Russisch-rumänische Beziehungen – Zwischen geopolitischem Determinismus und Westorientierung
Russian-Romanian Relations between Geopolitical Determinism and Western Orientation

Summary/Abstract: This paper analyses Romania’s self-positioning in geopolitical and cultural terms in relation to its northern neighbour Russia. Historically, Russo-Romanian relations provide for little philorussian sentiments in Romania. Especially the fate of Bessarabia as part of the Romanian province of Moldova, having been transferred back and forth between Romania and Russia several times, proves to be the nodal point. Economically, the commercial and financial interdependence is on a low level, including for natural gas. Therefore, Russian in-fluence is confined mainly to historical narratives and other soft power tools. There is a tendency to stir up relations with Ukraine and Moldova by depicting Romania as a revision-ist country, and to question the merits of its Euro-Atlantic integration when compared with the loss of its orthodox-conservative value system within a culturally permissive European Union. This analysis pays special attention to the production of knowledge about Russia in Romania, and how this influences the formulation of the country’s foreign and security policies towards Russia.

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