Ambassador of the Russian Federation in Bucharest Valery Kuzmin has been summoned on Tuesday at the Foreign Affairs Ministry (MAE) headquarters, at the level of secretary of state for strategic affairs, in order to be notified regarding the Romanian authorities’ decision to suspend the activity of the Russian Center of Culture and Science in Romania, according to a MAE release sent to Agerpres.
The Russian ambassador was reminded the repeated situation in which the Center „deliberately engaged in actions to present a distorted reality and historical truth at the level of Romanian public opinion.”
„This slippages enhanced and acquired new accents, of particular gravity, in the last period, after the Russian Federation waged the war of aggression against Ukraine. Through the actions carried out, the Center irremediably moved away from the natural objectives of strengthening cultural ties and turned, regrettably, into a tool for propaganda, disinformation and exemption for the war crimes of the Russian Federation in Ukraine,” the MAE emphasizes.
Secretary of State for Strategic Affairs Iulian Fota „conveyed the Romanian side’s firm disapproval of Russian side’s constant attempts of hybrid attacks and disinformation through truncation and premeditated manipulation of reality and called on the latter to quit such practices.”
The suspension of the Center’s activity shall take place until 20 August 2023, at the latest, by which time the administrative procedures involved in this measure must be completed, according to representatives of the Romanian Foreign Ministry.
The Russian Center of Culture and Science in Bucharest was established based on the Agreement between Romania’s Government and the Government of the Russian Federation regarding the opening and functioning conditions of the Romanian Cultural Institute in Moscow and the Russian Center of Science and Culture in the city of Bucharest, signed in Moscow on 9 July 2013. Based on the aforementioned agreement, on 15 May 2015, the Russian Center of Culture and Science was inaugurated, with the headquarters on boulevard Lascar Catargiu no. 50 in Bucharest.
Agerpres
