Vucic to meet with Russian Patriarch Kirill and President of Kazakhstan Tokayev

Photo: Tanjug/ ILYA PITALEV/ HOST PHOTO AGENCY RIA NOVOSTI

President of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic, who is visiting Moscow, will meet today with His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, to whom he will present the Order of the Republic of Serbia for distinguished services in developing and strengthening friendly relations and cooperation.

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Later, President Vucic will have a meeting with President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, after which he will attend a formal dinner in the Kremlin, organized by President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin, in honor of the heads of delegations currently visiting Moscow for Victory Day events.

On Friday, President Vucic will attend the Victory Day parade on Red Square. He announced that despite all pressure, he will proudly represent Serbia at the marking of the 80th anniversary of victory over fascism (in WW2).

"There is substance here, tens of millions of people died so that we could live today. We have no right to revise history. We have no right as a people who have suffered badly, a people who suffered both from the German Nazi occupiers and from the Nazi servants in the region, and almost all of them above all fought against the Serb people in the territory of today's Serbia, but also in the territory of what are today regional countries. I am proud of the fact that I am the president of Serbia and that I will be able to attend the commemoration of the fight against fascism here, because if anyone has the right to be proud of that fight, it is the Serb people," the president stressed.

Vucic added that he expects "consequences" because of his decision to be in Moscow for Victory Day, but that he will personally, not the state, will feel those consequences.

"They, instead of behaving leniently towards us, which would be logical, normal, to say - 'we did a great injustice to that small country, to that small and proud nation, the Serb people. And now what else are we looking for from that small and proud, impossible to subjugate nation? What else do we want from them?' To shout at us and tell us, 'We were right to bomb them (in 1999), to kill 2,500 people, to kill so many children'," Vucic said, referring to western countries.

After the Victory Day parade on Friday, President Vucic is expected to have bilateral meetins with Russian and Chinese leaders Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping.

According to Vucic he and Putin discuss a new gas arrangement between Russia and Serbia, but also bilateral and other important issues. The meeting between the two leaders was previously officially announced by the Kremlin.

Vucic arrived at the Vnukovo airport in Moscow yesterday, where he was given a ceremonial welcome, including a guard of honor, and was welcomed by Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia Aleksandr Grushko.

The president traveled via Bulgaria, Turkey and Azerbaijan, after Latvia and Lithuania refused to let a Serbian government plane use their airspace.

(Telegraf.rs/Tanjug)