A weekly digest of news and sport from Bucharest and around Romania
Arms scandal dents President’s popularity
Romanian President Traian Basescu suffered perhaps his worst week in almost five years in office as a scandal involving his brother, Mircea, threatened to de-road his reelection campaign. It was claimed in the press that the president’s brother is a major shareholder in a company that allegedly sold arms to a number of questionable regimes and groups, as well as winning lucrative contracts with Romania’s own military. The scandal was amplified on Thursday when it was revealed that Romania is the only European Union country not to have signed a Union-wide convention on arms sales.
