Romanian Abdication
1947
King Michael I, a westernized monarch, was forced to abdicate his throne at gunpoint. Romania was thereafter declared a democratic socialist republic. After the death of its first communist leader, Gheorghiu-Dej, Romania was ruled by Nicolae Ceausescu, second only to Stalin in cruelty to his own people.
Time: Early War
Side: USSR
Ops: 1
Removed after event: Yes
As USSR
An unimportant event. No decent US player contests Romania, and so this card is always played for Ops. Occasionally it might be headlined, if you’re deathly afraid of Defectors and have nothing better to dump, or if you need a European non-battleground ASAP.
The only thing to keep an eye out for is Independent Reds. You’ll almost always want to trigger Independent Reds first rather than give the US 3 influence in a country bordering the USSR. This is especially true if Truman Doctrine is not out, since the US would have the option of playing to take Romania and +1VP each time Europe Scoring comes out.
As US
I’m happy to play this as soon as I can, so that Independent Reds can be merely situational instead of worthless. Although the Romania Abdication/Independent Reds/Truman Doctrine combo is nice, it’s not worth it to pursue it on your own. If you play Romanian Abdication, and the USSR plays Independent Reds later, then hey, why not Truman away the 3 influence for Romania. But it’s otherwise not worth 3 Ops and 2 Action Rounds to score +1 VP on Europe Scoring.
Twilight Strategy 
Spot on.
An addition: one consideration for Romanian Abdication that I have as either the US or the USSR player is the event’s interaction with Destalinization.
As the US player, if I have Romanian Abdication in my hand on T1, I will generally hold off on playing it until late in the turn or after Destalinization is played (if at all), in the hopes of not giving the USSR free IPs which he can reposition with ease. After T1, the USSR player should have an easy time regardless of whether R.A. has been played, so as the US I wouldn’t delay playing the card any more.
As the USSR player, I will generally hope to have this event sooner rather than later so that Destalinization is made even easier. However, I would not hold off triggering Destal just to wait for R.A. The one instance where I could see doing that is if, during T1, I am under the Red Scare/Purge and I have both Romania and Destal; in that situation, my IP placement for T1 is going to be pretty slim, so the 3 free IPs from R.A. would go a long way to a successful Destal.
None of these considerations are huge. Just something to consider when all other things are being equal.
King Michael I. has just passed away in his Swiss “exile”. Lets commemorate him by not triggering the card event during the next play…
“But it’s otherwise not worth 3 Ops and 2 Action Rounds to score +1 VP on Europe Scoring.”
Although some times it can swing or prevent Domination as well. Not the majority of the time since the US usually has more total countries thanks to Marshall, but not “basically never” either.