The President of Serbia will not give up the visit to Moscow, even if it will anger the EU: “I am ready to suffer all kinds of punishments, sanctions, whatever they want”
Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, listens to Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, during a common press conference after their discussions at Bocharov Ruchei residence, from the Soci resort from the Black Sea, Russia, December 4, 2019. Photo: Shamil Zhumatov / AP / Profimedia
Serbian president Aleksandar Vucic said on Thursday that he will keep his word and that he will not give up his visit to Russia to commemorate 80 years since victory over Nazi Germany, because he promised this to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, AFP reports.
“Eight months ago (…) I told President Putin in a telephone conversation that I would come to Moscow on May 9th. Everyone was silent. They thought it was longer until then,” said the head of the Serbian state in the United States.
“My word is mandatory for me, a given word not only in an international context, but also my people, all. No one else has to go, no one else has to pay the price. I leave,” said Vucic, who has never visited Russia from the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Serbia, who is applying for the EU accession in 2012 and which achieves most of the EU trade, has been playing a delicate balance between Brussels and Moscow for almost three years.
Vucic gave assurances on Thursday that “Serbia is on the European path and will not leave this European path.”
“I am ready to suffer all kinds of punishments, sanctions, whatever they want. My word is worth something,” he said.
Leaders of approximately twenty countries, including Chinese President XI Jinping, are expected to participate in the Moscow Red Square.
The political leader of the Bosnian Serbs, Milorad Dodik, is also expected to take part in the ceremony.
Belgrade, who received hundreds of thousands of Russians since February 2022, is almost entirely dependent on Moscow for gas supply. Serbia is currently negotiating a new multiannual agreement on gas with Russia, the current one expiring at the end of May.
The EU often expressed concern about Belgrade's ties with Moscow and has regularly asked Serbia to align their foreign and security policy.
Serbia has never been aligned with European sanctions against Moscow, and more ministers have regularly visited Russia in recent years.
