Wallachian Gazette

— Some clarifications needed: The Kuril Islands are a disputed island chain between Japan and the Russian Federation separating the Sea of Okhotsk from the Pacific Ocean. Up until WW2 Japan controlled the island chain from its southern most island, Kunashir, off the coast of Hokkaido, to the island of Shumshu, off the coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula. After WW2 the island chain fell under Soviet occupation but since Japan and the USSR did not sign a peace treaty after the war, besides the fact that Japan and Russia are still, technically, at war, the borders were not fixated. As a result, Russia claims the whole Kuril Islands chain from Shumshu to Kunashir meanwhile Japan lays claim to its southernmost islands, Kunashir, Habomai, Shikotan and Iturup which were nominally part of Japan after the Shimoda Treaty with the Russian Empire. In 2005 the European Parliament adopted a resolution calling on Russia to return the 4 islands claimed by Japan and end the dispute, thereby cementing the position of the EU on the matter. For its part, Russia did make some concessions in the sense that it gave free visa travel to the Kurils for Japanese citizens and some economic benefits for fishermen. Putin also offered Tokyo to cede Habomai and Shikotan and sign a peace treaty in 2008 an offer rejected by Japan. After the outbreak of the Russo-Ukrainian war Japanese-Russian relations got cold with Japan now openly recognising the southern Kurils as "occupied" meanwhile Russia cancelled the visa-free regime and began military drills in the area. So, the visit of a Romanian diplomat on Kunashir and Shikotan should provoke a response from Tokyo even if the visit was not official and simply for touristic purposes. According to the information available, Liliana Burdea did not ask permission from Japanese authorities to travel to these islands and only worked with Russian authorities which can be interpreted as a recognition of Russian sovereignty over the islands, not a problem for Romania though as Bucharest did not adopt a stance on the dispute at hand, but considering the stance of the EU on the matter, who sided with Japan, Romania should side with Tokyo too. It matters because, Romania and Japan have raised their diplomatic relationship to the level of "Strategic Partnership" in 2023 which says that both countries shall support each other in the political-security field and now Romania has potentially violated the terms of the Romanian-Japanese Strategic Partnership. @Wallachian_Gazette

🇷🇴🧳🇷🇺🇯🇵 — 🇷🇺📰 Russian Telegram Channel Two Majors (Dva Majora): Romania-Kuril Islands

The Plenipotentiary Minister of the Romanian Embassy in Russia, Liliana Burda, visited the Kuril Islands of the Sakhalin Region on an unofficial visit for tourism purposes. We are talking about the territories of the islands of Shikotan and Kunashir. She obtained all the necessary permits officially, in accordance with Russian law, including a pass to the border zone. It is significant that these Kuril Islands, according to the terminology of Japanese nationalists, are the so-called. the "northern territories" of Japan, which the Red Army liberated in 1945. It is because of this that there is no peace treaty between Russia and the sub-Pendos samurai. Now, a representative of the foreign policy department of Romania (which is a member of NATO ) ignored the territorial interests of Japan, contrary to the Strategic Partnership Agreement concluded in March 2023 between these countries.

🔗 https://t.me/dva_majors/47146

🇷🇴🤝🇺🇸 Romania is borrowing 2 billion USD from the U.S. through the Foreign Military Financing program The loan will be split between the ministry of defense and the ministry of the economy, if approved by Washington D.C. Romania is interested in this loan because it has a significantly lower interest rate than available on the market, with just 3% interest when the Romanian government normally borrows money at 6-7%. The loan will be used by the MoD to purchase military equipment meanwhile the Ministry of the Economy will use its loan to develop the defense industry. This loan will add up to the current budget deficit which is presumed to reach 6.9%, significantly higher than the 5.6% recorded in 2023. Usually, a 6% deficit means that the European Commission will enact an emergency procedure which halts all EU fund transfers to the member state which overspends in order to force spending cuts and other reforms that push down the government deficit to the ideal 0-1%. 🔗 https://hotnews.ro/detaliile-imprumutului-militar-de-pana-la-2-miliarde-de-dolari-pe-care-romania-il-va-solicita-sua-negocierile-nu-au-legatura-cu-summit-ul-nato-sau-cedarea-sistemului-patriot-1746761

