Russian diplomat threatens to fly a bomber into Romania. MAE demands explanation

Romania asked Moscow for an explanation on Saturday after Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Dmitri Rogozin, reacting to being barred from its airspace, tweeted he would return in a TU-160 strategic bomber. Rogozin, who oversees Russia’s arms industry, is one of the Russian officials sanctioned by the EU and US after Moscow annexed Crimea in March.

“Upon US request, Romania has closed its airspace for my plane,” he tweeted. “Ukraine doesn’t allow me to pass through again. Next time I’ll fly on board TU-160.” The supersonic Soviet-era TU-160 is Russia’s largest strategic bomber.

On Saturday the Romanian foreign ministry (MAE) asked Moscow to clarify whether Rogozin’s comments represented “the Russian Federation’s official position towards Romania as an EU and Nato member”.

It said it “believes the threat of using a Russian strategic bomber plane by a Russian deputy prime minister is a very grave statement under the current regional context.”

It added that “the Russian Federation has broken Ukraine’s territorial sovereignty … while pro-Russian separatists are violating public order in the neighbouring state.”

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On Saturday, Rogozin released another tweet that contained an “indirect attack” on Romanian authorities:

“Well, Sirs from Romania, we’ll soon explain it all to you – who you are and what we think of you”, the diplomat tweeted.

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Traian Basescu’s reaction

President Traian Basecu believes that more than likely Rogozin was intoxicated when he made his controversial statements.

“To this kind of statements I can only have one reaction. We need to find out how much vodca Rogozin consumed. It is an utterly disrespectful declaration for another state, for anything that doesn’t resemble Mother Russia”, Basescu said in in an interview for opiniatimisoarei.ro.