Судьба «румынского золота» в России 1916–2020. Очерки истории - [86]

In 1965, after Nicolae Ceaușescu came to power in Romania, growing nationalism and Romania’s refusal to toe the Soviet line, have resulted in the Romanian leadership again raising the question of the return of the gold. The Soviet government categorically rejected this demand, arguing that Romania’s debts to Russia accumulated during the First and Second World Wars far exceeded the value of the gold reserve sent to Russia, and stated that it considered this problem closed. However, the Romanian government continued to raise this issue, and it has not lost its relevance to date.

Following the overthrow of the Ceausescu regime in Romania, the question of returning the Romanian gold reserve to Romania again surfaced during the negotiations on the signing of a new agreement on cooperation between Russia and Romania. However, when signing the treaty in 2003, Russian President Putin and Romanian President I. Iliescu agreed to consider issues such as Romanian gold to be out of scope of the treaty and tasked historians of the two countries to study the issue further. A joint public commission was created, which on the Russian side was headed by A.O. Chubaryan.

If Romania continues to makes claims for the return of the Romanian gold, one can expect Russian counter-claims with respect to losses of the Russian property in Romania and Bessarabia during the First World War and damages to the Soviet people during the Second World War.