From the outside looking in, it seems to me like the thug mentality was deeply implanted in Romania by Ceaușescu et al. By comparison, to my mind Dubcek's lasting influence in Czechoslovakia is evident in the treatment of Havel and the dissidents in the following decades: no, they absolutely weren't treated well, but their suppression under a Ceaușescu-like regime would have been far, far worse.

The remnants of this thuggish apparatus in Romania has just turned its energy towards the best target: money.