BR Exclusive. Bucharest threatens to quit Romanian-Russian joint committee negotiating WWI treasure due to Moscow’s denial

The Romanian authorities threatens to quit the joint Romanian-Russian committee negotiating the return of 91.5 tonnes of Romanian gold reserve sent to Moscow during World War I (WWI) as Bucharest don’t see any improvement in Russia’s attitude of denying the facts, official sources told Business Review.

For many Romanians, the Romanian treasure sent to Moscow is still a painful legacy of World War I and its damages.

During World War I, southern Romania – including Bucharest – was occupied by German forces fighting Romanian army.

By end-1916, Romania’s government was still controlling what is today Romanian part of Moldova, and the Capital city was Moldova’s largest city – Iaşi (Jassy).

The National Bank of Romania’s headquarter was relocated to Iaşi between November 1916 and December 1918.

At that time, many in Romania believed that the entire country could disappear under German and Austro-Hungarian control and tried to figure out solutions to preserve Romania’s most precious assets.

As a consequence, the whole treasure of the country, including 91.5 tonnes of gold reserves, was sent to Moldova and further on to Moscow in 1916-1917.

The treasure also included valuable objects of the Romanian government.

But in October-November 1917, the Bolsheviks took power in Russia and confiscated Romania’s treasure the next year.

As of 2018, only part of the objects – and none of the gold reserves – have been returned to Romania in 1935 and 1956.

In order to negotiate the return of the treasure to Romania, Bucharest and Moscow have agreed to establish a joint committee in 2003.

But this Romanian-Russian committee has had only few meetings during the last 15 years and with no results, Romanian central bank representatives say.

“Negotiations with Russian authorities are going nowhere. The Romanian-Russian negotiation committee has rarely meetings and with no positive results. The Russian authorities still deny that they have Romania’s treasure,” National Bank of Romania (BNR) counsellor Adrian Vasilescu told Business Review.

This is the second warning from the BNR representatives that Romania may quit the joint committee. In December 2016, Cristian Paunescu, counselor of BNR governor, said that “it is time” for the Romanian authorities to quit the committee as the Russian members are not cooperating in finding a solution.

According to Romanian central bank, between December 1916 and July 1917, 91.48 tonnes of pure gold was sent to Moscow.

This compares to 103.7 tonnes of gold currently in Romania’s reserve.

However, Bucharest warns that it will never give up in recovering the treasure sent to Moscow during WWI.

“Neither the BNR nor the Romanian government, irrespective of the ideological orientation, gave up the continuation of the process to recover the treasure of the National Bank of Romania,” BNR governor Mugur Isarescu said.

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