Just under the radar screen of most of the American media, comments and threats from the Russians have set our East European allies on edge. In this somewhat alarming op-ed from Romania’s Ziarul newspaper, the author frets, “The Russian Defense Minister said that to ‘defend the sovereignty of Russia and its allies,’ the Russian state could use nuclear weapons against NATO allies like Romania, the Czech Republic, Poland and Bulgaria. Hello NATO, have you heard this? Hello E.U., have you heard this? Do you understand that Romania is now a Russian nuclear target? BAAAA!!”
By Igor Drag, Translated By Marcel Iliescu, January 22, 2008
Romania – Ziarul – Original Article (Romanian)While Defense Minister Melescanu talks nonsense about Romania not having enough heart and blood to keep troops in Iraq, and while the same Melescanu walks parade-style walk through the Ministry of Justice’s domain, hindering the release of National Anti-corruption Agency files calling into question the fairness of the trial process, what’s has the world come to?
It’s raining, some would say. It’s raining declarations about how Romania could soon be one of Europe’s most important “mushroom plantations” [a reference to the mushroom clous of a nuclear blast]. But who’s going to look more deeply at these declarations, decode them and counter them, with Melescanu busy maintaining [Prime Minister] Tariceanu’s stinkpot [in other words, catering to his every whim] …
While the Defense Minister’s ear-drum perceives nothing but the Prime Minister’s call, Russian Defense Minister Yury Baluyevsky has said that in order to “defend the sovereignty of Russia and its allies,” the Russian state could use nuclear weapons, including against NATO allies like Romania, the Czech Republic, Poland and Bulgaria. These declarations of unprecedented toughness made by “Putin’s mace,” as General Baluyevsky is called, are taken very seriously in Western chancelleries.
Romania hasn’t yet commented in any way on Moscow’s threat. It leaves one speechless. It’s almost impossible to believe that someone who isn’t even a thousand kilometers away from you can issue such threats … It’s explicit in a way that Mother Russia has never been before … The threats have an address, names of the occupants and gives a clear expression of the measures that are to be taken … Outside the most incandescent periods of the Cold War, I don’t believe any country has ever formulated such a threat against any other!
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