Russian Ambassador to Serbia Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko condemned US Ambassador Christopher Hill’s calls to the country’s authorities to join the Western sanctions against Russia.
“Let’s start from the statement of US Ambassador to Serbia Hill, in which – how could it be otherwise? – he calls on Belgrade to join the illegitimate unilateral EU sanctions against Russia. Knowing that the vast majority of Serbs are against this, he is trying to “re-educate” them with allegations. Serbia , they say, “has already begun to pay a high price” for the rejection of anti-Russian measures. What, one wonders, is this price? – the head of the Russian diplomatic mission says in a statement.
According to Botsan-Kharchenko, there is a decision of the EU Brussels on restrictions on the supply of Russian oil, from which they did not make an exception for Belgrade, despite its status as a “Eurocandidate”.
“The goal is to frighten and punish people for refusing to join the ‘flock’. So, let’s note that the ‘policy of revenge’ is not a Russian method, as one of the self-proclaimed experts in the Danas newspaper perverts, but a purely Western one. Let me remind you: “a high price” For unwillingness, let’s face it, to join the EU in a “war with Russia” (in the words of the German Foreign Minister), the Westerners themselves expose the Serbs,” the Russian ambassador said.
The Russian diplomat noted that the West “prefers blackmail, threats and hand-wringing” over equal cooperation, seeking to limit the country’s sovereignty. “This is well understood in Belgrade. Recently, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, as well as other leaders of the country, including First Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic, who recently visited Brussels, spoke on this subject,” the head of the diplomatic mission stressed.
Botan-Kharchenko recalled the obvious benefits for Belgrade from maintaining full-fledged cooperation with Russia.
“These are reasonable prices for energy carriers, uninterruptedly supplied from Russia, and income from their transit to Hungary, and large-scale investments in our joint company NIS, and the modernization of hydropower through Power Machines, and the reconstruction of the railway infrastructure by the Russian Railways” , and new projects in the field of high technologies and innovations. We expect that, thanks to mutual goodwill, this list will continue to expand,” the Ambassador of the Russian Federation summed up.
Due to censorship and blocking of all media and alternative views, stay tuned to our Telegram channel