Mircea Geoana: My visit to Russia was not at all a secret one
Date: 19-11-2009
The leader of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and Senate Speaker Mircea Geoana on Tuesday evening told the Realitatea TV channel his visit to Russia was a normal one for a state member of the European Union, and not at all a secret visit.'Wherefrom this idea of visit to Russia having been a secret one? I was there accompanied by several agents from the SPP (Guard and Protection Service), which is a well-known source of information for the President. I also spoke to Cristian Diaconescu, former Minister of Foreign Affairs at the time. That's why, what I would like to say is that, if someone wants - either Traian Basescu or Crin Antonescu - a lection from me on foreign affairs, I will be ready to offer it anytime. In God's name, at least in this field, I know very well how to control things, as I had been representing the national interest as Ministry of Foreign Affairs' the Senate Speaker said.
He also added he had indeed an unofficial contact in Moscow on the occasion of his visit, 'as it happens in the bilateral relations', but he reminded that he paid such visits to the U.S. too, and to other Western states.
According to him, 'the question that needs an answer right now should be how it was possible for President Traian Basescu and Minister Adrian Videanu to go to Moscow and gave away the largest storage facility of natural gas based in Margineni to Gazprom, only a month before the signing of the Nabucco project'. 'These people have no sense of ridicule and are not thinking rationally', Mircea Geoana said.
He also reminded that he paid several visits to Moscow, once together with the former President Ion Iliescu, when it was signed the basic political treaty between Romania and Russia. 'Thus, this propaganda Traian Basescu is making is absolutely outrageous. We should ask him what happened with the Axis of Bucharest-Washington-London. I invite all the candidates for president to know their place and, on foreign affairs, I would like to tell them, with all my respect, that I am better qualified' Geoana said.
The PSD leader said that, ever since last autumn, there appeared the idea of certain contacts with officials from Moscow. 'The same as Traian Basescu was preparing for the visit to Moscow, I was preparing too, for there existed the presumption back then I was going to become Prime Minister', Geoana said.
President Traian Basescu on Tuesday termed Mircea Geoana's visit to Moscow as 'absolutely abnormal' and 'unacceptable' and warned that 'everything has a price in the relation with Russia'.
In his turn, the leader of the National Liberal Party (PNL) Crin Antonescu on Tuesday said he got no answer to his letter addressed to the head of the state regarding the visit paid by the Senate Speaker Mircea Geoana to Russia.