🇷🇴🗯🌐 President Klaus Johannis finally revealed why he withdrew from the competition for the NATO Secretary General. He said that after "many intense rounds of negotiations" he withdrew because he realised "the fate of NATO is more important than my political career". Humble and honest as usual. 🔗 https://www.digi24.ro/stiri/actualitate/iohannis-explica-de-ce-a-renuntat-la-cursa-pentru-sefia-nato-am-decis-ca-soarta-aliantei-e-mai-importanta-decat-soarta-mea-politica-2856641

🇷🇴📈⚡️ For the 2nd year in a row Romania's population increased in 2023, with the population estimate being in January 1st 2024 of 19.064 million people up from 19.054 million people estimated on January 1st 2023. However, as good as it may sound, this population increase is not natural as Romania is well under the replacement fertility rate. The growth comes from Romanians returning home from abroad and foreigners looking for work as well as Moldovans and Ukrainians emigrating. @Wallachian_Gazette

🇷🇴☦️⚡️ The Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church has approved the final list of the 16 Venerables and Confessors to be canonized ahead of the Centennial of the Romanian Orthodox Patriarchate. They are: 🔸 Fr. Dumitru Stăniloae, the most gifted contemporary Romanian theologian and one of the best contemporary Orthodox theologians. 🔸 Archimandrite Sofian Boghiu 🔸 Fr. Constantin Sârbu 🔸 Fr. Ilie Lăcătușu 🔸 Hieroschemamonk Paisie Olaru 🔸 Archimandrite Ilie Cleopa 🔸 Archimandrite Dometie Manolache 🔸 Archimandrite Serafim Popescu 🔸 Fr. Liviu Galaction Munteanu 🔸 Archimandrite Gherasim Iscu 🔸 Protosyncellus Arsenie Boca 🔸 Protosyncellus Visarion Toia 🔸 Protosyncellus Calistrat Bobu 🔸 Fr. Ilarion Felea 🔸 Fr. Alexandru Baltaga 🔸 Protosyncellus Iraclie Flocea All of them except Fr. Alexandru Baltaga, who died in a gulag in Kazan, Tatarstan ASSR in 1941, were persecuted by communist authorities serving a number of years of prison with some dying before they could be freed. 🔗 https://basilica.ro/comunicat-sinodul-bisericii-ortodoxe-romane-a-aprobat-16-canonizari/

✡️❌🇷🇴☦️ Director of the Institute for the Study of the Holocaust, Alexandru Florian, is concerned about the news that the Romanian Orthodox Church is preparing to canonize Fr. Ilie Lăcătușu. Florian accuses Lăcătușu of having been a member of the Iron Guard between 1942 and 1943 while serving at a parish in the Râbnița county of the Transnistrian Governorate. He also criticised Lăcătușu for not having opposed the 1941 Odessa pogrom and for not taking care of the thousands of other Jews deported to Transnistria. Florian hopes that the Romanian Orthodox Church will not canonize Fr. Ilie Lăcătușu in the end, deeming his conduct during WW2 not worthy of sainthood. ——— Admin's counterargument ——— 1. The Iron Guard was definitively dissolved in January 1941. The failed legionary coup led to the mass arrest of its members who did not flee Romania at the time. Even if some escaped arrest, they likely operated underground and there is no way for historians to find out who created "nests", when and where and who their nest members were because the Iron Guard was not in a position after 1941 to emit any sort of documents. 2. The vast majority of legionnaires who were released after the mass arrests of January and February 1941 were conscripted into the Romanian Army and a lot of them died during the war. 3. Lăcătușu was not an Iron Guard member before 1941 considering that he was not arrested back then, so him forming a ”nest” in 1942 in a depopulated Transnistrian village is pure speculation, if not false outright. 4. The deportation of Jews following the Odessa pogrom happened in 1941 a couple of months before Lăcătușu was sent to Transnistria. He could not have possibly been able to stop the deportations nor care for the deportees since he was living in a completely different part of the country at the time of the deportations. Not to mention that his job as a priest is to care for the people in his parish not for people outside his parish and there is no information available that would suggest Lăcătușu served in one of the villages populated by Jewish deportees. 5. His conduct during the communist oppression of the Orthodox Church as well as the fact that his remains exhibited the signs of a saint are more than enough to qualify him for sainthood. @Wallachian_Gazette

