Following NATO’s sabotage of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s planned trip to Serbia, President Alexandar Vucic went on state television channel RTS last night at prime time to reveal the extraordinary pressures to which his government had been subjected, as well as the “hysteria” emanating from the West around Lavrov’s planned trip. “I haven’t seen the kind of hysteria that little Serbia has been exposed to in Europe and the world due to the arrival of Lavrov for a long time,” he said. “You can’t believe how much pressure there was on Serbia because of that visit.”
Ultimately, the cancellation of the trip didn’t come as a surprise, Vucic said, revealing the pressures that came from various EU spokesmen or representatives such as former Swedish Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Carl Bildt. According to BneIntellinews, a few days ago Bildt threatened via Twitter, “I hear that [Serbia] has invited [Russian] FM Lavrov to visit Belgrade in the next few days. If President Vucic [wants] to sink his prospects with the [EU] that’s of course a perfect move. It’s a move in direct contradiction to the accession process and should be treated as such.”
Vucic asked why Serbia is being told it can’t be friends with Russia. “We’ve condemned the incursion into Ukraine, but Russia is a traditional friend of Serbia. How are you going to tell the Serbs that Russia can no longer be our friend?” He said he had a lot he had wanted to discuss with Lavrov. Polemically, he asked whether Turkey would also be treated the same way, because Lavrov is going there. “Do you want to expel Turkey from NATO?” Serbian Minister of the Interior Aleksandar Vulin said that he “deeply regrets the obstruction of the visit of a great and proven friend of Serbia.” He added that those who prevented Lavrov’s arrival did not want peace and “dreamed of Russia’s defeat.”
