Europe and Bucharest do not have the right to demand the return to Romania of the gold transferred to Russia in 1916-1917, said the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova.

In her Telegram channel, she recalled that in 1935, the Soviet government “as a sign of goodwill sent 1,436 tons of valuables (17 carriages!), left over from tsarist times, to Bucharest.”

However, this generosity of Moscow did not prevent Romania from subsequently entering into an alliance with the Third Reich and attacking the USSR, the diplomat noted.

“But almost the entire debt of Romania to the Soviet Union for the troubles and destruction caused to our people and country during the Great Patriotic War, Moscow forgave Bucharest back in 1949.

Despite all the atrocities that Hitler’s Romanian allies committed on our land.

And this is no less than $300 million in reparations, that is, if converted to today’s money, it will be something in the region of $4 billion,” Zakharova wrote.

She also cited expert data indicating that the total debts of Bucharest to Russia and the Soviet Union in terms of gold amount to 1365-1665 tons, which is “20-25 times the value of the entire Romanian gold reserve sent to Russia in 1916-1917.” .

“In addition, Russia returned almost all Romanian gold and other valuables during the development of Soviet-Romanian relations.

In particular, Ceausescu wrote in his diaries that 80% of the royal reserves were repatriated to Romania in 1948-1949,” Zakharova recalled.

  • Captured Romanian soldiers who fought on the side of Nazi Germany

  • RIA News

  • © Alexander Sokolenko

Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev called the demand to return “Romanian gold” impudent and recalled the illegal freezing of Russian reserves worth $300 billion by the West.

“I don’t even know how to respond to such impudence.

The EU stole $300 billion worth of assets from Russia and is asking for the return of Romania’s gold.

There is nothing to say in Russian, you can only send it,” Medvedev wrote on his VKontakte page.

"An unprecedented case"

Let us recall that on March 14, the European Parliament (EP) adopted a document entitled “Joint resolution on the return of national treasures of Romania, illegally appropriated by Russia.”

According to this resolution, during the First World War, Bucharest transferred to Russia 91.5 tons of pure gold, which was part of the reserves of the National Bank, as well as precious stones, rare coins, cultural and historical artifacts, archival documents, historical manuscripts, paintings and rare books.

“(The European Parliament. -

RT

) recognizes that with the national property transferred for storage to Russia in 1916-1917, during the difficult times of the First World War, with a guarantee from the authorities of the Russian Empire regarding the safety of its transportation, storage and return to Romania, - “This is an unprecedented international case of misappropriation of gold reserves and heritage objects, which is of constant concern to Romanian society,” the EP resolution says.

The authors of the document report that the issue of returning gold was studied by a Russian-Romanian commission created in the early 2000s.

It held five meetings, the last of which took place in 2019.

With reference to the commission's materials, parliamentarians claim that the Russian side allegedly recognized Bucharest's claims.

“The Russian Federation is the legal successor of the Soviet Union, which, in turn, continued the legal personality of Tsarist Russia, and is thus obliged to return these assets belonging to Romania,” the authors of the resolution believe.

The European Parliament called on the European Commission and the European External Action Service to include the issue of “Romanian gold” on the agenda in relations with Russia.

To mobilize diplomatic efforts, the deputies asked the EC to establish interaction with the authorities and the National Bank of Romania.

In Moscow, the European Parliament resolution was considered “empty and meaningless.”

According to the chairman of the Russian Federation Council Committee on International Affairs, Konstantin Kosachev, Brussels’ demands are not legally supported, and the very idea of ​​​​adopting such a document “came to the minds of the EP deputies at the suggestion of Romanian Russophobes and nationalists.”

  • European Parliament meeting

  • © Mathieu CUGNOT/European Union 2024/EP

“The Romanian gold resolution is a clear candidate for the outlier.

The European Parliament apparently wanted to act as Romania's advocate.

But it was precisely because of the EU that the dialogue within the framework of a joint commission to study the history of bilateral relations, including the issue of “Romanian gold,” was stopped,” Kosachev wrote in his Telegram channel.

