‘The website appealing for money to buy back the scupture by Constantin Brancusi. Source: www.brancusiealmeu.ro

Critics of Moscow’s 100 euro donation called a protest on Tuesday afternoon in front of Russian Embassy in Bucharest, claiming that the gesture was offensive.

“We considered ourselves offended, so we invite you to return the baksheesh in one cent coins,” the organisers said in a statement on Facebook.

The statement accused Russia of owing Romania “several dozen tons of gold”.

Many Romanians blame Moscow for not returning a collection of valuable objects and gold reserves weighing some 120 tons which Bucharest sent to Russia for safekeeping during World War I.

Only some of the objects and none of the gold reserves have been returned so far, with Moscow claiming the treasure is part of compensation for crimes and damage committed by the Romanian Army, which joined Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union, during World War II.

The Russian embassy in Bucharest announced the donation on Monday, when it also launched a video that said that the Red Army and Romanian forces had fought together for Europe’s independence and that the Soviet Union helped rebuild Romania’s economy after WWII.

The video’s message was that young Romanians should learn the real history.

Analysts said the Russian embassy’s donation could signal a change in Moscow’s policy towards Romania.

“For me it is clear, Russia has started a media offensive,” said political analyst Bogdan Duca.

“But its donation has failed to counter anti-Russian feelings in Romanian society, if this was the intention. On the contrary, it just worsened the situation,” he argued.

Relations between Bucharest and Moscow are already rocky. Romania has been among the strongest regional backers of the package of Western sanctions imposed on Russia in connection with the crisis in Crimea and eastern Ukraine.

Moscow meanwhile objects to Bucharest decision to host an anti-missile system that the US has installed at Deveselu in southern Romania. The base became operational in mid-May this year.

The Russian donation of 100 euros came in response to a Bucharest government campaign to raise some six million euros to buy back ‘The Wisdom of the Earth’, one of the finest artworks by Romanian modernist sculptor Constantin Brancusi.

The campaign was initially hailed by many in Romania, including art lovers, who see the sculpture as an iconic image of the country.

The former Communist regime extensively used the statue in history manuals and books about national identity.

But the campaign, which ends on September 30, has so far raised less than a million euros for the sculpture.