@alyx @chymera Yeah, you might be doing a generalization about Romanians to your perspective.

I know Romanians don't get well with Hungarians, but that's all. Maybe neither Bulgaria.

@waltercool @chymera
No, Bulgaria is fine. We invade their beaches every summer.

@waltercool @chymera
We were literally under Soviet occupation. You think we enjoyed that? You think Eastern Europe enjoyed the communist hellhole? Maybe you think Ukraine likes what's happening these days too.

@waltercool @chymera
Why the fuck do you think EVERYONE around these parts rushed to join NATO and EU ASAP?

@alyx @waltercool @chymera
Today's Russia != Soviet Union

@MaxMustermann @chymera @waltercool
Not really. They're still lying and thieving bastards. When they return our gold treasury we sent to them during WW2 for safe keeping, then maybe we'll consider they've changed.

@MaxMustermann @chymera @waltercool
Correction, WW 1.

@alyx @chymera @waltercool Oh. That might be gone thanks to the Bolsheviks. Repaying may take while, I suppose.

@MaxMustermann @chymera @waltercool
Except Russia refuses to repay. They even refuse to acknowledge they ever had it, and they threaten that we shouldn't go digging the past. Seriously fuck them.
My issue here isn't necessarily that it's a lot of gold, but rather that among that gold there was a lot of historical artifacts that date from Dacian times. Some really important stuff.

Current Russia is more like the Tsarish Russia than USSR.

I don't really see they trying to expand more than their old original borders. That's their claim against Ukraine (and they are wrong for doing that).

@waltercool @chymera @MaxMustermann
Putin wants to expand back the USSR border, and he has made more than enough veiled threats towards my nation.

Weren't Romanians kinda OK with the Moldovian agreement?

Specially when Moldovians have to deal with Transistria issue and not Romanian.

@waltercool @chymera @MaxMustermann
Not exactly sure what Moldavian agreement you mean.

I mean, Moldova declared independence from Romania several years ago, this allowed Romania to avoid dealing with Russia as a direct threat, also relocating Russians from Romania to Moldova, but also relocating Gipsies from Moldova to Romania.

For Romania, it was kinda a win-win since they have a good ally with good treaties (movement), and not longer need to share border with Russia.

@waltercool @chymera @MaxMustermann
>several years ago
Moldova has been independent from Romania for decades, so once again I'm baffled... Maybe they've issued some new declaration I hadn't heard of, but doesn't change anything. We've always acknowledged them as a separate nation.

As for relocating... I have no knowledge of any significant Russian minority on Romanian borders ever since WWII (when there would have obviously been Russian soldiers). Maybe gypsies did migrate from Moldova here, that at least sounds plausible.

As for the win-win cause no borders with Russia... a lot of us are still hoping for some kind of consensual unification with Moldova, although on bigger time scales. The current cope is that we will be unified via the EU. In either case, if you think Moldova is much of a buffer, unified or not, you're mistaken. And considering Moldova is still full of politicians who favor Russia, it's not exactly the most stable of buffers.
We really don't place our faith in Moldova preventing Russia from fucking us up. Our only hope is pretty much that NATO does what it promises, and we constantly try to get americans to reinforce their military basses on our territory.

Oh, my bad and own confusion there, they declared independence from Soviet Union.

Still, Moldova and Romania been historically the same one for a long time, when they were Bessarabia, still I don't think they will join in future.

Moldova conflict will resolve when they "give" Transnistria to the Russians, and that won't happen for sure. For now, they are still in common grounds with Russia, but might be the next one for sure.

https://inews.co.uk/news/russia-invade-moldova-will-lukashenko-battle-map-putin-plans-after-ukraine-1493407

Whatever happens there, is not going to be a war for Romania, they will be safe, in other hand, they might be forced to support them.

@waltercool @chymera @alyx @MaxMustermann Yes, there are signs everywhere of the Soviet influence. The gates on houses can always been seen through. For the Soviets, there is nothing to hide. The museum in the capitol has an entire section dedicated to people who were taken to the gulags … many never returned.

I don’t think Russia will ever take Transnistria. I’ve said, from very early on in the war, that Russia won’t hold Ukraine, or if they do, just East Ukraine. They don’t have the people to hold the nation and they’re not as retarded as Bush/Cheny/Rummy and Iraq. So far that seems to be true.

There were billboards in Moldova when I visited encouraging people to get their Russian passports (many Moldovans qualify for dual citizenship). But I think Russia just keeps Transistra supplied because it’s cheap and maybe it will be useful one day. They don’t really give a shit about them, and it’s not in the strategic position they want right now.

