercial fleet. The ship also holds a particular significance because is the biggest ship ever built in Romania, the pride of the communist regime and a proof we were making progress towards the “multilaterally developed society” (a bombastic way of saying we were going to make everything ourselves and become the first self sufficient nation on Earth). Also, in 1989, at the height of the communist paranoia, Basescu was the sent to Antwerp, to head the Navrom agency there. That kind of job was reserved for hardcore communists and spies, no one else was trusted.
The sum of $60k is too big to have been the result of (only) bribes. More likely Basescu either did a little contraband (buying vhs players and other electronic gadgets, cigarettes, whiskey, etc, from “outside” and then selling this stuff in Romania), either those money were payed for his services as a spy. What is outrageous is the fact that he felt confident enough that nothing will happened to him while building his big stash of foreign currency, because it indirectly proves he was part of the Securitate. The father of one of my friends, a hobbyist coin collector, was summoned to the Securitate because he had a few German marks, yet Basescu had no trouble hiding from them $60k… I don’t buy it.
Bodan isn’t suggesting, this things happened as admitted by some important politicians, including the current Minister of Agriculture (Ilie Sarbu – PSD) in an interview in the yesterday edition of Cotidianul (the two years part). After all, PD and PSD are old FSN buddies who split because of Iliescu and Petre Roman; right now, with Iliescu and Roman out of the picture, with Nastase and his fellows bullied by DNA and a new undisputed top dog like Basescu, they have less reasons to quarrel than ever?
January 9th, 2009 at 9:28 am
Ubu – I need more help. I don’t find reliable sources condemning Basescu so strongly. All entries call him “rank and file” which is a way to say “just a guy getting along in the circumstances he found.” Not a star or big fish. I’m stuck seeing a little smoke, but no fire.
That would be entirely too transparent, I would think. So, I searched Cotidianul and don’t see anything like this. I lots of bickering. Which article?
This issue regarding constitutional changes does have my keen interest. Very keen.
January 9th, 2009 at 9:56 am
In other places, I see articles about the PDL-PSD coalition. That does not appear to be anywhere near as dire as the scenario being discussed.
January 17th, 2009 at 2:07 pm
“Q: Cum vă simţiţi din nou la Minister şi mai ales în noua formulă guvernamentală?
A: Mă înţeleg foarte bine cu noii colegi, mai ales cu premierul Emil Boc care este neaşteptat de deschis. Adevărul este că mulţi nu au crezut în această Alianţă, dar eu sunt unul dintre cei care au crezut şi au lucrat pentru crearea ei. Am tot spus că de doi ani se lucrează la ea şi eram mirat când, în emisiunile televizate la care participam şi spuneam despre aceste discuţii, ceilalţi politicieni negau. La un moment dat am renunţat să mai vorbesc despre acest lucru. În Alianţă au crezut şi alţii, iar preşedintele Băsescu a fost unul dintre susţinătorii ei.”
My aproximate translation (if you don’t mind my English):
“Q: What are your feelings now that you came back at the Ministry (he was also minister during the rule of Nastase, arch-Nemesis of Basescu) and especially in this new governmental composition.
A: I get along very well with my new colleagues, especially with Prime-Minister Boc who is unexpectedly open. The truth is many didn’t believe in this Alliance, but I am one who believed in it and worked to create it. I said many times that for the last two years we worked on it, and I was astonished when, in the TV shows I was participating in, when telling about those discussions the other politicians (PD and PSD that is) denied. At one moment I gave up talking about it. Others also believed in this Alliance, and President Basescu was one of its supporters.”
The entire interview is here.
Basescu rank and file… nah, impossible. Of course, there are plenty of apologists ready to deny the obvious, the press is full of them. But let’s think about some more details: how do you think a man, who can barely speak or read English and doesn’t know any other foreign language, like Basescu, gets to be head of the Navrom agency in Antwerp? How is it that barely anything regarding Basescu survived in the Securitate archives after the wild ’90s, despite him being such an important figure in the merchant marine, and despite the rules that required the ship captains to spy on their crewmen on behalf of the Securitate during the voiages, and despite the obligatory thorough surveillance and background checking directed at anyone who was sent or allowed “outside” for any porpoise?
PD and PSD are not rank and file Communists, they were either big fish communists (too old by now to mean something) or somehow related to them. Iliescu was groomed to take the place of Ceausescu, to be the next leader of the Romanian Communist Party. He was also like an adoptive son of the Ceausescu family, imagine that. Petre Roman, first Prime-Minister after the “Revolution”, is the son of this happy fellow. Mircea Geoana, current head of the PSD, is the son of general Ioan Geoana, ex-Chief of the Commandment of Civil Defense (very big fish). Adrian Nastase (the big enemy of Basescu until recently) is the son in law of Angelo Miculescu, Minister of Agriculture 1969-1981, vice-Prime-Minister 1975-1981, ambassador in China until the “Revolution”. Stolojan, the Vice-Director and Director of Currency and International Finances Relations Department, was an “accountant” of the Securitate (only they were allowed to handle foreign currency in Communist Romania).
January 17th, 2009 at 2:10 pm
I keep trying to post a (longer) reply here and fro some reason I can’t.
January 17th, 2009 at 2:43 pm
Ubu – Thanks for the alert. Found and recovered from spamtrap. (Unterminated anchor tag *may* have been the cause.)
February 14th, 2009 at 7:05 pm
heee… i’m a little late catching up on these. my only comment, i’m giggling about the use of the ts t in putin. i’ve being doing that for ages and it just seems appropriate in oh-so-many ways!
February 14th, 2009 at 10:58 pm
Hear, hear!