“Brussels puppeteers”: Lavrov called the disruption of his visit to Serbia through the fault of NATO countries unthinkable

The situation with the decision of the authorities of the neighboring countries of Serbia, members of NATO and the European Union, to close their airspace for the Russian government aircraft is unthinkable and unprecedented.

This was announced during an online press conference by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

“This is another very clear and instructive demonstration of how far NATO and the EU are ready to go in using the most base methods of influencing those who are guided by national interests and are not ready to sacrifice their principles for the sake of the very rules that the West imposes instead of international law. ", Lavrov said.

He suggested that "things in the West are very bad" if his visit to Serbia is perceived there "as almost a threat on a universal scale."

According to him, Brussels did not want Moscow to express support for Belgrade's initiative to implement the "Open Balkans" project, aimed at improving relations between all countries in this region: "NATO and the EU want to turn the Balkans into their own project called" closed Balkans ".

“We planned to consider a broad agenda: we wanted to talk, of course, about the rapidly developing strategic partnership in our bilateral relations, we also wanted to talk about international affairs, but, apparently, the Brussels puppeteers really didn’t want to once again give us a platform to so that we, in the capital of Serbia, set out and reaffirm the Russian position both on the problem of Kosovo and on the problem of Bosnia and Herzegovina,” Lavrov emphasized, speaking about the purposes of his visit to Belgrade.

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• © Andrej ISAKOVIC

He also called the position of Western countries to deprive Serbia of the opportunity to choose partners cynical.

“Now this principle, which the West erected at the forefront, has been trampled on by the West itself.

Serbia, from the point of view of the West, should not have any choice, no freedom to choose partners, - said the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry.

- There was a deprivation of the sovereign state of the right to carry out foreign policy.

Serbia's international activities in the Russian direction have been blocked.

Meanwhile, Lavrov pointed out that Moscow would never take steps that would further “complex relations between peoples”: “Our Western partners are doing this.”

In addition, the head of Russian diplomacy invited his colleague Nikola Selakovich to visit Russia in the very near future.

“I hope that the plane on which he will fly, regular or special, will not be subjected to another shameful punishment from Brussels and its clients, which have lost, in general, all the decency,” Lavrov noted, stating that relations between Moscow and Belgrade "No one can destroy it."

On the evening of June 5, it became known that the authorities of Bulgaria, Montenegro and North Macedonia refused to let a plane with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov pass through their airspace.

The head of the Foreign Ministry was scheduled to visit Serbia on June 6-7.

During it, “very useful and timely meetings were planned” with Serbian Foreign Minister, President Aleksandar Vučić, Parliament Speaker Ivica Dacic, and the clergy of the Serbian Orthodox Church.

According to the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, the EU and NATO member countries "closed another channel of communication" with Moscow.

Vice Speaker of the Federation Council Konstantin Kosachev expressed the opinion that Russia and Serbia should respond to such a demarche in an "extremely tough" form.

Press Secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov also pointed out that the closure of airspace by some states only brings "certain discomfort" to the continuation of Moscow's diplomatic work.

“Of course, such hostile actions towards our country, towards high-level representatives of our country can cause certain problems, they can lead to the fact that the schedule of these contacts will be shifted for some time,” the Kremlin spokesman emphasized.

Dissatisfaction with the creation of obstacles to Lavrov's visit to Serbia was also expressed in Beijing.

“We believe that it is necessary to promote any efforts to resolve the crisis situation peacefully.

The international community should create optimal conditions for Russian-Ukrainian peace talks," TASS quoted Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian as saying.