Russia launches accusations of maximum gravity, not fundamentally different from those that constituted the pretext for invading Ukraine, against a NATO country, exactly on the day when the Trump administration officially announces the indefinite suspension of lifting visa requirements for citizens of the same country.
Even though the decision to lift visas had been made months ago by the previous administration, which had found the conditions to be met. And the US embassy posts threatening messages of unprecedented aggressiveness towards the citizens of the country in question on its Facebook page.
How credible is it that these developments are independent of each other, and their association is just a coincidence?
Russia's accusation against Romania is absolutely fantastical. That within a forum hosted by the Palace of the Parliament, but not organized by a Romanian state institution, there would have been calls for the military defeat of Russia, which Moscow claims is external interference in Russia's internal affairs. Similar to how Ukrainian Nazis threatened Russia's statehood if not invaded, and women were not violated.
But, what is very important, these accusations do not only target Romania, as long as it is a NATO country, defended, at least theoretically, by Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, and interconnected with its military allies. A threat against a NATO member state is implicitly a threat against the entire alliance.
It is a remarkable audacity of Moscow, which it did not have before the change of administration in Washington.
Evidently, Donald Trump's approach has emboldened Russia, which is more vocal, more courageous while lavishing praise on the American president and his pathological ego.
How professional is the current American administration, implicitly how capable it is to play on an equal footing with experienced Russians, not to mention sophisticated Chinese, is not even up for discussion, as shown by the recent absolutely unprecedented incident when an American journalist was added to a Signal group planning, with emojis, an attack against the Houthi rebels.
A group on a completely unsecured network, much like those of parents of students in a class or housewives exchanging cake recipes. The FBI had just warned that WhatsApp and Signal are no longer secure.
- The Trump administration mistakenly sent a journalist the plan for a military attack. It is one of the biggest disclosures of "top secret" military information
- Why the security breach revealed by The Atlantic report is so serious. The Hillary Clinton precedent
This is what Washington can do now, this is the level of dilettantism and infantilism of this administration that removes, with Musk's chainsaw, the areas of competence that hinder the unleashing of chimpanzees.
Moreover, Trump shakes not only stability with all his might, but also the very existence of NATO. The president who orchestrated the violent attack on the Capitol and his people give lessons to Europe, soap it up superiorly, try to humiliate it, while they don't know what fears to instill in Moscow anymore.
It is evident that beyond financial matters, the budgets allocated to defense, Trump detests Europe and Europeans. The primitive tycoon apparently feels insecure about Europe's sophistication and pedigree, he is irritated by its cultural superiority, and like any parvenu, he strives to assert his supremacy as he knows how. In contrast, he admires Putin's model, another boy from the blocks, a tyrant that Trump dreams wetly to become.
There was no reason to review the decision to lift visas for Romanians as long as, as I mentioned, the American administration had already established that the criteria were met. It is as if Austria were to decide that it has changed its mind and withdraws its agreement for Romania to be part of the Schengen area.
The suspension of visa waivers for Romanians is part of this operation of humiliating Europe, which feels disrespected for its cultural modesty and the faint chirping of crickets that emanates from his and Vice President Vance's heels. Increasingly, European citizens encounter problems entering the US for the strangest reasons.
It is part of Trump's match with the Biden administration, whose decisions he overturns whenever he can. From the match with Canada, as right on the day of the official visa announcement, the Trumpist Fox office published an article about a wave of illegal Romanian immigrants, numbering 40, who reportedly entered the US through the northern border of the country that had already lifted visas for Romanians.
Oana Popescu Zamfir, director of the GlobalFocus Center, detailed how Romania was caught in the crossfire.
It is much more than Vladimir Putin could have ever hoped for, and he certainly does not miss the opportunity to emphasize how pressed the coordination with Washington can be, the partnership with Donald Trump, and the fracturing of Western solidarity, the nightmare of Russia that has ended.
We, the entire EU, are in the worst possible scenario. Just as America is, in fact.
Marcel Ciolacu could have thought about this before ridiculing the Foreign Minister, without realizing that in doing so, he also ridiculed himself, because the foreign policy of a state is not about any individual.