Russia Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov visits Serbia

(21 Feb 2018) Russia's foreign minister on Wednesday criticised Western policies toward his country, blasting the European Union for failing to maintain good relations with Moscow despite the divisions over Ukraine and many other issues.
After his visit to EU member Slovenia, Sergey Lavrov arrived in Belgrade - an EU hopeful that remains a rare ally of Moscow in the region where Russia wants to maintain its traditional influence.
There have been mounting fears in the West that Russia has been using Serbia to foment tensions in the Balkans by arming its ally with warplanes and tanks while working to destabilise neighbouring Bosnia, Montenegro and Macedonia.
"The EU is kind of a structure which originally made a decision based on a falsely interpreted principle of solidarity that they could lift the sanctions against Russia," Lavrov said at a joint news conference with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic.
"I don't believe that this demand for everyone who wants to cooperate with the EU to take an anti-Russia position will last long," he added.
Vucic said that Serbia's goal is to become an EU member, but insisted that "Serbia will never impose sanctions against the Russian Federation."
Serbia has said it wants to join the EU while maintaining close ties with Moscow, in a balancing act that some analysts believe is not sustainable as the country moves closer to the bloc.

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