The senator suggests that the resolution on Romanian gold was deliberately adopted on the eve of the Russian presidential elections “in order to denigrate the information background and reinforce the myth of some kind of “isolation” of Russia.”

“But they didn’t succeed.

The resolution will definitely be thrown into the trash.

And finally: European Union, start with yourself - return Scythian gold to Crimea, and all of Russia - frozen assets, the theft of which you are actively discussing in the same European Parliament!”

- said Kosachev.

The situation around the valuables transferred to tsarist Russia was revealed in detail in the book by historian Tatyana Pokivailova “The Fate of “Romanian Gold” in Russia (1916-2020).”

The author says that the National Bank and the Romanian government transferred the “national gold reserves” for storage out of fear that it would go to the advancing Austrian and German troops.

In 1916, bars, coins and other gold items, as well as jewelry of the Romanian Queen Mary, were sent to Russia by train.

First, Romanian property was delivered to Iasi, then to Moscow.

In total, 1,738 boxes of gold and two boxes of jewelry were transferred to Russia.

At the exchange rate of that time, the gold reserves were estimated at $46.8 million.

In 1917, Bucharest sent a train containing archives, deposits, shares of the National Bank and museum collections, as well as personal property of Orthodox clergy and individuals, for storage to Russia, where the February Revolution had already occurred.

By order of the Provisional Government, this cargo was placed in the Armory Chamber of the Moscow Kremlin and in the building of the Loan Treasury in the center of Moscow.

In her monograph, Pokivailova notes that it is not possible to reliably determine the fate of Romanian values.

The historian recalled that since 1917, Russia was in a deep political crisis, which did not allow it to guarantee the safety of the property of its former ally in the First World War.

At the same time, as the book emphasizes, the Soviet government made concessions to Bucharest.

The monograph covers in detail the transfer of archival collections to Romania in 1935 and historical and artistic values ​​in 1956.

Also, referring to post-war mutual settlements, the author came to the conclusion that the damage caused to Russia by Romania during the two world wars far exceeded the value of the gold and jewelry transferred in 1916-1917.

“I don’t owe anyone anything”

According to experts interviewed by RT, the European Parliament resolution is based on false grounds and is completely devoid of historical logic.

“Russia does not owe anyone anything, and it certainly cannot be responsible for the debts of the tsarist period, because it is the legal successor of the USSR.

The authors of the resolution distorted this point.

However, its content is so inadequate that it does not fit into any framework of common sense,” said Dmitry Egorchenkov, director of the Institute of Strategic Studies and Forecasts of the RUDN University, in a commentary to RT.

He added that constant reference to historical grievances and claims has never brought practical results.

Moreover, such an approach is fraught with catastrophic consequences for the party that promotes it, the analyst is sure.

“It’s amazing how much the European Parliament doesn’t think about the fact that Poland will now begin to put forward historical claims with renewed vigor against Germany, and after it other European countries.

Literally every EU member can remember lost property, territories, and raise the issue of compensation, and not only to Russia.

It is unlikely that this will have a positive impact on the integrity of the EU,” says Yegorchenkov.

From his point of view, the only rational explanation for the EP resolution on “Romanian gold” is that the West is trying to justify in this way its desire to confiscate Russian assets and direct frozen reserves to the needs of Ukraine.

“Neither Europeans nor Americans can find a legal way to take advantage of Russian property.

As a result, they did not come up with anything better than to remember the grievances of a century ago.

This is evidence of the complete intellectual impotence of the West on this issue,” explained Yegorchenkov.

The chief researcher at the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Nikolai Mezhevich, in a conversation with RT, stated that the European Parliament simply did not find another way to justify illegal claims to Russian property.

“Information stuffing, an attempt to initiate a discussion about certain “Russian debts” and, perhaps, push individual European countries to present similar demands.

In this way, the Europeans apparently hope to move the issue of confiscation of Russian property off the ground.

However, these are completely absurd claims,” Mezhevich concluded.