The sudden placing under judicial supervision of Lieutenant General Cătălin Ștefăniță Zisu, the commander of the Joint Logistics Command of the Romanian Army, accused of abuse of office related to fabricated works at the Ghencea Military Cemetery opens the door to the bizarre things going on concerning works provided for the Army.
However, the biggest oddity comes from a different direction – that of the Army’s Intelligence – the General Directorate for Defense Intelligence (DGIA): a security breach in the Romanian military system (and that of the allies!) which also reveals the relations of Romania’s military sector with the adversary Russia. And which can serve as an explanation for the shift and sympathies towards the Kremlin of that part of the Romanian establishment responsible for the rise of Călin Georgescu – who declared himself an opponent of NATO, the European Union and Romania’s transatlantic relations to the advantage of the Putin regime.
And this is because the tender for the construction of the NATO Base in Kogălniceanu (according to the secret – right? – plans) was won by a consortium including a Russian company and a close associate of Vladimir Putin. And it received a favorable authorization from the Army secret service.
But here are the facts:
- Nearly 6 years ago, the Ministry of National Defense (MApN) announced that it would build a large modern military base of the North Atlantic Alliance (NATO) around the airport in the Mihai Kogălniceanu village, Constanța county.
- Total investments amounted to over RON 12 billion, according to a project approved by the Romanian Government at the end of 2019.
- Two years later, the Ministry of Defense, through the General Staff of Defense, initiated the tender for the construction of the first buildings that would house over 10,000 NATO soldiers, as well as their families.
- It was a classified contract, as its name suggests: „Engineering services and execution works for a contract classified as service secret for the infrastructure of the 57th Air Base Mihail Kogălniceanu”.
The contract received the security clearance – meaning that it is OK for the Russian company to build the NATO base.
- In 2022, two months after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Ministry of Defense finalized the tender by awarding the contract to an association that included, as minority shareholder in one of the companies, Oleg Deripaska, a Russian oligarch close to Vladimir Putin.
- Basically, on April 29, 2022, the General Staff of the Army signed the RON 1.4 billion contract, not including VAT, for a first phase of the NATO base construction, with the association of companies Aduro – Strabag – Bog’Art.
- Strabag SRL is a subsidiary of Austrian company Strabag AG, of which Oleg Deripaska, the Russian oligarch close to Putin, had owned more than a quarter since 2017.
- Oleg Deripaska is one of the Russian oligarchs with the most ties to the Kremlin. He has been under US sanctions since 2018 for illegal involvement in US elections and criminal suspicions such as abduction and blackmail.
- On April 8, 2022, the EU added Deripaska to its sanctions list, freezing his assets and imposing a travel ban on him in all member states following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
- Starting 2021, important countries, including the United States, as well as representatives of the European Commission, sent repeated warnings to Romanian officials, especially to the Ministry of National Defense (MApN), regarding a security breach in this investment project.
- These warnings were reported by sources including in the last week for CursDeGuvernare.
- According to our sources, even Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu was warned by American officials during his visit to the USA in December 2024 that the presence of the Russian company in the construction of the most advanced NATO base in Eastern Europe was wrong.
- On June 29, 2022, heads of Alliance states and governments gathered at the NATO Summit in Madrid signed the ‘NATO Strategic Concept’:
Here is what the Concept states:
„The Russian Federation represents the most significant and direct threat to the security of the Allies and to peace and stability in the Euro-Atlantic area. It seeks to establish spheres of influence and direct control through coercion, subversion, aggression and annexation. It uses conventional, cyber and hybrid means against us and our partners.”
Read below about:
1. The contract concerning the Kogălniceanu NATO base
2. How the Russians received the security clearance from the Romanians to build the NATO base
3. Opposition from NATO allies – signals sent through all channels
4. NATO barks, USSR walks: the calmness of Romanian authorities who see no problem here
1. The contract
In November 2019, the Romanian government approved an investment of over RON 12 billion (including VAT), state money, at the 57th Air Base in the 888 Mihail Kogălniceanu barracks.
In the project substantiation report it is stated that the financing of the objective is done from the state budget, through the budget of the Ministry of National Defense. The RON 12 billion are phased over the next 20 years.
In 2021, the Ministry of Defense, through the General Staff of the Army, offered a first contract from the 12 billion-project through a simplified and classified procedure.
It was a contract of RON 1.4 billion, not including VAT, for „Engineering services and execution works for a contract classified as service secret for the infrastructure of the 57th Air Base Mihail Kogălniceanu”
In the tender, the Ministry of Defense announced that the works in this contract would be continued with those in the second phase, awarded later in another secret tender. The works in the next phase would amount to over RON 700 million.
The Ministry received 10 tender offers from 6 companies and 4 consortia. Out of the 10 offers, only 7 were validated by the institution’s evaluation committee.
The validated bidders were the consortia Aduro Impex-Strabag-Bog’Art, Astaldi-GSP Offshore, Electrogrup-Makyol Inșaat and Porr Construct-Rizzani de Eccher-ICM, as well as the firms Concelex, Kolin Inșaat and FCC Construccion.
On December 24, 2021, after evaluating the offers remaining in the competition, the Ministry of Defense decided that the only acceptable one of the 7 validated is that of the Aduro Impex – Strabag – Bog’Art consortium.
According to the data obtained by CursdeGuvernare, the Ministry of Defense – through the General Staff and the Domains and Infrastructure Directorate – signed the contract with Aduro – Strabag – Bog’Art on April 29, 2022.
And the Strabag company was Oleg Deripaska – one of Vladimir Putin’s close associates:
Strabag SRL is practically a subsidiary of the Austrian company Strabag AG.
