The ink on the Romanistan series (I, II, III) had yet to dry when news that the Russians are blaming Roma migration on Romania has, verisimilarly, sprung up from Nezavisimaya Gazeta.

As you may recall, we reported not long ago on a Russian plan to populate Bessarabia with Roma. It seems that the Russians have somehow managed to convince Moldovans that this was Romanians’ doing. Here’s a report from Focus News, quoting a Russian daily (Nezavisimaya Gazeta: Romanian Roma eye Russia, November 8):

Chisinau. There might soon be Romanian Roma in Russia, if their move to Moldavia is not restricted by the local authorities, said Viktor Shelin, leader of the Moldovan Social Democrats, cited by the Russian daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta.
He also said his party asked the EU to influence Romania’s leadership, which, according to the Moldovan politician, finances the program for moving the Romanian Roma into the neighboring country.
Viktor Shelin commented that in the past month 1,200 Roma arrived from Romania into Moldova. 3,500 more people asked the Romanian authorities for a permit, which will allow them to move freely in Moldova’s border regions.
“Romanian Roma are being moved to our republic and there are 1,9 million Roma in Romania,” said Shelin.
Asked why they arrived in Moldova, Roma said they wanted to find a job, but nobody believes them, as Moldovans themselves go to Russia or Italy to make a living, the newspaper comments.

Another one on November 4 (Romania sent Roma expelled from France to Moldova):

Chisinau. It seems as if Europe is about to face the latest scandal around the ‘Roma issue’. Representatives of the Moldovan Social-Democratic Party said that Romanian authorities are purposively sending away the Roma people to Moldova. Speaking with EU Representative to Moldova Dirk Lorenz, they said there was some ‘secret gipsy migration’ from Romania to Bessarabia, Rosbalt writes.
The party said further that big number of Romanian citizens – ethnic Roma people, have arrived in Moldova and have settled in villages and small towns.
In 2010 Europe was seized with the scandal around the deportation of Bulgarian and Romanian Roma citizens from France to their home countries. Back then Romanian President Traian Basescu asked French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy to stop the deportation.

Russian PR, long seen as rather backward by Western standards, seems to be coming of age.. Ours, OTOH, can’t go too far when everywhere in the world, even in Australia, we get the following news:

Two Romanian fraudsters, who installed skimming devices on Gold Coast ATMs, did so in order to earn money for their impoverished mothers in their homeland, a court has heard.

Alexandru Stroia, 27, and Mircea Flutur, 30, managed to wire a total of $302,405 from Australia to Romania and the United Kingdom after they copied account details from credit cards with skimming devices they made and attached to ATMs.

Something bugs me about this news report signed by Marissa Calligeros. If the perpetrators were Greeks, would the reporter have called it “Greek racket”, or is that title given only to heists that involve some sort of “leading from behind”? Is this some sort of a trademark that perpetrators need to license? Is it a profession that needs Royal assent?

Alas, let’s skip to the end:

It is not known how much money the operation netted in total.

In her judgment delivered today, Court of Appeal president Margaret McMurdo said Stroia's sentence adequately reflected the need for public deterrence.

"Whilst he may have been a lowly foot soldier in that sinister cartel, if the criminal masterminds were unable to recruit people like him their unlawful schemes would flounder," she said.

"Stroia's offending struck at the integrity of and public confidence in the use of ATMs ...

"People like Stroia and Flutur, who are tempted to make easy money through sophisticated criminal enterprises like this one, even if only to help family members in straightened circumstances, must appreciate that they are likely to be caught ...

"A substantial penalty involving a significant period of actual custody had to be imposed to deter him and others."

Stroia and Flutur will both be deported after their release.

If these guys go to Moldova Republic after being deported, will they also be “unmasked” as being part of a Romanian government conspiracy? Did you remember to set back your clock? Should I be asking you any more questions?

Romania I left behind is very much different, mostly because Romanians have seriously changed. Just watch the following soccer match.

Sources / More info: NG-Romanian Roma, au-q-cardari