@alyx @waltercool @chymera @MaxMustermann I was in Moldova in 2017, visiting friends in the peace corps. There is strong Russian support in the country. Some people back the EU and others RU. Some of the vineyards one year tried to grow and make product that's preferable in the EU, only to be undercut by Italy and France vineyards. They lost money when they could have just stuck with the types of grapes Russians like.

In one store, my buddy was trying to buy something and the cashier only spoke in Russian. He had only been learning Romanian (half the PC volunteers learn Romanian and the other half learn Russian. If you stay another tour, you can switch), and told her that, and she refused to speak to him in anything but Russian. My friend told me she was likely very political and favoured Russia.

There is this idea that Moldova could join the EU one day, but it's so unlikely. The country is dirt poor. Right before I visited, my friends told me the prime minister had just been indited for embezzlement; billions of Euros lost in the international financial system with the records office having a convenient fire right after. I think it was like 1/8 or 1/4 of the nations wealth! There are metal rails welded to steps in an attempt to make them handicap compliant for the EU regulations, but they're at such a terrible angle they're useless for wheelchairs. My friends only ever saw them used for carts every once in a while.

My friend's were stationed in a village very near the border. We took a microbus out to the bridge to Transnesteria; the separatists province that broke away. It's supported by Russia, and not recognized by most countries. Sometimes the US embassy people will go over there to visit, but if they're asked for passports, they're required by the state department to turn back. The US is not allowed to recognize the border or Transnesteria as a nation in any form. Peace corps volunteers get fired if they visit. It's dangerous to cross if you cannot speak Russian or Romanian ... people have been kidnapped and held for ransom.

PC volunteers are not suppose to talk to or be close friends with people in the embassy. They try to maintain an aura of neutrality. Unofficially, some volunteers told me the embassy peeps said Transnesteria gets their security from Russia. In fact, Moldovan and Ukrainian soldiers escort in Russia trucks and supplies. That's how far the corruption goes on both sides.

A number of Moldovans do want reunification with Romania. They are still very close culturally (and honestly they seemed very similar in culture to my short time in Croatia ... as far as general Eastern Europe culture went). The gap isn't as far as North and South Korea. One nation isn't a slave state. They're both democracies, but Moldova is very poor and they struggle to keep children in the country. Many people get work visas and spend a year or two in France or Italy or the UK, save up, and come back to build part of a house. They do that a few times ... there are tons of partially built houses. They're not abandoned .. most do eventually get built over the course of a decade. But a lot of Moldovans have had kids who get scholarships or jobs outside the nation and end up becoming residents/citizens somewhere else. Parents are afraid when their kids leave that they won't come back except to visit.

Their money has some ancient king on it whose name I can't remember. Some of the kids I talked to said the country got swept up by the Russians or swept into EU affairs and it seems they never got off on their own ... they're just always waiting for the next group to come in.

If Moldova wants to join, I guess they might have some demands, but also need to cede Transnistria. Kinda sure Romania doesn't want issues with Russia (and neither share borders with them, who wants that honestly?).

For Romania would be costly to merge both places, and Romania is not a wealthy country neither.

Good or bad, current situation is OK for Romania. No idea about Moldova but they are into a risky situation, specially after what happened with Georgia, Chechenia, Ukraine... etc.

@alyx @waltercool @chymera @MaxMustermann
What country?

@waltercool @chymera @alyx
The official propaganda says that their motives are purely humanitarian and security related.

I can see why you have beef with Russia. A bunch of soviet born boomer won't repay it and the rest probably can't replace it. I guess its gone for some reason (i.e. given to somebody else). Joining NATO however can turn out to be a catastrophic decision.

Soviet borders? Bruh. Check this out. These were the old Imperial borders. This is what they are trying to recreate from what I can see from there.

I mean, I understand their proud, but trying to invade every single region because they speak Russian or share some Slavic ethnic is seriously stupid.

Not much different than Hitler trying to unify the German people at WW2.

@alyx @chymera Romania been kinda always in a middle ground like Poland.

They joined the Axis due political pressure (and Carol was rtard), then Allies, then their own people voted for communism and USSR kinda absorbed them, and history goes.

Did USSR intervened? Absolutely. But Russia is not the Soviet Union. They are proud of their doings? Kinda, some, but they aren't the USSR anymore.

Their Nazbol party was against Putin until Crimean invasion, obvious reasons.