Romania Attacked again by the Ukrainians

"The Romanians had constant territorial demands towards Ukraine." This is the accusation against Bucharest belonging to the first Ukrainian President after its departure from the Soviet Union.

Former Ukrainian leader, Leonid Krabciuk, had to be in the politicians’ gallery or of the dignitaries in Kiev that have been accusing Romania of all kind of things lately, since the scandal regarding the building of the Bistroe channel and the opinion conflicts regarding the division of the Black Sea.

GREAT "DEMANDS". In an interview for the From-UA agency and taken by the current Russia agency, Kravciuk, now chief of the Ukrainian Social Democratic Party, had a lot to say about the relationship between Bucharest and Kiev. "The Romanians had constant territorial demands towards Ukraine. Not just the Island of the Snakes. Romania immediately spread throughout the Cernauti region atlases and books sustaining the thesis about a "Great Romania", :"Mihai Viteazul", the unification of the territories in the Northern and Southern Bucovina. They doubted even the Molotov - Ribbentrop pact", accused Kravciuk. From his point of view, the Romanians "have fixed, pragmatic targets, they don’t want just to intensify its influence in this territories, but also to be able to protect them".

IMAGINARY "OBJECTIONS". As for the disputed Bistroe channel, Leonid Kravciuk considers that Romania’s ecological objections are more or less "imaginary". In fact, the Romanians have economical demands. But we are not building something new. The channel has been there and all we do is make it deeper. Now, Romania has a monopole of the ships navigating on the Danube, which brings a lot of money in the state’s budget. There is no one there wanting competition and that is why they invent all sort of problems, including the ecological ones. We have a solid argument: we are not changing anything, we only deepen a channel. On the contrary, we are trying to make the situation better, to bring it back to its original0 form. The Danube was freely carrying its waters towards the Black Sea through Ukraine and this is how it’s going to be", explained Kravciuk.

IDEOLOGICAL LEADER OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY

Former member of the Ukrainian Communist Party, Kravciuk became its ideological leader in the 80’s. After the party was suspended in August 1991, Kravciuk became a lawyer of independence and of the market economy oriented reform. He led Ukraine between 1990 and 1994. In front of the country’s economical situation deterioration in 1993, Kravciuk, who is an economist, decided to annul the Prime Minister function in order for him to have direct control of the Government. During the elections in 1994 he was defeated by the former Prime Minister, Leonid Kucima.