BUCHAREST, June 17. /TASS/. The ghost of late US First Secretary of Defense James Forrestal, who was driven insane by the alleged Russian threat and jumped out of a window while in a mental asylum shouting, "The Russians are coming!" seems to live on. In fact, it appears to be haunting Romanian Defense Minister Gabriel Les, the Russian embassy in Bucharest said in a statement, commenting on the defense chief’s Friday speech at the Black Sea and Balkans Security Forum 2019 in Romania’s Mamaia.

In his address, Les alleged that Russia maintains a position of continuous aggression in the Black Sea region, allegedly seeing Romania as a potential target for its offensive capabilities because the country was one of NATO’s decision-making centers.

"If the infamy of that well-known Russia-hater of the past is haunting Les, then we would like to point out that he [Forrestal] has been practically forgotten even in his own country, though his political and spiritual heirs continue to hype myths and propagate fearmongering and ‘horror stories’ about ‘Russian aggression’ under the present-day hashtags of ‘hybrid war,’ ‘strategic communications’ and the like. Their main goal is to keep the military industrial complex well-funded," the embassy added.

"His key statement - which is in fact false and makes all his conclusions questionable - is particularly worth mentioning," the statement says. "[He claims that] Bucharest is a NATO decision-making center, though NATO is known to make decisions in another place and in the interests of another country, Forrestal’s homeland," the Russian embassy emphasized.