Serb official visits Moscow, calls sanctions EU ‘hysteria'
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Loading... - Imogen Fletcher
- 24 Aug 2022
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Serbia’s interior minister met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow in a rare visit by a state official from Europe, highlighting Belgrade’s refusal to join Western sanctions against Russia over its war in Ukraine.
Interior Minister Aleksandar Vulin, who is known for his pro-Russia and anti-Western stance, said he told Lavrov during their meeting on Monday that “Serbia is the only state in Europe that didn’t introduce sanctions and was not part of the anti-Russian hysteria”.
Serbia, which formally seeks European Union membership, has for years been drifting away from its EU path and toward traditional Slavic ally Russia, as well as China.
Vulin is considered “Moscow’s man” within the Serbian government. He has been advocating the creation of a “Serbian World” that would unite all Serbs in the Balkans under one flag, led by Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic.
Vulin has said Serbia should abandon its EU membership goal and instead turn to Moscow, and he has often blasted Serbia’s neighbours and their leaders, calling them derogatory names.
Last year, Vulin had created a “working group” with Nikolai Patrushev, the powerful secretary of the Kremlin’s Security Council, to fight “colour revolutions” – a series of mass protests that sometimes led to the toppling of regimes in the former Soviet Union, the former Yugoslavia, the Middle East and Asia. Read More…
