Lavrov: The situation around the visit to Serbia is unthinkable

Photo: Tanjug/AP

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at today's press conference that the situation around his planned visit to Serbia is unthinkable.

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"We never thought that something like this could happen," Lavrov said.

He said that he did not understand the interests of some NATO member states to ban a Russian plane from flying over their airspace in order to reach Serbia. He added that Russia has not yet received an explanation from the countries that closed their skies for the passage of the Russian delegation.

"Serbia's international affairs are blocked in this way, at least at this moment. A sovereign state has been deprived of the right to conduct its foreign policy," Lavrov said.

Lavrov added that such a move only shows how far NATO and the EU will go in order to implement "evil interests against those who will not sacrifice their principles and integrity according to the wishes of the West."

He stressed that an invitation has been sent to the Serbian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to visit Moscow in the near future.

Russia's foreign minister said the "plane incident" pointed to problems that the West has.

"Since Western countries thought that the visit to Serbia was almost a threat of universal proportions, that means they are doing very badly," Lavrov told journalists.

Asked how Russia would respond to this move by the West, the Russian minister of Foreign Affairs said that Moscow would not do anything that could jeopardize the ties between the two nations.

Speaking about possible justifications of Bulgaria, North Macedonia and Montenegro for preventing the Russian delegation from flying over their territories, Lavrov said that he believed that the justification would be that they received an order from the EU and NATO.

"They (EU and NATO), on the other hand, will say that these countries made independent decisions," Lavrov said.

Lavrov was supposed to arrive in Belgrade today, but his visit was officially canceled this morning.

Ambassador of the Russian Federation Aleksandr Botsan Kharchenko informed Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic about the reasons during their meeting today in Belgrade.

"Ambassador of the Russian Federation Botsan Kharchenko informed me about the reasons that prevented the arrival of Minister Lavrov in Belgrade and brought documents that support that. I will talk more about everything on RTS at 7:30 pm," Vucic wrote on Instagram, announcing that he would appear on Serbian state broadcaster's prime time news program, Dnevnik.

(Telegraf.rs)