The largest shareholders of the Strabag group are Hans Peter Haselsteiner (28.3% of the capital), Rasperia Trading from Cyprus of the Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska (27.8%), Uniqa (15.3%) and Raiffeisen (14.2%).
How the Russians pretended to leave the contract for the NATO base at Kogălniceanu
In order to avoid Oleg Deripaska’s international sanctions from affecting Strabag’s activity, the majority shareholders of the group reached an agreement with the Russian billionaire for him to exit the shareholding:
In the fall of 2024, sanctioned Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska sold his stake in Austrian construction group Strabag, according to a company press release.
Oleg Deripaska’s stake was acquired by another Russian company, Iliadis JSC, owned by Dimitry Aleksandrovich Beloglazov.
Raiffeisen Bank International would acquire the shares of Iliadis JSC over the next period, if the American and European authorities allow it.
2. The security breach: a lot of calmness
Those who had to ensure the security on the construction of a NATO Base did not consider that the involvement of a Russian builder is an attack on national security. Here are the institutions surrounding this contract:
1. The General Directorate for Defense Intelligence (now led by General Petru Bădiceanu.)
At the time of the tender, the General Directorate for Defense Intelligence (DGIA), which issued the security clearance for the NATO base, was headed by General Marian Hăpău.
He was retired in July 2022, a few months after the Mihail Kogălniceanu base contract was entrusted.
The directorate then headed by General Marian Hăpău verified the companies and the eligibility terms.
2. The General Staff of Defense, led by General Vlad Gheorghiță, commander of the Romanian Army. The General Staff (Military Unit 02523) was in charge of organizing the tender.
3. The Domains and Infrastructures Directorate. The department had, among other responsibilities, the creation of the tender specifications, the evaluation of companies and the handling of expropriations.
4.The Military Unit 02542 Focșani, party to the contract signed with Strabag, is one of the military units that form the Domains and Infrastructures Directorate.
3. Allies’ reactions, Romania’s silence
„This is a security issue for this military base. I don’t understand why no one reported it. These are no secret information, difficult to find out, about the fact that the Strabag company had as a shareholder a Russian oligarch subject to sanctions.
This contract made no sense to me. Had it been a contract to build a block of flats, maybe yes, there would have been no problems. But we are talking about a military base”, Adrian Zuckerman (photo), ambassador of the United States in Bucharest between 2019 and 2021, told CursDeGuvernare last week.
Moreover, the American ambassador also tried to draw attention to this security problem at Kogălniceanu last year, in an online publication, but no one seems to have paid any attention to him.
And he is not the only one:
According to CursDeGuvernare.ro sources, during Marcel Ciolacu’s visit to the USA in December 2024, American officials drew his attention to the fact that there is a security problem at the Kogălniceanu NATO Base regarding the construction contract. It is not known at this time what measures the prime minister has taken, or if he has taken any at all.
Other sources, who insisted on remaining anonymous, have stated for CursDeGuvernare that at least two other NATO states have conveyed to the authorities in Bucharest their concerns regarding the involvement in the construction of the NATO base in Romania of a company with ties that lead directly to Vladimir Putin.
4. NATO barks, USSR walks: the calmness of Romanian authorities who see no problem
CursDeGuvernare requested explanations regarding the security breach and the awarding of the contract for the NATO base from those directly involved in organizing the tender and ensuring the security of the project: General Marian Hapău himself – head of the military secret service (DGIA) on the date of the verification of competing companies, of the tender and awarding of the contract.
General Marian Hapău was evasive:
To the question posed by CursDeGuvernare „Should the General Directorate Defense Intelligence have checked this contract concerning the base in Mihail Kogălniceanu or was it not only the responsibility of the Defense Intelligence, but also of other internal and external Ministry of Defense structures?”, the general replied:
„There is a lot to write and a lot of articles to invoke. Approval of personnel entering the unit was one chapter. The approval of the company was another chapter, etc. For better documentation you must contact the Ministry of Defense.”
When asked why he retired so quickly right after the contract was awarded and if there was any connection between the tender completion and his retirement, General Hapău replied:
‘It has nothing to do with it! In 2022, I retired upon reaching the standard retirement age and after an activity of 45 years, of which 30 years spent in the field of Defense information.’
On the advice of the former head of the Army’s secret service, we approached the Army – that is, the Ministry of Defense.
From the reply of the Ministry of Defense – we avoid technical details that are not related to the topic raised by this article:
„The contract to which you are referring is ongoing. The modernization works at the 57th Air Base in Mihail Kogălniceanu are carried out on several objectives in the engineering and execution services contract, while site management and supervision services are provided by Ministry of Defense staff, within the limits of the held authorization areas.
The pace of works is in accordance with the execution schedules of the general contractor.
(…..)
The procurement procedure was carried out by the Domains and Infrastructures Department, and the Domains and Infrastructures Center number 4 Focșani is the unit that implements the investment objective – phase I, being also a tertiary credit officer.
The tender was organized in compliance with all legal procedures, including the security procedures characteristic of a classified contract.”
5. In June 2022, just as the Kogălniceanu contract was being resolved, NATO decreed Russia as the main threat to its neighbors and to Europe:
On June 29, 2022, the heads of Alliance states and governments gathered at the NATO Summit in Madrid signed the „NATO Strategic Concept”.
Here is what the Concept states: The Russian Federation represents the most significant and direct threat to the security of the Allies and to peace and stability in the Euro-Atlantic area. It seeks to establish spheres of influence and direct control through coercion, subversion, aggression and annexation. It uses conventional, cyber and hybrid means against us and our partners. Its coercive military posture, rhetoric and proven willingness to use force to achieve its political goals undermine the rules-based international order.
***
Urmărește-ne pe Google News
