Telegram from the Romanian Embassy in Moscow to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Bucharest)

18 December 1989, 12:35 pm

Comrade Ion Stoian, Candidate Member of the Executive Political Committee of the Central Committee of the Romanian Communist Party (CC PCR), Foreign Minister,

1. We took note of your instructions (in your telegram nr. 20/016 750 of 17 December 1989) and we will conform to the orders given.
We have taken actions to implement your instructions, both at the consular section of the Embassy and at the General Consulate in Kiev.
[Furthermore] we would [like to] inform that the Director of the TAROM office [in Moscow] received, through his own channels, instructions regarding foreign citizens traveling to our country.

2. Considering the importance of the problem and the nature of the activity of issuing visas to Soviet citizens, we would like to mention the following problems [which have arisen], [problems] to which we would like you to send us your instructions as soon as possible.

A. Beginning with the morning of 18 December of this year, Soviet citizens have begun to make telephonic inquiries to the Embassy from border crossings into Romania, implying that there are hundreds of vehicles which are not allowed to cross [the border] into our country. [W]e anticipate that the Soviet government will ask for an explanation with regard to this decision taken [by the Romanian government]. We ask that instructions be sent explaining the way we must deal with the situation if it arises.

B. Continuously, at the Consular Section, we have given transit visas to Soviet Jews who have the approval [of the Soviet government] to emigrate to Israel, as well as to foreign students studying in the Soviet Union. Since the director of the TAROM office has received instructions that he is to continue boarding transit passengers without any changes, we would like to request instructions with regard to the actions we must take in such situations.

C. Considering the great number of Romanian citizens that are living in the Soviet Union who during the holidays travel to our country, we would like to know if we should issue them visas.

D. For business travel to Romania, the instructions given to TAROM are that the applicants must show proof [of an invitation] from their Romanian partners.
Please inform whether we must inform the Soviet government of this requirement since the official Soviet delegations use, for their travels to Bucharest, exclusively AEROFLOT and that we have no means of [us] controlling the planning of such travels.
We are experiencing similar problems in dealing with the possible situation of Soviet citizens with tourist passports, which have received a visa prior to the [17 December 1989] instructions and who will be using AEROFLOT for their travel to Romania.

E. We request that the Civil Aviation Department send instruction to the TAROM office regarding the concrete actions that should be taken in connection with the 20 December flight [from Moscow to Bucharest] so that they are able to make the final decision, during boarding, regarding the passengers [that are to be allowed on to the plane].
We would [like to] mention that the list of passengers is given to the Director of TAROM, from AEROFLOT or other [travel] companies, without any mention of the purpose of the trip.


(ss) [Ambassador] Ion Bucur



[1] Politburo
[2] The 17 December telegram is not available at this time.
[3] The state-owned Romanian National Airline—Transportul Aerian Roman
[4] Soviet Airlines."