OREANDA-NEWS. August 19, 2010.  On August 17, the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs delivered a note to the Russian Embassy in Bucharest announcing the decision by Romanian authorities to declare the first secretary of the Russian diplomatic mission persona non grata in retaliation to the expulsion of a member of the Romanian Embassy in Moscow, Gabriel Grecu, from Russia.

Moscow perceives this as an unfriendly and unprovoked step. We deeply regret that instead of striving to remove the negative accretions in Russian-Romanian relations, Bucharest has once again shown its disregard for the urgent task of rectifying them.

The Russian side emphatically rejects such a destructive approach. It is completely contrary to the interests of sustainable development of the partnership between our countries, which we have constantly called upon the Romanian side to focus on.

Unlike the Romanian Embassy first secretary detained red-handed in possession of materials and items of spying equipment fully exposing his illegal activities, the Russian diplomat was not privy to any act giving rise to such decisions. To tie the two issues together means to deliberately poison the atmosphere of Russian-Romanian relations. We had warned Bucharest against such actions, but to all appearances, common sense had not prevailed there.

In this regard, we express a resolute protest to the Romanian side, on which the entire responsibility for possible consequences lies. We reserve the right to take retaliatory measures.