One of the major backers of the current mayor is a person who built his fortune through business dealings with entities in Russia and Belarus, repeatedly promoting Putin’s interests in the country and in the region.
An intelligent campaign by Nicușor Dan ridicules Popescu Piedone’s public appearance with a garlic knot around his neck, suggesting that rational thinking is more important than populism.
“Mathematics, not garlic” is a slogan that was displayed on several blocks in Bucharest by the mayor’s team, which is in the race to win a new mandate at the head of the capital.
The current mayor is the favorite, especially in the context of the chaos in the PSD-PNL alliance and the re-entry into the race of Gabriela Firea, the representative of the social democrats.
Nicușor Dan has broad support from the middle class, young people and people with progressive views living in Bucharest.
The current mayor managed to create a coalition of “good people”, those who want to be on the “good side of history”, as said House Republican leader Mike Johnson when he announced support for $60 billion in US aid to Ukraine.
But between Nicușor Dan and the coalition of “business people” there is an obstacle difficult to avoid, it is Matei Păun, a businessman who fully supports the political operations of the current mayor.
Punishing the Russian people, an irresponsible gesture
Mr. Matei Păun, through his positions over the years, has profiled himself as a strong supporter of Vladimir Putin and Russian militarism, existential threats to the Republic of Moldova and Romania.
“If someone is really trying to punish the Russian people for being patriotic by depreciating the ruble, they are making an irresponsible gesture. The destruction of the German brand in 1922 and the removal of the middle class led directly to Hitler,” Matei Păun wrote on his Facebook page in 2016, two years after Putin annexed the Crimean Peninsula and triggered the fighting in eastern Ukraine.
In the meantime, Matei Păun closed his account on the mentioned social network, his post being published in an article of the daily “Adevărul”.
“Stupid, ill-informed people these days like to compare Putin to Hitler. I warn them and you that if we succeed in taking down Putin by triggering hyper-inflation in Russia, then we will be able to see what a Russian Hitler is really like. And such a war in Europe could be anything but not a funny thing”, the businessman also claimed at the time.
The fortune comes from Russia
Hyper-inflation didn’t bring Putin down, and Russia’s Hitler started the war in Europe. The prophecy was fulfilled, but in a different way. That’s the fate of prophecies, isn’t it?
But the quoted post is not the mistake of a person who thinks he can see into the future, but defines the entire speech of Mr. Matei Păun who has always shown himself as a promoter of Russia’s interests.
On March 4, 2022, two weeks after Vladimir Putin ordered his army to invade Ukraine, an independent state, and while Kiev was under bombardment and civilians mercilessly killed and tortured by Kremlin forces, Mr. Matei Paun was lobbying for Russia in an interview conducted by journalist Andreea Roșca:
“I hope that the decoupling of Western economies from Russia will be a little smoother and a little more nuanced,” Matei Păun declared at the time.
“The exclusion of Russia from the SWIFT system does not mean that Russia can no longer interact in the banking market, it means that it can no longer communicate through this method. Before there was SWIFT there were other ways – telex, fax, even letters, until modern technology came along – that allowed bank payments. SWIFT has acquired a strong symbolism, but it is not something catastrophic”, said the important financier of the mayor Nicușor Dan’s campaign.
It must be added that a large part of the prosperity and economic influence held today by Mr. Matei Păun is based on business relationships made with entities from Russia and Belarus, as journalist Stelian Negrea presented in the article published by “Newsweek Romania”.
But Matei Păun, at least so far, has not announced that he wants to run and is not running for any public position in Romania, so he can have any public position he wants as long as he does not violate the law.
The mayor’s deafening silence
With Nicușor Dan the situation is different. In my opinion, he owes it to shed light as quickly as possible regarding his political position towards Russia and towards the aggression of Vladimir Putin, an aggression with a devastating impact on Ukraine, the stability of the Republic of Moldova and the damage caused by the war, indirectly, in Romania and in Europe.
On the official Facebook page of the incumbent mayor there is no statement or position on this topic, and from the documentation made for the writing of this opinion piece, researching the archives of news agencies from the past years, I also did not find any statement or taking position condemning the criminal political regime in Russia.
On the contrary, less than a month after the start of the war, Nicușor Dan “opened an auction for the purchase of 1,200 packages of Russian Kaspersky antivirus”, which was banned in the US and then in Romania due to its use by Kremlin to collect data from users’ computers.
Spotmedia.ro wrote a very well-documented article about the strange attempt by the Bucharest City Hall to purchase an antivirus “Made In Russia”, banned at the time in many Western countries due to evidence that it also had the role of gathering data and connections with the Kremlin .
A duty of honor to the voters
The vast majority of those who support Nicușor Dan are people attached to the values of the rule of law, the values of democracy and support individual freedom.
They are the ones who jumped in February 2022 to save millions of Ukrainian refugees, women, elderly and children, who arrived in Romania chased away by the terror unleashed by Vladimir Putin.
Tens of thousands of them made their homes available to war refugees, donated money, clothes, food, volunteered to save people whose lives were turned upside down by the madness of a political leader who eliminates his enemies through poisoning, shooting and imprisonment in inhumane conditions.
I think that the tens of thousands of voters and supporters of Nicușor Dan deserve to know from him what he thinks about Russia’s aggression on Ukraine and what his relationship is with a promoter of Putin and Russia’s interests in Romania.
I specify the fact that I voted for Nicușor Dan in 2020, and for the June 9 elections, the current mayor is my first option. I also believe that it is necessary and urgent to define his political position and values in a clear way, which leaves no room for interpretation on this subject. I want math, not Putin!
Tags: math Russia Nicusor Dan clarify position Kremlins military aggression Ukraine
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