🇷🇴☦️⚡️ The Synod of the Metropolis of Muntenia and Dobrogea wants to canonize the priests, Constantin Sârbu and Ilie Lăcătușu by 2025. Both were persecuted by communists authorities with Sârbu being arrested in 1954 and condemned to 8 years hard labour. Sârbu would complete his sentence after which he was deported to the Bărăgan in south-eastern Wallachia, and forced to hold a fixed residence until 1964 when the vast majority of political prisoners were freed by communist authorities. Despite his ”liberation” he was supervised from afar by the Securitate. Sârbu would go on to move to Bucharest where he would preach at the ”Dormition of the Theotokos — Sapienței (Sapience) Parish for 11 years. In 1975 after several successful surgeries he mysteriously made sepsis following another surgery which resulted in his untimely passing. Ilie Lăcătușu was arrested in 1952 and sent to the Danube-Black Sea Canal, the worst labour camp in Romania where he was worked for 8 months nearly to his death, all the while not being found guilty of any crime. Due to his poor health, he was moved in 1953 to Târgu Ocna where he would spend another year all the while not being found guilty of any crime. He was freed in 1954 but arrested again in 1959 and was sentenced to 5 years in another labour colony, at Periprava, where he met other presbyters like Justin Pârvu. Lăcătușu completed his sentence but was not immediately allowed to return to his home village and to retake his priestly duties having had to wait another 6 months which he spent working as a mason. He would not be allowed to return home but was given a parish in Gârdești, Teleorman. In 1970 he was moved to Răsuceni, Giurgiu where he would serve until his retirement in 1978. He would pass away in 1983. In 1998 when Lăcătușu's wife also passed away, she was to be buried beside him and that is when people noticed his body had the qualities of the one of a saint, not having decomposed and not emitting any unpleasant smell. The Archbishopric of Bucharest recognised these facts in 2000 when proceedings were opened for his future canonization. Justin Pârvu recalled in an interview that Lăcătușu had all the qualities of a saint: he had the gift of humility, barely spoke and when he did, Pârvu and the other detainees at Periprava knew that it would be of great importance when he did so. Pârvu also recalled a story during one of the winters spent at Periprava that he, Fr. Ilie Lăcătușu & a few others were tasked with cutting common reed escorted by an armed guard. Pârvu said he knew that upon refusal to follow the order, the armed guards would have opened fire as the intent to kill existed by ordering the prisoners to enter the marshy waters of the Danube during the winter which normally would have caused hypothermia. Hesitant at first, Pârvu & the others refused to obey but Lăcătușu encouraged them to begin cutting down the reed, Lăcătușu being the first to break the thick ice in order to cut the reeds. Pârvu said that soon after they began cutting down the reed the morning fog began to dissipate as the sun rose up, earlier than usual for the season and gave off enough heat that their clothes were able to dry before they returned to the prison, none of them having shown any symptoms of hypothermia after the event. 🔗 https://basilica.ro/sinodul-mitropoliei-munteniei-si-dobrogei-discuta-slujbe-pentru-noi-sfinti-intre-care-doi-preoti-marturisitori-din-capitala/

🟨⚖️⚡️ AUR president, George Simion has had his smartphone confiscated by prosecutors as part of the case involving Silvestru Șoșoacă. When Simion asked for his smartphone back, the prosecutors said they couldn't return it because he... did not prove that it was his. Moreover, in the motivation of the rejection of Simion's request, the prosecutor said that "at the moment operates the presumption that the possessor of the object in question is the legitimate owner" which begs the question as to why did they confiscate the smartphone if they didn't know if that was Simion's phone. Although the prosecutor's name was hidden in this PDF, Simion revealed that the prosecutor on his case is Rareș-Petru Stan, the prosecutor working on the case of the Tate brothers! It is worrying that such a high-profile case like the one focusing on the Tate brothers is in the hands of a prosecutor who cannot figure out if the smartphone he confiscated from someone belongs to the person he confiscated it from. @Wallachian_Gazette

2 days ago FCSB 🇷🇴 (former Steaua Bucharest) won in San Marino 7-1 against Virtus 🇸🇲 in UCL qualifiers